Purpose:
DSCC strives to maintain a stable information technology (IT) environment. This policy serves to ensure that changes to the production systems of Information Technology (IT) at Dyersburg State Community College are conducted in a methodical and careful manner to avoid unnecessary disruptions in service.
Scope:
The policy applies to all changes to the IT network infrastructure, IT production servers, IT phone system and IT administrative software.
Changes made to non-priority IT components – such as systems that are not yet in production, development environments or testing environments – are outside the scope of this policy. This policy does not apply to changes made to individual workstations or PCs. Standard changes that are operational processes are also out of the scope of the policy such as installing regularly scheduled vendor operating system patches, system reboots without configuration changes, password resets, user add/changes/deletes and read-only SQL such as Argos requests.
Policy:
- General Principles:
Modifications to systems considered in scope shall be managed through a formal change control process. Documented approval is required before modifications may be implemented in production environments. Requests for modifications to systems must be requested using the procedure defined in the Information Technology Service Request Policy. - Requirements:
a) Separate production and testing environments should exist for administrative software systems and other systems when economically feasible.
b) Test environments should be labeled in some way to differentiate from the production system.
c) Testing should not be done in the production environment when a test environment exists.
d) Modifications to systems must be approved by the Vice President for Technology or designee in their absence.
e) Fallback procedures, including procedures and responsibilities for aborting and recovering from unsuccessful changes and unforeseen events should be included with the defined procedures. - Planning and Scheduling:
All changes should be properly planned and scheduled to ensure the following:
a) Full testing, when possible, has been completed.
b) Multiple conflicting changes are not targeted for the same time period.
c) All personnel involved are notified of the proposed change.
d) Change is implemented smoothly and efficiently without incurring excessive down time and service interruption. - Procedures:
Change management procedures are defined in the IT Standards and Procedures Manual for each of the four major types of systems, i.e., 1) network infrastructure 2) production servers 3) phone system and 4) administrative software. These procedures should include procedures and responsibilities for aborting and recovering from unsuccessful changes and unforeseen events.
Compliance:
All DSCC employees are expected to abide by this policy. Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment or suspension.
Definitions:
Application software – Software that performs a group of functions such as Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat.
Argos – Software package used to create reports and data extracts from the Banner system which uses SQL for the programming language.
IT – Information technology
IT Standards and Procedures Manual – Official document of the IT department that contains the standards and procedures used in the management and daily operations of the IT environment.
Network infrastructure – Hardware and software resources which form a communications network. This includes but is not limited to switches, routers, filters, access points, etc.
Operating system – Software that controls the hardware and software basic functions of a system and provides common services for application software.
Production systems – Systems that are used to conduct the business of the college.
SQL – Structured Query Language is a special purpose programming language for accessing data in a relational database management system such as Oracle.
TBR – Tennessee Board of Regents
Technology resource – Any type of computing, telecommunications, or instructional technological resource in classrooms, offices or open areas. This includes computers, tablets, projector, wireless presenters, printers, monitors, phones, etc.
Test systems – Systems that mimic production systems but are not used to conduct the business of the college. These systems are generally used for testing.
User – Faculty, staff, student or community member who is using the technology resources of the college
Revision History:
New policy approved by Admin Council on July 29, 2016.