Minimise service downtime and have a plan to deal with it when it does happen.
Why it’s important
Users expect to be able to use online services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Many users have limited choice over how and when they access government services. If a service is unavailable or slow, it can mean those users are not able to get the help they need.
What it means
Service teams should:
- maximise uptime and speed of response for the online part of the service
- be able to deploy software changes regularly, without significant downtime
- carry out quality assurance testing regularly
- test the service in an environment that’s as similar to live as possible
- monitor the service and have an appropriate plan to respond to issues identified by monitoring (the effect on users and on government)
- fix any organisational or contractual issues which make it difficult to maximise availability