13. Operate a reliable service

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. For example, they may be a carer who only has time to apply for benefits in the early hours of the morning.

If a service is unavailable or slow, it can mean those users aren’t able to get the help they need.

How you do it

Define non-functional requirements
Establish when the service needs to be available, how many people are expected to use it at busy times and what impact any down-time might have
Carry out quality assurance testing regularly
Establish system quality attributes for features and non-functional requirements and have a plan in place to deal with issues
Test the service
Test the service in an environment that’s as similar to live as possible
Plan for major events
Have a plan for disaster recovery in the event of a breach or major event that could disrupt service delivery
Maximise uptime and speed of response for the online part of the service
Actively work towards fixing any organisational or contractual issues which make it difficult to maximise availability
Deploy software changes regularly without significant downtime
Use automated end-to-end testing to ensure the service functions as designed and to protect against introducing regression as you continually improve the service