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Operations & Maintenance

Operations and Maintenance involves planning for, and executing, activities such as operating the system, monitoring system performance, and performing system maintenance.

Purpose

The purpose of this step is to use and maintain the system over the course of its operational life.

Activities

The following activities are preformed in this step:

1. Plan Operations and Maintenance.  During the Concept of Operations step the operations and maintenance aspects of the system are considered.  A separate Operations and Maintenance Plan may be developed to support the O&M effort.  This plan would describe the expected operational and maintenance environment, identifying manuals or procedures in use as well as the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders.  
2. Establish and maintain all operations and maintenance procedures. Although the processes to be used for identifying, tracking, resolving, recording, and providing feedback on all system issues will have been established during the Initial Deployment step, specific detailed procedures will be further developed and maintained as efficiencies are identified. 
3. Collect system operational data. During earlier phases in the system life cycle, the agency will have determined how to collect system performance data and will have used the performance data to validate the system.  During operations and maintenance, they should collect sufficient performance data to help them determine how well the system is operating over time.  For example, in a transit management center, the on-time arrival performance might be collected from the AVL software.
4. Perform Operations and Maintenance. Operations and maintenance procedures will proceed as defined in the Operations and Maintenance Plan.  Over time the procedures will need to be refined and updated.  

 Related Resources

Chapter 4.10 Operations and MaintenanceSystems Engineering for Intelligent Transportation Systems, January 2007

http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/seitsguide/section4.htm#s4.10

Cost: Free

Chapter 3.7.2 Operations & Maintenance

Systems Engineering Guidebook for ITS, California Department of Transportation Division of Research and Innovation, January 2007

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/cadiv/segb/views/document/Sections/Section3/3_7_2.htm

Cost: Free

Chapter 11: Operations & Maintenance Phase - Systems Development Life Cycle Guidance Document, Department of Justice, January 2003

http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/irm/lifecycle/ch11.htm

Cost: Free

Note:  Much of the material on this page was extracted from  http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/its/benecost.nsf/LessonSystemsEng.