M1 - Policies and Procedures to control the maintenance of computer systems

M1 - explain the need for policies and procedures that control the maintenance of computer systems

Having policies and procedures for the maintenance of computer systems is extremely important in this day in age.

The biggest policy is Health and Safety. Health and safety is everywhere, in any kind of organisation or workplace. Making sure that both your employees and your customers are safe at all times is very important if you want your company to thrive. These days, any kind of accident in the workplace generally results in someone going to court and a rather large fine being handed out. So all companies have this that everyone must abide by.

The company must have all the correct and necessary equipment for the employees. This is extremely needed when it comes to the maintenance of computer systems, because you will be dealing with electricity and tools. Having equipment like anti-static wrist bands and mats are very important. Also, making sure that the employees have had the correct training so that not only do the employees not get hurt, but when the customer/end-user uses the computer, they will not get hurt/electrocuted because hardware was not plugged in properly or was faulty to start with. Making sure that all the electronic equipment has been PAT tested is also very important. PAT testing is the law so it must be done before anyone uses it.

Security and Confidentiality is also very important. Making sure that all your data is safe and secure from virus is easily dismissed by many novice users. Having some kind of anti-virus software and a firewall can reduce your chances of being attacked by both malware and hackers. Many hackers will try to access your system to steal information from you or simply delete your info, so having a back-up of all your data is also very important. Software like Sophos, AVG, Norton, etc. can help prevent malware from gaining access to your system. User data confidentiality should not be ignored because when in a company, if you are sharing details about a project you are doing or uploading statistics to the web, etc, you need to be careful because the company may not tolerate this. Being caught doing this can result in you losing your job or even being taken to court by you company.

Prioritisation is another very big procedure when it comes to the maintenance of computer systems because making sure that the correct jobs are done in order is very important. If a companies server goes down for instance and all the employees cannot work, well this would need to be number one priority on the list compared to say, someone cannot access the internet. So getting this right can mean the difference between your company making money and losing money.