Resilient Systems Lab

Start with the mission.

Before judging a computer, decide what the system actually needs to accomplish. These first two lessons turn a mission into testable minimum requirements.

Lesson 1

What is the mission?

Define the job before looking at the equipment.

Student or team optional Date

1. Mission name 2. What must be accomplished?

3. Who uses this capability? 4. Where is it used?

5. Why does this mission matter?

6. Mission importance

1 Convenient 2 Useful 3 Important 4 Mission-critical

7. What happens if this capability is unavailable? 8. Is there another way to accomplish the mission?

Lesson 1 output: A clear mission statement and its importance.

Lesson 2

What does the mission require?

Separate minimum requirements from nice-to-have features.

1. Required software or service

2. Operating system requirement 3. Minimum memory (RAM) 4. Minimum storage 5. Network requirement 6. Required ports / connections 7. Graphics or display requirement

8. Required peripherals or other equipment 9. What is the minimum acceptable performance?

10. Maximum acceptable outage 11. Backup method

12. What would be useful, but is not required?

Lesson 2 output: A minimum requirements sheet that can be used to test the actual computers.

Checkpoint

Ready for Lesson 3?

You should now be able to take any computer and ask one objective question:

Does this machine meet the minimum requirements of the mission?

Answers stay on this device unless you print or save them elsewhere.