Process for Retiring Web Services

Purpose

When services reach the end of their life cycle they are terminated for a number of reasons including technical advancements or availability of alternative tools, high maintenance costs, low usage, a predefined project window or a change in priorities. These guidelines establish UEN’s process for reviewing and terminating online projects and tools that reach the end of their useful life. They apply only to significant web services, such as the Lesson Plan Tool, and not to tasks such as web page clean-up and maintenance. Having an established process for retiring products that are obsolete or otherwise not aligned with current stakeholder priorities helps ensure that UEN resources are being responsibly.

Definitions

End-of-Life or Retirement: refers to when a product reaches the end of its natural lifecycle.

Low usage: refers to an assessment of utilization statistics to other UEN web services or when the percentage of the audience is below the anticipated utilization for the tool.

Guidelines

1. The process for determining end-of-life begins with an initial review. An initial review of each web service will be performed monthly when web statistics are gathered and analyzed or upon a stakeholders’ request.
2. If the initial review shows low usage, UEN will perform an in-depth review of these services to accomplish the following aims:
   • Determine how many resources are used to maintain the service - this includes hardware, software, budget and personnel resources.
   • Survey users to determine whether the service meets their need.
   • Gather feedback regarding the termination of the service.
   • Contact originating group to discuss the review findings and gather recommendations.
3. If it is determined that the service should be terminated, UEN will begin the End-of-Life process:
   • Establish an end-of-life date that typically is three to six months in the future.
   • Post an end-of-life notification on the appropriate web pages that includes a means for end users to communicate with UEN about the termination of service.
   • Notify all appropriate committees affected by the termination of service (The UETN Board, subcommittees, advisory committees, etc.).
   • Send e-mail announcements to key end users (e.g. technology trainers).
4. When the end-of-life date has arrived, UEN will post a termination of service message and archive the code and content.