Elements and Performance Criteria

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

IT services to be outsourced may include:
backup or recovery
data cleansing
data storage
disaster recovery
hardware, software or network support
help desk
network infrastructure
programming.
Outsourcing model refers to:
business model for the procurement of external services approved by the organisation
financial penalties and the right to terminate if SLAs are consistently missed
transfer of responsibility from an organisation to a supplier.
Organisational environment may include:
business or management structure
conglomerate of business entities
external environment in which a business is operating, including contractors and externally provided services
specific business entity
way in which organisational members perceive and characterise their environment in an attitudinal and value-based manner.
Business model may include:
broad range of formal and informal descriptions to represent core aspects of a business, including purpose, offerings, strategies, infrastructure, organisational structures, trading practices, and operational processes and policies
business, system, application, network or people in the organisation
framework or strategy to enable business targets to be met.
IT service providers (vendor evaluation) may include:
individuals or organisations contracted to provide services to the organisation to achieve financial or operational targets
internal departments, external organisations, individual people and employees.
Strategic plan may include:
components from separate disciplines, such as IT or human resources
mission, vision and values
objectives and targets
organisational environment
part of organisational strategic plan or a stand-alone document
process of the organisation’s definition of its strategy or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.
Security requirements may include:
plans to address theft, viruses, standards (including archival, backup, network), privacy, audits, alerts and usually relate directly to security objectives of organisation
relevant government legislation, organisational security policies, customs, expertise and knowledge
system in terms of databases, applications, servers, operating system, gateways, application service provider (ASP) and internet service provider (ISP)
threats relating to eavesdropping, manipulation, impersonation, penetration, denial of service and by-pass, hackers and viruses
threats to security that are, or are held to be, present in the environment, encryption, passwords, hardware, authentication and policies.
Change-management strategy may refer to:
benchmarks that could include technical, cost savings, performance and quality benchmarks
business, system, application, network or people in the organisation
change procedures that are verbal, documented, process-based, socially-based or incremental, and may be the result of an impact on quality, cost or OHS
department within the organisation or a third party
formal procedures that must be adhered to
stakeholders, including end user, internal or external client, government body, corporate body and community groups.
Security strategy may include:
person within a department, a department within the organisation or a third party
privacy, authentication, authorisation and integrity, and usually relates directly to the security objectives of the organisation.
Organisational policy may refer to:
documentation internal to the organisation that guides actions that are particular to the organisation issuing the policy, and guides processes that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome
process of making important organisational decisions, including the identification of different alternatives, such as programs or spending priorities, and choosing among them on the basis of the impact they will have
political, management, financial and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.
Risk mitigation may include:
identification of one or more potential solutions to reduce or remove each risk if it arises
implementation of policies or actions that identify risks in an existing or planned process.
SLAs may refer to:
common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees and warranties
negotiated agreement between two parties where one is the customer and the other is the service provider; this can be a legally binding formal or informal 'contract'
part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined
specific SLAs that are negotiated up front as part of the outsourcing contract, and are used as one of the primary tools of outsourcing governance.
Performance levels may refer to:
contracted delivery time or performance of the service
levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service, such as billing.
Outsourcing relationship managementmay refer to:
elements of organisational structure, management strategy and information technology infrastructure
management of one or more external service providers as part of an outsourcing strategy
the three aspects of ORM that companies typically pursue as part of their outsourcing strategy:
IT infrastructure
management strategy
organisational structure.
Continuous improvement may relate to:
efforts that seek incremental improvement over time or breakthrough improvement at once
ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes
processes that are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.

The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit
Evidence of the ability to:
develop strategic directions for outsourcing of IT resources in alignment with organisational goals
conduct risk analysis on outsourced IT services and implement procedures that identify where risk occurs and what measures need to be taken to handle the risk
produce contingency plans in cooperation with external parties
establish warning systems and an ongoing process that includes regular or programmed reviews of the risk profile of outsourced IT services
negotiate and monitor SLAs with external clients.
Context of and specific resources for assessment
Assessment must ensure access to:
relevant strategic level enterprise documentation, including planning, financial and IT infrastructure documentation
relevant legislative policies.
Where applicable, physical resources should include equipment modified for people with special needs.
Method of assessment
A range of assessment methods should be used to assess practical skills and knowledge. The following examples are appropriate for this unit:
direct observation of the candidate carrying out project work
verbal or written questioning to assess required knowledge and skills
review of reports and implementation plans
review of a portfolio of the project work undertaken.
Note: The preferred assessment method is through a workplace project or through a simulated medium to large enterprise workplace.
Guidance information for assessment
Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplace and job role is recommended, where appropriate.
Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate, and suitable to the communication skill level, language, literacy and numeracy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed.
Indigenous people and other people from a non-English speaking background may need additional support.
In cases where practical assessment is used it should be combined with targeted questioning to assess required knowledge.