Chapter 4 – Information Technology

42030.3 Responsibilities

• CDC recognizes that maintaining adequate, correct and current offender data is critical to departmental operations that directly affect staff, inmate, and public safety. OISBOffender Information Services Branch, in the ASDSee Division of Administrative Services (DAS) (see ASB), is responsible for major current, proposed, and future statewide offender ITS. QAQuality Assurance procedures to be applied to these departmental ITS include:

  • Continual monitoring of the validity and currency of data contained in offender ITS;

  • Establishment of methods to identify errors or inadequacies in these data; and

  • Development of appropriate procedures and solutions to correct inaccuracies or out-of-date data.

• The OISBOffender Information Services Branch does not directly implement most procedures and solutions. Rather, once a problem has been identified the OISBOffender Information Services Branch provides the owners of the data with tools and procedures aimed at eliminating the problem. After the owners of the data have implemented these tools and procedures, the OISBOffender Information Services Branch provides ongoing review of the data to ensure its accuracy, currency, and completeness.

• A QAQuality Assurance council shall be established to ensure that departmental QAQuality Assurance policies, standards, and procedures are implemented and maintained. Responsibility for implementing QAQuality Assurance resides with each entity (i.e., division, branch, or unit) that develops and maintains systems.

• QAQuality Assurance Council

  • The QAQuality Assurance council shall be comprised of the departmental Information Security Officer (Chairperson) and representatives from each division responsible for the development and maintenance of ITS. The QAQuality Assurance council shall:

    • Develop departmental QAQuality Assurance policies, standards, and procedures.

    • Develop and implement an annual QAQuality Assurance plan in support of the Department’s strategic plan.

    • Ensure that systems developed or maintained in the Department adhere to CDC QAQuality Assurance/QCQuality Control standards and procedures.

    • Support programs that educate CDC staff in the importance of quality concepts and in the tools, techniques, methods, and practices that facilitate QAQuality Assurance and QCQuality Control.

    • Act as a source of information on processing quality data and on the need for continued commitment to an improvement effort.

    • Review industry standards (e.g., ANSI/IEEE, FIPS) to facilitate the development of departmental EDPElectronic Data Processing (see IT) standards.

  • The QAQuality Assurance council shall meet quarterly or as needed.

• Division/Branch/Unit

  • Accountability for QAQuality Assurance and QCQuality Control is fixed on a system by system basis. See DOMDepartment Operations Manual 47000, Departmental Systems, for ownership designation and fixed responsibility for QCQuality Control.

  • OISBOffender Information Services Branch is responsible for data integrity in major, statewide offender ITS.

  • In fulfilling QAQuality Assurance/QCQuality Control responsibilities each entity shall, where applicable, ensure that:

    • ITS projects are reviewed during all phases of the systems development life cycle (SDLCSystems Development Life Cycle).

    • Data integrity is developed and maintained, both in the SDLCSystems Development Life Cycle and by the unit designated responsible for QCQuality Control, on each application or database.

    • User requirements are well-defined (for systems development or maintenance projects), all objectives of the work effort have been met, and results are appropriate keeping in mind each project’s overall objectives.

    • The ITS processes are monitored and measured for the purpose of improving these processes.

    • Quality improvement programs are established and quality concepts are promoted throughout Department branches that develop and maintain ITS.