To be effective, your preventative maintenance programme needs to be built on a
strong foundation of:
- doing the job right the first time
- duplicating systems and installations whenever possible
- documenting all configurations and procedures.
If you cannot get everything done exactly right, then by duplicating your work you can
simplify debugging and upgrading.
If you are unable to achieve duplication, then by documenting everything you do, you
can understand the scope of what you're dealing with before you try to implement
changes or repairs.
Without documentation, you will waste much effort during maintenance, upgrades or
disaster recovery.
How can you be sure the measures you have put in place are effective?
- Measure, over time, the results of the Incident Management process. You
should see the number of incidents fall.
- Check the output from the Problem Management process. You should see a
drop in recurring problems.
