Stabilize Uptime of Editor Experience

[gracekretschmer-metrostar]

Problem Statement

There have been 4 times (source) over the last 3 months (from July - September 2024) that the editor experience (prod CMS) has been unavailable. Therefore, prod CMS' uptime fell to 99.786% in the last 3 months, which is below the industry standard of 99.9% uptime. To be in alignment with industry standard (99.9% uptime) and maintain trust with editors, how might me reduce the amount of times the editor experience goes down?

Business Outcomes

Hypothesis or Bet

How will this initiative impact the quality of VFS or Platform teams' work?
How will this initiative be easy for VFS or Platform teams? Or how will it be easier than what they did before?

We will know we're done when... ("Definition of Done")

• We need to measure the current uptime and set goals for what we want uptime to be
• We need to do technical discovery to determine what work needs to be done to meet those uptime requirements
• We just want to focus on the uptime of the Editor experience.

Known Blockers/Dependencies

List any blockers or dependencies for this work to be completed

Projected Launch Date

• When do you expect to be completed rolling out this initiative*

Launch Checklist

Guidance (delete before posting)

This checklist is intended to be used to help answer, "is my Platform initiative ready for launch?". All of the items in this checklist should be completed, with artifacts linked---or have a brief explanation of why they've been skipped---before launching a given Platforminitiative. All links or explanations can be provided in Required Artifacts sections. The items that can be skipped are marked as such.

Keep in mind the distinction between Product and Initiative --- each Product needs specific supporting documentation, but Initiatives to improve existing Products should reuse existing documentation for that Product. VSP Product Terminology for details.

Is this service / tool / feature...

... tested?

• Usability test (TODO: link) has been performed, to validate that new changes enable users to do what was intended and that these changes don't worsen quality elsewhere. If usability test isn't relevant for this change, document the reason for skipping it.
  • ... and issues discovered in usability testing have been addressed.
  • Note on skipping: metrics that show the impact of before/after can be a substitute for usability testing.
• End-to-end manual QA or UAT is complete, to validate there are no high-severity issues before launching
• (if applicable) New functionality has thorough, automated tests running in CI/CD

... documented?

• New documentation is written pursuant to our documentation style guide
• Product is included in the List of VSP Products
  • List the existing product that this initiative fits within, or add a new product to this list.
• Internal-facing: there's a Product Outline
• External-facing: a User Guide on Platform Website exists for this product/feature tool
• (if applicable) Post to #vsp-service-design for external communication about this change (e.g. customer-facing meetings)

... measurable

• (if applicable) This change has clearly-defined success metrics, with instrumentation of those analytics where possible, or a reason documented for skipping it.
  • For help, see: Analytics team
• This change has an accompanying Platform Release Plan.

When you're ready to launch...

• Configure your communication to teams about your work using the Change Communication Guide
• Conduct a go/no-go when you're almost ready to launch.

Required Artifacts

Documentation

• PRODUCT_NAME: directory name used for your product documentation
• Product Outline: link to Product Outline
• User Guide: link to User Guide

Testing

• Usability test: link to GitHub issue, or provide reason for skipping
• Manual QA: link to GitHub issue or documented results
• Automated tests: link to tests, or "N/A"

Measurement

• Success metrics: link to where success metrics are measured, or where they're defined (Product Outline is OK), or provide reason for skipping
• Release plan: link to Release Plan ticket

TODOs

• Convert this issue to an epic
• Add your team's label to this epic
• Add this initiative to the Digital Experience Product Board using these instructions