Technical Maintenance

Technical maintenance is a large component of the overall maintenance of a site. EERE Web managers are required to submit maintenance plans for their sites that include tasks for technical maintenance. Developers and content owners should work together to ensure that all of the maintenance needs for a site are met. Also see the guidelines for Maintaining Content to get a full picture of maintenance activities.

Scope

Any updated pages are reviewed for compliance with the EERE QA checklist. For sites in the RedDot content management system (CMS), this quality assurance (QA) step is built into the workflow process. Before submitting pages to workflow, page editors can ensure smooth sailing through QA by checking their work against the SmartEditor QA Checklist (PDF 60 KB). Download Adobe Reader.

Process

EERE's Web team at NREL or EES will conduct the QA of updated pages. Program site owners will make changes to Web pages as appropriate or per their maintenance plan. After site owners update their files on the server, the appropriate NREL or EES team member will QA pages and provide feedback if anything needs to be fixed. Once pages pass QA, they will be sent live.

As part of site maintenance, the EERE Web Template Coordinator must approve any changes or additions to the horizontal, left, or right navigation. This applies to all navigation on the program site and subsites.

Turnaround Time

An average turnaround time for review of updated pages is 4 business hours. Situations involving large numbers of pages will require more time, but typically no more than 8 business hours.

Costs

Each program/office is responsible for funding the regular QA and maintenance of its site. Depending on who you work with, NREL or EES can develop a customized cost estimate for each program to implement its quality maintenance plan. Cost variables include: number of pages, significance of changes, and frequency of requests. Contact Leslie Gardner or Wendy Littman for a customized cost estimate.

Sites in the RedDot CMS incur some minor technical administration costs each year. These costs cover yearly site archiving, workflow maintenance, account set up or changes, and technical tasks requiring the help of a RedDot Administrator. Contact Wendy Littman at EES for more information on yearly technical administration costs.

Site Archival

When an EERE site is retired, site managers have a responsibility to ensure that proper archival practices are followed.

DOE has not issued final official guidance on Web site archival practices, but if and when that guidance is issued, EERE will adhere to DOE standards. The DOE guidance may be similar to the Guidance on Managing Web Records from the National Archives and Record Administration. The following points are expected to be included in the guidance:

Archived sites must be retained so they are able to be recreated
All hyperlinks on the site must be preserved.

U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

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