5.10 Follow a product management and maintenance strategy

Materials: High
Energy: High
Water: High
Emissions: High

Explain through documentation how projects will be maintained, managed, resourced, and note issues while tracking measurements over time.

Management and maintenance:
Produce and maintain documentation to outline how the organization approaches product management and maintenance.
Planning strategy:
Establish maintenance and security plans for all digital products and services.
Resourcing products:
Ensure that products, prototypes, testing, and supporting processes are sufficiently resourced over time – including staffing and budgeting – so that teams can maintain capacity, address technical debt, refactor code, introduce new features, support long-term care and maintenance, and avoid project abandonment for customers, users, and all affected parties.
Resource measurement:
Incorporate carbon and resource measurement into maintenance programs and show measurable improvement over time.
Failure indicators:
Identify and document Key Failure Indicators (KFIs) and implement resolutions to prevent negative sustainability impacts.

Economic
Maintaining performance can boost customer retention, and organizations with clear product maintenance and management practices tend to benefit from greater resilience in the face of digital disruption.
Environment
Implementing product management and maintenance strategies provides another opportunity to improve climate resilience and manage and reduce emissions over time.
Performance
Following good product management and maintenance strategies means affected digital products and services benefit from better security, reduced technical debt, and improved data privacy.