RMDS Quality Manual - Section 4 Management System

• General Requirements
• Documentation Requirements

4.1 General Requirements

RMDS has established, documented and implemented a Management System (MS) in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001. The system is maintained and continually improved by monitoring performance against service objectives and through audits and by the resulting corrective and preventive actions tracked via the management review.

The processes required for the Management System have been identified and documented. This manual introduces and references them. The processes contain the acceptance criteria our products and services must reach to meet our customer's expectations.

These processes have been documented in detail using the ARIS process modelling tool.

RMDS Key Processes

Our Management have put in place the necessary resources to support the operation and improvement of our processes. We document any non-conformances and document and implement actions to address them.

4.2 Documentation Requirements

4.2.1 General

The MS documentation includes:

• A documented Quality Policy and Service Objectives
• This Quality Manual
• Documented Procedures
• Documents needed for the effective planning, operation and control of our processes, and
• Records

Quality Management System

4.2.2 Quality Manual

This Quality Manual has been prepared to describe RMDS MS. The scope and permissible exclusion of the MS are described in section 1 of this manual. The documented procedures and interactions between them are introduced and referenced

4.2.3 Control of documents

All of the MS documents are controlled according to the Document Control Procedure. This describes how documents are approved and updated and their revision status controlled and documented. The procedure also describes how documents are centrally stored and the current version correctly retrieved. The procedure, including checklists is documented in our process modelling tool ARIS (see attached)

Control of Documents

Documents covered by the Document Control procedure:

Market Design Documentation

The Market Design is the set of processes and standards whereby the participants in the retail electricity market interact i.e. the 'rules of the road' for the retail market.

The Market Design includes:

• Market Procedure Documents
• Market Messages
• Briefing Papers
• Working Practices
• Technical Guides for Messaging

The market design is part of a wider framework that includes external documents agreed outside the Industry Governance Group. This framework includes:

• The Market Design
• Licences & Codes
• Agreements
• Service Objectives
• Relevant CER decisions

All of this documentation is subject to formal change control. See attached our Change Control Process in ARIS

Change Control Process

Any of the following parties may initiate a change to one or more of the base-lined market design documents covered by this change control process

• CER
• Industry Participants (i.e. SSA, MRSO, DSO, TSO and authorised Suppliers)
• Modifications Panel
• Retail Market Design Services

The first step in the change control process for documents in the market design is for the initiating party to complete a Design Discussion Request. Each Design Discussion Request will be reviewed once all impact assessments are received and Market Participants will be asked to determine if the requirements are sufficiently understood to enable a Market Change Request to be raised. Where further detail or amendments are required then RMDS will issue an updated draft of the DR for discussion at the following session.

Each of the different types of change request documents has a standard associated template which captures key information about the specific change request. These documents are to be tracked within SharePoint using the Full Market Change Request log. The documents themselves are to be stored in the confidential network file share:

\\mdindco_ord$\Market Design\Change Requests

Documents are manually version controlled in the file name within this network share. Subsequent draft versions will be numbered 0.1, 0.2 and so on. Upon issue, the version number will be increased to the next full integer value (e.g. a document at version 0.3 will be moved to 1.0).

The Full Market Change Request log in SharePoint will be used to record basic information about the documents, and track its status (e.g. In Progress, Issued, Approved). It is the intention that SharePoint may, at some point in the future, also be used as a document repository; controlling the check in and check out of documents for editing and review. This use will negate the need to perform manual versioning of files.

Internal Management Documentation

The team also manages all kinds of other documentation, necessary for its own internal operation. These documents are stored in the confidential network file share mdindco_ord$ and are subject to the same document management principals as the external-facing documents.

All documents are to use standard defined templates, and are to be version controlled with an amendment history as required. Examples of internal documents are:

• Agendas
• Meeting Minutes
• Quality Manuals
• Training Manuals
• RMDS reference Material
• Mail Messages
• RMDS Presentations

4.2.4 Control of records

Records are maintained to provide evidence of conformity to requirements and of the effective operation of the MS. The records are maintained according to the Control of Records Procedure in ARIS.

Control of Records

Supporting the Control Procedure is SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Various different logs in SharePoint are used to record different items:

• RMDS Queries
• Non Conformities & Improvements
• Action Points arising form:
• Management Review meetings
• Actions from Team Meetings
• IGG Meeting Actions
• IGG Conference Call Actions
• ISO 9001 Audit Actions
• Corrective Action Reports and
• Preventive Action Reports

SharePoint Logs

The different SharePoint logs are used as following:

• IGG Meeting Actions - this log records the action items raised at IGG Meetings and Conference Calls. The AP Number of the log should match the action item number on the meeting/call minutes.
• RMDS Issues Logs - list of internal actions and projects assigned to RMDS team members - used for work planning and tracking.
• RMDS Meeting Tracker - used to track IGG meetings and conference calls on a calendar view. Also to attach copies of meeting documents sent to the market, and to track our documentation SLA results against target.
• Full Market Change Request - log of all change request documents sent to the market (MCRs - Market Change Requests, DRs - Discussion Requests, CCRs - Code Change Requests).
• ISO 9001 Audit Tasks - record of all actions raised from internal and external audits.
• RMDS Non Conformance - record of all non-conformances against our quality standards,
• RMDS Improvement - record of all identified projects for improvement of our processes and documentation
• Quality Meeting Action Items - this log records and assigns action items that arise from the Quality Meetings

Document Management

It is the intention that, at some time the future, we shall also use the Document Library within SharePoint to manage the following supporting documents:

• Meeting minutes
• Agendas
• E-mails
• Market Approved documents

However, the current version of SharePoint (2003) is not deemed to be capable of the type of document management we require. And therefore the team retain manual document management practices until such a time as a new version of SharePoint can be rolled out.

Documents can be identified and retrieved using the search engine capabilities of the RMDS SharePoint site.

Security Backup and Archiving

The RMDS Group is supported by fully serviced data centres managed by ITS, an IT provider internal to ESB. These data centres provide:

• Resilient and Conditioned Power Supply
• Tape Backup/Restore Service with Off-Site Storage
• 24 x 7 System Monitoring and Alerting
• 24 x 7 Security with Swipe Card Access and Alarming
• Resilient Network Connectivity
• Complete Air Conditioning
• Fire Alarm and Suppression Systems

There is full support for all the backend services relating to Operating System Support and Maintenance, Database Administration, Capacity Planning and Performance Monitoring. Each RMDS user has a Network Account which provides the following facilities:

• Username and Password for Logon to Network
• Controlled Access to Applications and Services
• Networked Printing Service
• Personal File Share on a Designated File & Print Server
• Exchange Mailbox with Internet Mail Address on a Designated Exchange Server
• High-Security Encryption Services

The Network Account Service includes all the backend operation and support services required to deliver secure access to these facilities. This includes account administration, security management, printer support, mail support and Internet Service provider management.

The Network Access Service includes all the Network Monitoring, Operation and Support functions required to ensure a reliable and responsive network service. It includes capacity planning and performance monitoring processes which ensure that adequate bandwidth is available at all times and provides for a high level of network resilience to ensure that even rare network failures do not impact availability.

Desktop Service provide a desktop device (Desktop PC, laptop or other access device) along with the common set of applications software, that reside on central servers or on the device. It also provides an automated Software Upgrade Service, Management of Software Licenses, Hardware and Software Inventory Services, Deskside Support for Hardware or Software Failures, Support for Multiple Operating Systems and a Virus Protection service.

All documents with file extensions (*.doc,*.rft,*.txt,*.xls,*.pdf,*.ppt,*.pps,*.vsd,*.mpp, *.mpt,*.csv,*.ps) that have a "last modified time" of greater than 12 months will automatically be archived. System Archiving addresses storage cost and resource issues by providing an automated and integrated solution for archiving file server content to lower cost storage. Archiving lets you free up space on the file server, reduce overall storage requirements and keep all content fully searchable and instantly accessible to the end-user.

Web Site Publishing

Market facing Change Management documents, together with ARIS models of the market design, are all published online on the RMDS website. The website is hosted on servers managed by ITS, and are subject to the same standards as those employed for the internal network.

Audio Recordings

In its roles at secretarial to the Industry Governance Group of the retail market, the RDMS team routinely makes sound recordings of face-to-face meetings and telephone conference calls. These recordings are used solely for the purpose of producing accurate and details meeting minutes.

The use of recording equipment is disclosed and endorsed by the meeting participants. The recordings are used only during the production of meeting minutes, and are not shared with any party outside of the RMDS team (including the meeting participants themselves).

These recordings are considered to be transitory, and as such are deleted from the recording device as soon as the minutes are completed and authorised (and certainly no later than 3 months after capture). No backup copies of recordings are held.