2a. Plan for service sustainability and resilience
Environmental considerations should be included as part of the requirements gathering and project planning process.
Likely Lead Roles
Service owner, product manager, business analyst
Sub-actions
2a. (i) Include environmental sustainability in project requirements
2a. (ii) Consider if the service is resilient to climate change
2a. (iii) Create a project plan to balance priorities
2a. (iv) Develop non-functional requirements for environmental sustainability
(i) Include environmental sustainability in project requirements
When gathering requirements:
• identify and prioritise the environmental impacts of project requirements
• understand the benefits and trade-offs between priorities, for example environmental impacts versus user needs or performance
• understand the risks of keeping parts of an existing service or process
Environmental benefit:
Including environmental impacts in project requirements ensures that there is visibility of these and they can be planned for and delivered against.
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(ii) Consider if the service is resilient to climate change
A climate resilient service is one designed to cope with the negative effects of climate change. This means the service can continue to operate despite these risks.
For each project or service identify:
• potential risks to the service from climate change
• ways to mitigate the risks to the service
Environmental benefit:
Identifying climate risks enables a project to plan for resilience to climate change.
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(iii) Create a project plan to balance priorities
A project plan should balance environmental impacts against other priorities, including:
• user needs
• performance
• security
• cost
• speed of delivery
Environmental benefit:
A project plan with environmental sustainability suitably balanced against other priorities has the best chance of successful delivery.
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(iv) Develop non-functional requirements for environmental sustainability
Non-functional requirements (NFRs) specify a system’s capabilities and constraints.
Services need NFRs to cover environmental impacts.
Environmental benefit:
Use key performance indicators and other measures to track progress against green targets.