Auditing, Versioning, and Change Management

last updated: 28 October 2020

Auditing

TeamKinetic maintains three main auditing logs;

• Email logs
• SQL command logs
• Access logs

These are in addition to the underlying transaction log of the database and the web server access log.

Email Logs

Every transaction email sent from the system is linked to the recipient via email address and user id. Email logs are visible by the administrators for volunteers and providers.

Direct emails sent by administrators and providers are also stored in the email log.

Group email content and subject along with the list of recipients are stored in the administrative group email log.

In addition all emails traversing our email sending server are stored for 30 days and can be audited by TeamKinetic staff if required.

SQL Command Logs

All data altering commands issued to the database are stored with a copy of the query, parameters, executing account and the time of execution, for 6 months.

Access Logs

Dates of last access and the mode of access are stored against all accounts.

Versioning and Change Management

TeamKinetic uses GIT as its versioning control. Under GIT all changes are tracked and can be rolled back to or from any point.

Complete version backups are maintained for all released versions.

We use versioning control because;

• Version control enables multiple people to simultaneously work on a single project. Each person edits his or her own copy of the files and chooses when to share those changes with the rest of the team. Thus, temporary or partial edits by one person do not interfere with another person's work.
• Version control also enables one person to use multiple computers to work on a project, so it is valuable even if you are working by yourself.
• Version control integrates work done simultaneously by different team members. In most cases, edits to different files or even the same file can be combined without losing any work. In rare cases, when two people make conflicting edits to the same line of a file, then the version control system requests human assistance in deciding what to do.
• Version control gives access to historical versions of your project. This is insurance against computer crashes or data lossage. If you make a mistake, you can roll back to a previous version. You can reproduce and understand a bug report on a past version of your software. You can also undo specific edits without losing all the work that was done in the meanwhile. For any part of a file, you can determine when, why, and by whom it was ever edited.

In addition to GIT we utilise project management software to map out what new features and changes will appear in the next version as well critical bugs that need to be fixed and merged into the live version as quickly as possible.

The project tasks are assigned to individuals and progress is monitored to assure that tasks are completed in a timely fashion. Roadblocks to completing changes are highlighted in the project management tool so other collaborators can intervene to progress the task.