Non-Functional Questions
- Michael France
- Seema Hickmott
- Leah Unsworth-Hughes (Unlicensed)
ID | S63 |
|---|---|
Version | 2.1.3 |
Type | Overarching Standards |
Status | Effective |
Effective Date | Dec 17, 2024 |
Contracting Vehicle(s) |
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Requirements
- 2.1 Performance and Scalability
- 2.2 Volume and Performance
- 2.3 Non Functional Testing
- 2.4 Recoverability
- 2.5 Backup capability
- 2.6 Availability
- 2.7 Resilience
- 2.8 Information Governance
- 2.9 Security
- 2.10 Service Management
- 2.11 Capacity Management
- 2.12 Legal Regulations, Compliance and Audit
- 2.13 Integrity
- 2.14 Mobile Working
- 3 Applicable Capabilities
- 4 Roadmap
Introduction
Non-functional requirements describe how the Solution works, not what the Solution should do, and serve as constraints or restrictions on the design of the Solution. The following non-functional questions are to enable The Authority to assess the risk associated with the Compliance Assessment of the Solution against the overarching Service Management, Information Governance, Security, Testing, and Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Standards. Supplier’s answers will also demonstrate they understand the non-functional landscape of the market they are selling into.
Non-Functional Questions Model
The Non-Functional Questions (NFQs) model illustrated within Figure A attempts to show the relationships between the Supplier’s Solution and the non-functional requirements (NFRs) required to meet the Overarching Standards, provide appropriate levels of service and, where relevant, satisfy the required service SLAs.
Suppliers are responsible for ensuring the non-functional elements of their Solutions are capable of meeting any defined service levels for specific Capabilities provided, as well as any other NFRs specified by The Authority across other Standards.
Suppliers must provide an appropriate answer to the Non-Functional Questions - the level of information and evidence required in the answer will depend on the Capabilities and scale of deployment of the Supplier’s Solution and this will be determined and specified in the guidance provided as part of the Capability Mapping and Standards Compliance Onboarding process.
Requirements
Applicable Contracting Vehicle(s) | ID | Sub-category | Description | Evidence Example | Assessment Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All | GP-NFQ-U-3 | Supported browser versions | Which browsers are supported and what are the minimum and recommended versions? How do you approach the deprecation and uplift of browser versions? | Provide a list of the browser names and versions that the Solution supports (including your lifecycle/deprecation support approach). For deprecation/upgrade, provide details of how the end user is made aware. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-U-6 | UI Standards | What user interface standards does the Solution meet? Are you following ISO 9241-210:2010 - the ‘six principles for human centred design'? | Provide declaration and any supporting documented evidence and rationale. Provide details of what was considered while designing the UI. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
| GP-NFQ-U-7 | Supported devices | What devices are supported by the Solution that can be used and accessed by end users? | Provide type of devices supported, compatible with the Solution (including how these facilitate security/secure access in line with The Authority’s authentication/authorisation policies) and any supporting documented evidence and rationale. | Demonstrate that the Solution is securely accessed and used by end users on supported devices through authentication and authorisation mechanisms in line with The Authority’s policies. |
| GP-NFQ-U-8 | Client Access Mechanism (Accessibility) | Describe how the Solution is accessed by/available to the end user? | Provide any supporting documents and information on the mechanism to securely access the Solution including how to access the Solution in the event of unexpected connection or other interruption and how availability of the event is managed by the Solution. For data or file sharing and uploading provide information on the file formats supported by the Solution. | Demonstrate that the Solution is securely accessed by the end user via the provided mechanism. Demonstrate the Solution is accessed and available to the end user via provided the mechanism if interrupted. Demonstrate that event will be available for appropriate length of time. |
Performance and Scalability
Applicable Contracting Vehicle(s) | ID | Sub-category | Description | Evidence Example | Assessment Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All | GP-NFQ-PS-3 | Number of concurrent sessions | What is the peak number of concurrent user sessions the Solution can support? | Provide a value, show how the figure is derived (e.g. load test documentation), including any considerations which may impact this value. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-5 | Response times | What are the expected response times in a given percentage of cases for a given operation e.g. Login or Open Patient Record? Provide different types of operation including command and query operations. | Provide a value, show how the figure is derived, including any considerations which may impact this value, e.g. Provide load test response time values(preferably 90 percentile, Min, Max and Average) for the business critical transactions/workflows in the Solution. Indicate how they meet the SLAs. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-6 | Transactions per second | How many user transactions per second are supported? Define what a user transaction consists of and how it is measured. | Provide a value, show how the figure is derived, including any considerations which may impact this value, e.g. provide the TPS achieved for the Solution during the load test (with the volumetric workload mix identified). | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-7 | Online service transaction volumes | How many online batch transactions per second are supported? Define what a batch transaction consists of and how it is measured. | Provide a value, show how the figure is derived, including any considerations which may impact this value, e.g. provide batch job test execution report, indicating that batch processing works as expected and meets expected performance level. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-11 | System Response Times | Describe how measurements are calculated for system response times to meet SLAs. | Provide values, show how the figures are derived, including any considerations which may impact the values. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-12 | End User Interaction Timings | Describe how measurements are calculated for end user interaction timings to meet SLAs. | Provide values, show how the figures are derived (e.g. any page speed test carried out), including any considerations which may impact the values. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
All | GP-NFQ-PS-13 | Interface Mechanism Response Times | Describe how measurements are calculated for NHS IM1 service response times OR the Supplier system interfaces to meet SLAs. | Provide IM1 values, show how the figures are derived, including any considerations which may impact the values. | Demonstrate systematic approach and rationale of how evidence is derived. |
| GP-NFQ-PS-14 | Video and audio and picture/image quality | What are expected minimum requirements for good quality of video and audio and pictures/images sent via the system? | Demonstrate the following minimum requirements (Hardware, memory, connection) for supporting better video/image, audio quality with:
| Demonstrate the following minimum requirements for better video / image, audio quality:
|