Re: Firewall Audit Programme/checklist

[blast <blast () broder com>]

I would like to bring another perspective to this thread.

A checklist is a tool.  Other tools include Fishbone Diagrams, Impact 
Analysis, Flow Charting, etc.etc.  The tools to be used is qualified by
the phase of your process.  The phase that is being discussed here is
the Analyze Phase.  A classical tool for the Analyze Phase is the 
Checklist.  As mentioned above, other tools would include Sampling,
Fishbone Diagram, Checksheet, Pareto Analysis, etc. 
After the system has finished the Deploy Phase, you can use tools that
help with the Execute Phase like 'Measuring & Monitoring', 'Specification 
and Control Limits'.

The trick is to use the right tool for the phase that you are in.
The 4 phases would be:

Phase 1: Scope your objectives or problems to this integration.
Phase 2: Learn about your Phase 1 output from your data.
Phase 3: Engineer your plan based on your Phase 2 output.
Phase 4: Implement the plan, monitor, and start process over.

Each phase has a set of tools that can be very effective 
in helping all parties understand dependencies, get people
thinking out of the box, and gather data that might have 
been otherwise invisible or missed.

If this thread subject did not have the work 'checklist' in it
I would have kept quiet.  I just wanted to offer the perspective
that a Checklist is a part of a larger process and that the Checklist
may not facilitate the particular phase of your process.

This "tool and phase" process structure is only effective when 
it is a common language with all parties involved in the process.
If everyone is working with this common language, it can be
very powerful.

-Tim Keanini
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