The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit

Evidence of the following is essential:

Assessment must confirm sufficient knowledge of the indicators of inadequate performance.

Assessment must confirm the ability to keep the system balanced and performing well.

Assessment must confirm the ability to analyse system performance.

To demonstrate competency in this unit the learner will require access to:

System components and software for performance tuning

Technical manuals and resources

Fault logs

Diagnostic tools

Context of and specific resources for assessment

As systems grow, they can become fragmented and congested with incompatible software and unused programs, which can lead to wasted CPU cycles and unnecessary overuse of RAM.

The role of optimising system performance can avoid spending money on unnecessary hardware and software when all that is required is careful management of current resources.

The breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge and skills in this competency would cover a broad range of varied activities or application in a wider variety of contexts most of which are complex and non-routine. Leadership and guidance would be involved when organising activities of self and others as well as contributing to technical solutions of a non-routine or contingency nature.

Assessment must ensure:

Performance of a broad range of skilled applications including the requirement to evaluate and analyse current practices, develop new criteria and procedures for performing current practices and provision of some leadership and guidance to others in the application and planning of the skills would be characteristic.

Applications may involve responsibility for, and limited organisation of, others.

Method of assessment

The purpose of this unit is to define the standard of performance to be achieved in the workplace. In undertaking training and assessment activities related to this unit, consideration should be given to the implementation of appropriate diversity and accessibility practices in order to accommodate people who may have special needs. Additional guidance on these and related matters is provided in ICA05 Section 1.

Competency in this unit should be assessed using summative assessment to ensure consistency of performance in a range of contexts. This unit can be assessed either in the workplace or in a simulated environment. However, simulated activities must closely reflect the workplace to enable full demonstration of competency.

Assessment will usually include observation of real or simulated work processes and procedures and/or performance in a project context as well as questioning on underpinning knowledge and skills. The questioning of team members, supervisors, subordinates, peers and clients where appropriate may provide valuable input to the assessment process. The interdependence of units for assessment purposes may vary with the particular project or scenario.

Guidance information for assessment

Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplace and job role is recommended, for example:

ICAI4030B Install software to networked computers

ICAI4097C Install and configure a network

ICAS4107B Rectify system faults on a live system

ICAS4113C Identify and resolve common database performance problems

ICAS4116B Undertake capacity planning

ICAS4127B Support system software

An individual demonstrating this competency would be able to:

Demonstrate understanding of a broad knowledge base incorporating some theoretical concepts

Apply solutions to a defined range of unpredictable problems

Identify and apply skill and knowledge areas to a wide variety of contexts, with depth in some areas

Identify, analyse and evaluate information from a variety of sources

Take responsibility for own outputs in relation to specified quality standards

Take limited responsibility for the quantity and quality of the output of others

Maintain knowledge of industry products and services

Required skills

Measuring system performance against predefined benchmarks

Risk analysis skills in relation to reviewing change procedures

Comprehension of technical manuals

Adequate use of diagnostic tools

Report writing and recording skills

Required knowledge

Current industry-standard hardware and software monitoring tools and the how to interpret information produced from monitoring

Broad knowledge of the role of stakeholders and the degree of stakeholder involvement

Detailed knowledge of the system's current functionality

Broad knowledge of quality assurance practices

One or more change management tools

General knowledge of system performance, change control procedures and theoretical concepts

Detailed knowledge of the system under modification

Business scheduling requirements

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

System performance including network capacity and throughput can be affected by:

imbalances in disk utilisation and available space

memory availability and utilisation

processor utilisation

disk speed

allocation of files across disk space

number of concurrent users

work load

physical limitations of system

poor design in a program/s

queue depth

seek time

i/o channel availability

Tools may include:

software

electronics equipment (e.g. volt-meter, oscilloscope, data analyser)

Client may include but is not limited to:

internal departments

external organisations

individual people

employees

Appropriateperson may include:

supervisor

teacher

authorised business representative

client

Components may include:

motherboards

CMOS battery

central processing unit (CPU)

CD and DVD drives

interface cards

drives

fax/modem cards

RAM upgrades

CPU upgrades

Organisationalguidelines may include but are not limited to:

personal use of emails and internet access

content of emails

downloading information and accessing particular websites

opening mail with attachments

virus risk

dispute resolution

document procedures and templates

communication methods

financial control mechanisms

Documentation may follow:

ISO/IEC/AS standards

audit trails

naming standards

version control

project management templates

report writing principles

Improve performance may include:

Load balancing between servers or other network devices (e.g. using switches or routers)

Tuning the disk sub-system

Reducing total load by tuning the operating system

Tuning applications to reduce the load they impose

Using various systems tools to adjust system parameters, including hardware or software upgrade