Module C5: Digital Sustainability Action Plan

Module Status: Drafting in Progress | Ready for Testing | Tested
Current Module Downloads: Module C5 Activity Worksheet and Excel Worksheet

This module builds on and brings together the work you have done up to this point, helping you to compile focused documentation of your resources and your plans for ongoing digital sustainability. Here, you will do the work of creating a detailed, actionable sustainability plan using the adapted NDSA Levels of Preservation as a guiding structure.

Using the downloadable Excel spreadsheet found above, if you like, identify the following pieces of information for each of the six sustainability areas introduced in Modules C2-C4:

  • Your chosen level of sustainability and the rationale for your decision;
  • The anticipated timeframe for attaining that sustainability level;
  • A catalog of individual actions you will take to reach your chosen level;
  • Specific team members who will be responsible for each of these sustainability actions;
  • A timeframe for completion of each action (should be fewer than three years).

It is worth noting that when you construct your catalog of sustainability actions, you should be aiming for tasks that are achievable within the next three years—that is, in the period before you run the STSR again, or your project reaches retirement, whichever comes first. The point of this exercise is to develop an ongoing relationship with sustainability practices that will last for as long as you would like your project to last.

Once you have completed this work, make sure that you store the documentation for this, and all other, STSR modules in one of your reliable sites of project documentation! Your current and future project team members will thank you.

Also, remember that as you proceed with your project over time, the information contained within this worksheet may change, even before your next STSR check-in. As staffing, technologies, or other factors change, you can update or add to your sustainability action plan as you see fit.

Congratulations!

Once done with this module, you’ve completed the Socio-Technical Sustainability Roadmap for this iteration. We will see you again in three years…that is, unless your project is scheduled to retire before then!

(Module last updated January 2019)

Previous Module: Module C4: Permissions & Data Integrity
Back to Section C Overview