Ex Libris Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Policy

Scope and Purpose

This policy defines the development and implementation requirements for Ex Libris products. This policy applies to all employees at Ex Libris and other individuals and organizations who work with any form of software or system development under the supervision of Ex Libris.

The purpose of this policy is to provide a methodology to help ensure the successful implementation of systems that satisfy Ex Libris strategic and business objectives. This documentation provides a mechanism to ensure that executive leadership, functional mangers, and users (where appropriate) sign-off on the requirements and implementation of systems. The process provides visibility of the design, development, and implementation status needed to ensure delivery on time and within budget.

Reference Documents

Policy Statement

Policy Goals:

Deliver quality systems which meet or exceed customer expectations when promised and within cost estimates
Provide a framework for developing quality systems using an identifiable, measurable, and repeatable process
Identify and assign the roles and responsibilities of all involved parties, including functional and technical managers, throughout the system development life cycle
Ensure that system development requirements are well defined and subsequently satisfied.

Policy Objectives:

Establish appropriate levels of management authority to provide timely direction, coordination, control, review and approval of the system development project
Document requirements and maintain traceability of those requirements throughout the development and implementation process
Ensure that projects are developed within the current and planned information technology infrastructure.

Segregation of Environments

Development will be performed in a dedicated network zone, separate from quality assurance and production.

Quality Assurance will be performed in a dedicated network zone separate from production and development.

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Phases

Initial Phase

The purposes of the Initiation Phase are to:

Identify and validate an opportunity to improve business accomplishments or a deficiency related to a business need
Identify significant assumptions and constraints on solutions
Recommend the exploration of alternative concepts and methods to satisfy the need

Feasibility Phase

The Feasibility Phase is the initial investigation or brief study of the problem to determine whether the systems project should be pursued. A feasibility study establishes the context through which the project addresses the requirements and investigates the practicality of a proposed solution. The feasibility study is used to determine if the project should get the go-ahead. If the project is to proceed, the feasibility study will produce a project plan and budget estimates for the future stages of development.

Requirements Analysis Phase

This phase formally defines the detailed functional user requirements, using high-level requirements identified in the Initiation and Feasibility Phases. In this phase, the requirements are defined to a sufficient level of detail for systems design to proceed. Requirements need to be measurable, testable, and relate to the business need or opportunity identified in the Initiation Phase.

Design and Development Phase

During this phase the system is designed to satisfy the functional requirements identified in the previous phase. Since problems in the design phase can be very expensive to solve in later stages of the software development, a variety of elements are considered in the design to mitigate risk. These include:

Identifying potential risks and defining mitigating design features
Performing a security risk assessment
Developing a conversion plan to migrate current data to the new system
Determining the operating environment

Implementation, Documentation and Testing Phase

For Ex Libris products, as part of the implementation phase, updated detailed documentation will be developed and will include all operations information needed by the HUB, including detailed instructions for when systems fail. Ex Libris products may not be moved into the production environment without this documented information.

Testing will be performed in its own environment and includes unit, integration, and system testing to ensure the proper implementation of the requirements.

Application and infrastructure security vulnerability scans and penetration tests are based on the OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities. The OWASP Top 10 is conducted by a team of security experts that focuses on the ten most important risk concerns and vulnerabilities contained in web applications and how to mitigate those risks. The requirements will be documented and will then be tested. All components deployed for cloud architecture are based on a defined secure standard from the vendor and security best practices and goes through a change control process that includes configuration, testing, and QA, before it is deployed in Production.

Operations and Maintenance Phase

System operations and maintenance is ongoing. Ex Libris conducts an annual review with Stakeholders. The system is monitored for continued performance in accordance with user requirements and needed system modifications are incorporated when identified, approved, and tested. When modifications are identified, the system may reenter the planning phase.

Security Vulnerabilities

Managing the security vulnerabilities will be handled by the Security Team, who will identify, manage, and minimize the security vulnerabilities by code fix or configuration change (for example, by a hotfix, patch, or other way of handling the security vulnerabilities). Ex Libris has a security patch policy including evaluation and definition of the severity. Critical patches are assessed and evaluated within 5 business days and implemented as soon as possible. Priority certification and full QA testing is employed to validate the full system functionality and availability of the systems post-patching. Refer to the ongoing security patches based on Ex Libris Security Patches and Vulnerability Assessments Policy

Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed at least annually by Management for effectiveness and to ensure its continued use and relevance as part of the Ex Libris information security management system (ISMS).

Policy Enforcement

Failure to comply with this policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.

Record of Changes

Type of Information	Document Data
Document Title:	Secure Software Development Life Cycle Policy
Document Owner:	Tomer Shemesh - Ex Libris Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
Approved by:	Barak Rozenblat – VP Cloud Services
Release Date:	August 25, 2019
Reviewed & Revised:	July 6, 2022

Record of Changes

Version	Nature of Change	Date Approved
1.0	Initial Version	August 25, 2019
1.1	Reviewed and updated	November 04, 2020
1.2	Reviewed and updated	October 24, 2021
1.2	Reviewed	July 6, 2022

Document Distribution and Review

The document owner will distribute this document to all approvers when it is first created and as changes or updates are made. This document will be reviewed and updated annually or upon written request by an approver or stakeholder. Questions or feedback about this document can be directed to the owner or a listed approver.