Onboarding Template - Jon Keister

[michelle-dooley]

Welcome to the VFS-CMS Team!

This ticket contains all of the onboarding activities for a new member joining the VFS-CMS Team. There's a lot to digest and the learning curve may take a few months, so we've organized the information in sections to help you pace yourself. Come back to this ticket any time to refresh your knowledge on a specific topic covered below. We look forward to getting to know you!

VFS-CMS Start Date:

Team info:

• Onboarding buddy:
• Product Owner: Erika Washburn
• Delivery Manager:

(More CMS team info can be found in below in Day One section.)

Day one

Day one

• Meet with your Delivery Manager for a brief orientation to the CMS Team.
• Read about the CMS Team and see full team roster (link)
• Read the VA's Office of the CTO (OCTO) engineering excellence guiding principles post in DSVA slack (link)
• Read the VA.gov platform crew principals.
• Open a VA.gov Platform orientation ticket.
  • The VA.gov Platform team manages VA.gov tooling and network access. In order to receive access to the SOCKS network proxy (described later), you must 1) create the Platform orientation ticket linked above, 2) have completed your e-QIP paperwork and receive/provide a screenshot of the email with your e-QIP transmittal date (your Delivery Manager will provide details on timing), 3) attend a Platform orientation.
  • These steps will result in getting you added to the VFS Platform roster.
  • If a Platform orientation isn't available for several weeks, sign up for the next available slot, then tag your Delivery Manager and VA Product Owner on your Platform ticket to expedite SOCKS access.

Week one

Week one

The goals of this week are:

1. get background paperwork completed as quickly as possible and
2. start gaining context for what we're doing and why.

VA security clearance / VA onboarding paperwork

Getting onboarded to the VA can take a few weeks to a few months. We encourage you to prioritize these tasks before any team tasks.

• Wait to receive an email directing you to the paperwork you should fill out for secure access to relevant VA systems. Federal contractors are required to complete many of the same forms as federal employees. If you're not sure which you contract you are on, ask your Delivery Manager.
  • VFS-CMS contract paperwork will come from A6.
• Complete and submit your initial paperwork per contract instructions, including setting up your fingerprinting appointment.
• When you are notified to complete your e-QIP (the online version of the federal standard investigation form, SF 86), it will require a lot of background information. Review page 7 of the SF 86 guide in advance for the list of information you'll need to collect to complete e-QIP

Drupal Content Management System

Gaining product knowledge about the CMS can take some time. These activities can be completed in any order and are secondary to your VA security clearance onboarding tasks above.

• Watch the 2021 Drupal GovCon presentation about the project.
• Why are VA Medical Centers changing their websites? Watch the 2-minute YouTube video.
• Why are Vet Centers important to Veterans? Watch the 2-minute YouTube video.

Week two

Week two

What products do we support?

• Read the product outlines in the repository for a non-inclusive view of the platform. Be mindful of the dates, as some of these products have not been shipped but may still live in our backlog.

Access

Regardless of your role, please review these access notes. Your Delivery Manager will have set up most of the tools for you (with the exception of SOCKS). This list is for you to verify along the way:

SOCKS - VA network proxy

The VA network is required for Drupal CMS and other VA tools and usually requires a VA ID card (PIV or Smartcard). Until you get your paperwork approved and ID card, SOCKS proxy is a back door to some of these tools. This is the first priority for week two.

• File a SOCKS proxy request and select the label for your team. See SOCKS access for Jun Tao (John) Luo va.gov-team#68549
  • Platform orientation. This should have been requested on day one as part of the Platform onboarding ticket but is here as a reminder that this is a blocker for SOCKS access as you'll need to get added to their ecosystem roster in order to proceed.
• Provide a screenshot of the email that confirms your eQip transmittal date. This is an acknowledgement that your paperwork is being processed from a security standpoint. You cannot receive SOCKS access prior to this point in your onboarding.
• Request a Github personal access token first. You only need to do the "repo" panel in that form and leave the other panels as is. It may take a day or two for the SOCKS proxy request to be fulfilled before you can complete the rest of the SOCKS process. This can be a complex process. Post in #sitewide-program Slack channel if you need help from a current member - we're happy to help.

Github - for issue tracking and document sharing

• VA.gov request instructions - Your Delivery Manager should have already requested this for you so double check with them before submitting a new request.
• Zenhub extension instructions - Optional: We use GitHub and ZenHub on this project, so this can be a helpful extension to use on your preferred browser.
• Intro to CMS Team Github
• CMS team list - Same as above. You must be added to this team to contribute in Github.
  • Optional: New to Github and markdown? Learn about writing on Github or watch a tutorial video

Slack - for instant messaging

Your Delivery Manager should have already requested this for you, but if not, view the request instructions

• Review Slack etiquette.
• Update your profiles in Slack (in the A6 and DSVA workspaces), add a calendar link
• Reach out to your Delivery Manager if you have questions about which appropriate Slack channels and user groups to join in the DSVA workspace

These are the initial Slack channels you'll be added to by your Delivery Manager:

• In the A6/agency workspace = your team channel is#team-vfs-cms for general communication outside of our project work
• In the DSVA workspace = your team channel is#sitewide-cms-platform for project-related communication and collaboration
• This is a description of other channels to put on your radar. Note that many are going to be dependent on which workstream you're in.

Drupal - for logging into the CMS (SOCKS or VA access with PIV card required)

Drupal is the VA's content management system of choice. For anyone on our team, it's beneficial to have a CMS user account so you can login, look at settings, and understand how the CMS works at a high level. If you need help completing the technical steps here, schedule 30 mins with your Delivery Manager.

• Learn about the different Drupal environments
• Drupal production environment access (SOCKS or VA network required) - in DSVA #cms-support channel, use the Slack workflow to file a helpdesk support request. Ask the helpdesk to create a Drupal user for you in prod.cms.va.gov.
  • Product Managers should request an Administrator account.
  • DevOps team members require an administrator account. (SOCKS or VA access with PIV card required)
  • Standard practice for other roles is to have minimal access in prod (content editor or even a blocked account) and full admin access in lower environments.

Tugboat - for previewing in demo environments (SOCKS or VA access with PIV card required)

Tugboat is a development server platform where you can preview CMS code changes pre-production.

• Tugboat for non-engineers
• Tugboat for engineers

Other tools

• Confluence (your Delivery Manager will get you added)
• Datadog to access monitoring metrics (your Delivery Manager will get you added)

Discipline specific onboarding

For Developers

• VA.gov tools overview
• Access to dev & staging to be able to replicate the SSO piece of the login experience (SOCKS or VA access with PIV card required)
• Review the VA.gov Design System which includes how to provide feedback

VA Platform documentation

• VA Technical Architecture Overview - describes technical architecture of va.gov (+ api.va.gov)
• Deployments: https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/developer-docs/deployments
• Deployment crib notes with detail re: various repos, timings, & support
• Front-end workflow: https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/developer-docs/frontend-workflow
• Front-end steps to run & build VA.gov locally

Month one

Month one

By this point you should have enough context and access to be able to start contributing. Work with your team to identify specific issues to focus on.

Who?

• Who are our VA points of contact? Discuss with your Delivery Manager or Product Owner.
• Who should we know on the platform team? Who should we know on VFS Teams? Discuss with your Delivery Manager or Product Owner.

What?

• Complete any VA-assigned trainings in the TMS system. If the TMS learning modules malfunction, assign yourself the print version of the module. (Ask in #proj-vagov-team if you need help.)
• You'll receive an email confirming that you have been approved for remote access, using Citrix Access Gateway (CAG). You can contact Enterprise Service desk via provided instructions to set up your CAG access manually, if you need access prior to receiving your PIV card.
• After your background check is complete, you will get an email to get your Personal Identify Verification (PIV) card. Contact your local VA office (where you got your fingerprints taken) for information about getting your PIV card.
  • Review a video about the benefits of the PIV card and VA network access.
  • PIV card will help you get remote VA network access. See VA network remote access options
    • Azure virtual desktop is recommended for Windows
    • Mac users should follow these CAG download instructions
    • Purchase a card reader, if you don't have one. A6 IT recommends these options: USB or USB-C
    • Use your PIV card to access CAG. You must access CAG every 60 days or your access will be expired.
• Drupal CMS and Design Systems
• Google Analytics: Request access to Google Analytics
  • Opt out of Google Analytics collection on VA.gov.
  • Opt out of analytics for Platform's website. You will not get a confirmation message and will have to do this for every browser and every time you clear cookies.
• Once you have access to Prod, browse the VA Drupal CMS Knowledge Base articles.

[keisterj-oddball]

Done:

• Got PIV Exemption
• Able to access VA Email via CAG
• Placed SOCKS access request

In Progress:

• Waiting on SOCKS access

[gracekretschmer-metrostar]

@keisterj-oddball have you received your PIV card yet?

[keisterj-oddball]

@gracekretschmer-metrostar just picked it up this morning. I'm waiting on my card reader to show up, but I do still have access via my PIV exemption until that arrives. I'll close this ticket, and refer back for any other onboarding/access things that arise moving forward.