Cutover Management

The art of Team Work Orchestration for Production deployment

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The art of Team Work Orchestration for Production deployment

Cutover represents the final phase of the programme management cycle. Development is complete, and Technical and User Acceptance Testing are nearly finished. Now is the time to strategize the deployment of the solution into the LIVE environment.

In large-scale projects or programs, deployment can be complex, often requiring meticulous sequencing of steps to properly configure production environments and applications. The absence of a well-detailed plan to coordinate these activities can pose significant risks with potentially severe impacts on the business.

When considering the Cutover phase, it’s essential to encompass all aspects of company operations. Collaborating with all teams, we meticulously plan the specifics, scrutinize dependencies, identify potential business impacts, and establish a contingency plan.

 

Cutover Management clubs:

  • Project Management
  • Technical Stakeholders Management
  • Business Stakeholders Management
  • Time Management
  • Support Management
  • Incident Management
  • Test Management
  • Performance Management
  • Warranty Management
  • Jan-Michael | Co-Founder of Cutover Manager Services

Mastering the ability to effectively integrate Cutover Management into the company’s organizational structure is paramount for the success of the business transformation.

Cutover Management serves as the unifying force that harmonizes both Business operational teams and IT teams into a single, cohesive unit, all dedicated to the shared objective of ensuring a successful GO-LIVE!

Cutover Overview

Cutover Management has a broader impact than standard project management. It must encompass everything, from highly detailed technical tasks to a high-level assessment of business implications, and communicate its approach to senior executives.

Operating in isolated silos is no longer viable; this is production we’re dealing with.

Each task, individual, and piece of information can wield a substantial influence on the Go-Live, consequently affecting the live production environment.

Cutover Management orchestrates work across the organization to mitigate the impact on your business, customers, sales, and other critical aspects.

Cutover Management Phases

Planning: This phase is included in the Cutover Initialization and is a part of Cutover Preparation. It involves identifying the Cutover Key Stakeholders, setting up Cutover meetings and workshops, creating the Cutover Approach with a key sequence of events, and delving deep into each event to define detailed activities and their dependencies.

Rehearse: This key phase is a crucial part of Cutover Preparation. It offers the opportunity to test, confirm, and assess the sequence of steps, communication channels, and identify any gaps.

Retrospective: This phase provides an opportunity to step back and reflect, although it is often overlooked. We always learn from our mistakes. We recognize the importance of taking the time to review what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved before the Cutover in Production

Go Live: Time’s up! The time has come! After months of preparation, this is the moment. The Cutover Detailed Plan is signed off, all Go-No-Go Criteria have been met, and all resources are aligned. We meticulously track the execution minute by minute, keeping all teams focused on the right path.

Early Life Support (aka Warranty Period or Hypercare Period): This is the closing phase. With the new IT solution now LIVE, we ensure things continue to progress smoothly. We recommend that ELS is managed by the Cutover Manager, as the Cutover team is the best group of people to understand what has been deployed in Production and to ensure a seamless transition to Business as Usual (BAU) with the Support Teams

Cutover management

Description
  • Project Management
  • Managing Project & Cutover Roadmap to the GO LIVE
  • Managing expectations with the Project Teams members and outside the
    project
  • Making sure everyone is going in the same direction
  • Technical Stakeholders Management
  • Be able to speak the same language
  • Be able to challenge technical constraints
  • Help the technical person to understand the Business and the impacts linked to the different technical solutions
  • Business Stakeholders Management
  • Be able to listen and understand Business requirement and challenges related to the new deployment
  • Review and Coordinate Business Readiness to make sure everything will be ready for the GO LIVE
  • Explain the technical constraint in their own language
  • Assess the technical impacts on their business
  • Time Management
  • Set Stakeholders expectations
  • Set meetings with relevant stakeholders only
  • Set meeting’s agenda
  • Get visual, present the roadmap as much as possible, so the stakeholders know what is coming and when they need to be ready
  • Test Management
  • Make sure the relevant tests have been completed for each part before deploying all together
  • Review the Test strategy and collaborate with the Test Manager to define the Cutover Test strategy in order to validate the deployment
  • Performance Management
  • Make sure the deployment performs in an acceptable way, minimizing any system outage for the business, the end-users and / or the customers
  • Make sure to capture the time for each part of the deployment and assess the method / strategy where it is required
  • Make sure the performance has been signed off before the Cutover in Production
  • Data Migration Management
  • Review and validate the Data Migration scope with the Business
  • Define the mapping between the legacy and the target systems (including technical review for feasibility, mapping rules and business validation)
  • Define the Reconciliation reports and the reconciliation process for Business validation
  • Always challenge what you can migrate upfront to minimize the risk and the data load period during the GO LIVE
  • Support Management
  • Engage with the Support teams as soon as possible to explain the Cutover Roadmap and Strategy
  • Make sure the support teams are ready to receive and literally support the solution post GO LIVE

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