Align All The Key Stakeholders
 The Cutover Approach must be comprehensible to a wide range of individuals, from technical personnel to senior operational stakeholders. This includes everyone involved or potentially affected by the Cutover, spanning from project teams / Support teams to the Program Board and C-Suite level.
The document serves several purposes, including establishing the project’s context, outlining the Cutover roadmap, presenting the high-level sequence of events, addressing business impacts and mitigation strategies, specifying the timeline, defining Rollback criteria and processes, articulating the communication plan, and detailing the escalation process.
We ensure that the Cutover teams have a comprehensive understanding of the entire picture and maintain a clear vision and path to Go Live.
This approach is instrumental in identifying and reviewing critical dependencies between major events and assessing their potential business impacts.
Cutover Approach Template
Introduction
Use one slide to remind the context of the Programme and the purpose of the Cutover. This slide will be mainly used when we need to present the Cutover approach document outside the Cutover team.
Cutover Milestones
High-level Plan or Cutover Roadmap from the moment you start the Cutover Planning phase until the Go Live.
A standard roadmap starts from 3 to 6 months before the Go Live
A common list of Cutover Milestones are:
- Cutover Planning period (Cutover Approach – This document, Cutover Detailed Plan, Cutover Workshops)
- Data Migration Dress Rehearsal(s) Period, could include Business Reconciliation Dress Rehearsal period
- Dress Rehearsal(s) window(s)
- Setup of the Production Environment
- Rollback Window
- Cutover Freeze Period
- Technical Go Live
- Go-No-Go Meetings
- Cutover Pre-Requisite Activities period
- Cutover Execution period
- Business Go Live
- Post Go Live Activities Period
- Early Life Support (Warranty) Period
Cutover Freeze Definition (IT and/or Business)
To maintain the stability and the continuity of the Production environment, it is highly recommended to organize a freeze period before the Go Live.
The Freeze could be IT, meaning no more changes from other projects with exceptions to critical BAU changes in agreement with the Change Advisory Board.
It could be Business, meaning no more operational changes to the platform before the switch over.
It is important to clarify Freeze with all key stakeholders on what the organization CAN and CANNOT do during that period. Once it is clear, the Change Team or the Communication team can spread the message across the organization
Cutover Pre-Requisite Activities
High-level activities that are required before the downtime and the switchover. All detailed steps and timing will be defined in the Cutover detailed plan, here in the Cutover Approach document, we highlight the key ones to facilitate alignment among the key stakeholders.
Here below are some common Key Cutover Pre-Requisites:
- Production Environment setup (in detail, it could include Server Configuration, Database configuration, Network configuration, etc…) – Please note: This is the case when we cut over from a legacy system to a new live environment. In a situation of an Upgrade, the Live environment remains the same, therefore the number of pre-cutover activities before the downtime could be limited.
- Business Access Configuration Setup (in detail, it could include: Access Matrix signed off, accesses testing signed off in Test environment, Sanity Checks completed, etc…)
- IT Temporary Access to prod (in detail, it could include: Confirm the list of IT resources to action cutover activities, confirm their access level and the period to cover Cutover execution and Early life support, etc…)
- Business Ramp down activities (in detail, depending on the industry, it could include: Operational reduction of activities, Closing orders, Build on stock, etc…)
Cutover High-Level Plan
Depending on the scale of the project or programme, the Cutover High-Level Plan is at Day level, covering a couple of days before and after the Go Live.Â
The visual helps the teams to understand the sequence of events or steps, to map the flow between the activities that need to happen to reach and secure the Go Live.Â
Cutover Timeline
We now break down the key events almost hour by hour and highlight their dependencies. Below is just an example of a visualization of a timeline to highlight the dependencies between IT Activities, Business Activities and Governance
Cutover Business Impact
Linked to Business Freeze and/or the Business Ramp down activities, it is crucial to convene with the Business teams to analyse the business impacts by the Cutover.
As we delve into these impacts, the outcome could be either positive or negative; the key is to ensure clarity for all stakeholders. The Business Impact analysis will aid in conducting the Go Live risk assessment and formulating the Business Continuity PlanÂ
Cutover Post Go-Live Activities
Similar to the Pre-requisite activities, we outline a list of key steps or events necessary after the Go Live phase.
Post Go Live Activities can be categorized into three parts:
- A list of activities that were not critical for the Go Live event but are necessary for the smooth operation of the business or its processes.
- A list of activities essential for the transition to Business as Usual (BAU).
- Decommissioning activities, which involve shutting down or removing legacy systems that are no longer required by the business
Rollback Criteria
Rollback Criteria are a set of predefined criteria or scenarios that, if not met during the Cutover execution, can trigger a rollback. In simpler terms, these criteria represent the essential and critical business or operational processes that must function smoothly for the organization to operate effectively. If any of these processes fail, it serves as a signal to initiate a rollback.
Through collaboration between the IT and Business teams, the goal is to establish a mutual agreement on the definition of a failed scenario and its severity.
Rollback Activities
List of the High-Level actions required to Rollback.
Cutover Escalation Process
A ‘Cutover Escalation Process’ is a vital component of the Go Live phase, demanding swift reactions from individuals with varying levels of responsibility.
In the event of issues or slippages, having the appropriate escalation process in place is of paramount importance. This process facilitates the assessment of risks, evaluates business impacts, and enables sound decision-making.
Below is an example of an Escalation Structure, which can be tailored to fit the specific organizational structure and needs.
Cutover Communication Process
Define exactly how you are going to communicate with the organization
Define the Audiences: Internal, External, Technical, Business, Senior Management
Define the Channels and the tools to communicate with your audiences
