“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Andrew Grant
For some people within the programme, it might be the first Cutover meeting they will join. We know the importance to get things right.
The Kick-Off Meeting is meant for all Senior Management, Business, IT, Support, etc… Whoever might be involved & might have a dependency with the Cutover, e.g.: another Project Manager, Release Manager, Change Manager etc…
To make a first good impression, let’s make an easy & business friendly presentation!
Cutover Kick-Off Meeting Template Document
The objective of the Template document is to show how we can structure the presentation. Based on experiences with a large range of Stakeholders, it contains all the key information to set the scene, to set the organization’s expectation and provide visibility about the Cutover journey.
Click on each title to display the slide or download the template directly
Cutover Key Meetings
List the different type of the meeting and their purpose during the Cutover Journey
Cutover Key Stakeholders
From Anyone who can help building the plan to anyone who can be impacted by the Go Live. The list will evolve and grow as we move forward on the cutover detailed plan
Cutover Preparation Plan
The Cutover roadmap from now till the GO LIVE. List of the key workshops, the expected outcome of the phase, the list of key milestones and Cutover phases over the time.
Here below is a High-Level Standard 3 Months Cutover Journey. Depending of the Company organization, the Cutover scope, and Cutover objective, the raodmap will be adjusted. The objective is to get the Cutover organization clear, provide visibility on the expectation from the team and how they are going to be sollicitated during that period.
Cutover High-Level Plan
Based on the Current assumptions gathered during the 1-1 interviews with key stakeholders
[Project Name] Cutover Kick-Off Meeting
[Date]
[Author]
Agenda
Cutover Overview
Cutover Journey
Cutover Key Meetings
Cutover Communication Tools
Cutover Key Stakeholders
Cutover Components in Scope
Cutover Detailed Plan Format
Cutover Preparation Plan
Cutover HL Plan
Cutover GNG Criteria
Cutover Overview
Cutover Management has a wider impact than standard project management.
It needs to consider from the really detailed technical tasks to the high level business impact and articulate the approach at the senior executives level.
Working in silos is no more possible, this is production!
Each task, each person, each information can have a significant impact on the Go Live, meaning a consequence on the production live environment.
Cutover Management orchestrates the work across the organization to minimize the impact on your Business, your Customers, your Sales, etc…
Cutover journey
1. Plan: Identification of the steps and sequence of the steps
2. Dry Run: aka Rehearsal. Testing the plan in a Pre-Prod env
3. Lesson Learned: Check what went well, what went wrong, adjust the plan
4. Go Live: Production Cutover Execution
Note: 2. and 3. can be repeated several times depending on the projects.
Cutover Key Meetings
List the different type of the meeting and their purpose during the Cutover Journey
Cutover Key Meetings
Cutover Communication Tools
List of the authorized tools to share & communicate the information like MS Teams, Confluence, Slack, Sharepoint, and also mobile app like Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram for Group messaging. And don’t forget that there is always the phone directly call a person if needed.
Cutover Key Stakeholders
From Anyone who can help building the plan to anyone who can be impacted by the Go Live. The list will evolve and grow as we move forward on the cutover detailed plan
Cutover Components
List of Application or Tools that will be used/check/tested during the entire Cutover journey
- Technology 1
- Technology 2
- Application 1
- Application 2
- …
Cutover Detailed Plan Format
Depending on whether you have a task automation tool or not, the objective of the slide is to present how are you going to fill up the Detailed Plan.
The key rule is: Each task is described with at least:
Cutover Preparation Plan
The Cutover roadmap from now till the GO LIVE. List of the key workshops, the expected outcome of the phase, the list of key milestones and Cutover phases over the time.
Here below is a High-Level Standard 3 Months Cutover Journey. Depending of the Company organization, the Cutover scope, and Cutover objective, the raodmap will be adjusted. The objective is to get the Cutover organization clear, provide visibility on the expectation from the team and how they are going to be sollicitated during that period.
Cutover Preparation Plan 3 Months Standard Example
Cutover High-Level Plan
Based on the Current assumptions gathered during the 1-1 interviews with key stakeholders
Cutover Go-No-Go Criteria Template
The list of key Project & Cutover activities to secure the Business Go Live and a smooth transition. The below list is a standard list, we retrieve in most Project/Cutover organization. You will have to adapt depending on yours.
At the Kick-Off meeting, it helps to keep providing visibility on the expectation and what we are going to track to reach a GO before Cutover execution
Download
The Cutover Kick-Off Meeting Template Document
We cut-over for them
