BA’s Preparation for Go-Live

Project Go-Live phase refers to the development of a project, where the goals of the project are accomplished, so the project is ready for further utilization and maintenance. Deployment is another name of the project Go-Live phase. 

Though we had few failed attempts prior due to fair implementation planning and inadequate analysis, we have come up with some more advancements to Go-Live. Once we have completed all implementation milestones, it is an ending phase that embraces the timeframe between project completion and handover. 

The ultimate desire of all the preparations, stress and potential risks in the accomplishment resides in the submission and Delivery of the project during Go-Live. 

Few checks and remediation follow: 

• Proper Communication with the Stakeholder:

Communication is one key element which has to be applied effectively throughout a project’s lifecycle from the beginning until the end. One should know to find the best out of all known groups to find the unknown groups. The person or group who are not received any of the communication through the course of a project will miss the valuable links that need to be addressed. To avoid such situations make sure a document is prepared to explain the Synopsis or Environment of the project and circulated to all stakeholders. Every stakeholder or product owner must be aware of the Go-Live procedures and Go-Live date. So any issues or concerns related to the product must resolve early. This also requires a POC (Point of Contact) for any such concerns to be addressed. 

• Product Testing: 

Testing is most important for any software product to maintain for quality assurance. There is a number of testing perform throughout the product development lifecycle. But for Go-Live perspective, UAT is most important. 

User acceptance testing (UAT) is the last phase of the software testing process. During UAT, actual software users/product owner test the software to make sure it can handle required tasks in real-world scenarios, according to specifications. UAT is one of the critical software project procedures that must occur before newly developed software is Go-Live. The main purpose of this testing is to validate the end to end business flow. This testing usually happens at the client location which is also known as Beta Testing. 

Following are the entry criteria for User Acceptance Testing: 

• Business Requirements must be available. 
• Application Code should be fully developed 
• Unit Testing, Integration Testing & System Testing should be completed 
• No Showstoppers, High, Medium defects in System Integration Test Phase  
• Regression Testing should be completed with no major defects 
• All the reported defects should be fixed and tested before UAT 
• UAT Environment must be ready 
• Sign off mail or communication from System Testing Team that the system is ready for UAT execution 

• Dry Run:

Dry run involves the construction and evaluation of multi pre-production versions of the product. Early prototypes are usually built with production-intent parts. Means the parts with the same configuration and design as intended for the production version of the product but not necessarily fabricated with actual process to be used in production. 

Typically the terms “Dry run” means a full-scale execution of all tasks involved to extract data from legacy systems, perform any kind of data conversion and fully validate the results. Validation testing of the finished product must be based on testing standard release criteria and in process testing criteria. 

• Roll Back Plan: 

Always be prepare for the worst condition and in Go-Live something went wrong then rollback is the best option. We may face a number of issues in Go-Live like functionality not working, data is not coming properly or some UI issues and if it’s critical and will tack more time to resolve, so in this kind of situation we may need to go back for an older version. A rollback script is supposed to return you to a previous point in time. 

• Post Go Live support:

The purpose of this phase is to move from a project-oriented environment to a live production operation environment. It involves Production support, monitoring, system transactions and optimizing overall system performance. 

Key Participants 

· Project Owner 

· Project Manager 

· Functional/Technical Lead(s) 

· Support/Maintenance Group 

Customer’s success is a big piece of the pie. Will have a direct contact with the customers helping them to get the most out of the product developed. Providing quick, thoughtful and knowledgeable support has made product champions out of even the toughest customers. 

To provide end user support which is critical for a project after Go-Live is very important that the key participants should have set up a Go-Support team which takes care of amendments for the next phase of deployment. 

• Conclusion: 

Before Go-Live must pass through all checkpoints to make sure for easy Go-Live. And must be ready with a plan for the worst condition as well.

About Author:

Niraj Patil is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at:niraj.patil@spluspl.com