Anatomy of a Cutover Plan

or
Dont get caught dead in a go-live
situation situation
Mahesh Vallampati
About the Speaker
Mahesh Vallampati
Senior Practice Manager at SmartDog Services
Senior Sales Consulting Manager at Hotsos.
Worked at Oracle for nine years Worked at Oracle for nine years
Director of IT Database Services at a company in
Houston
Published in Oracle magazine
Agenda
Go Live ecology
Cutover Overview
Cutover Plan
Cutover Templates Cutover Templates
GO LIVE ECOLOGY GO LIVE ECOLOGY
Go Live Ecology
What is a Go-Live Anyway?
A move from one defined state to another defined state
Typically supposed to
Minimize on-going risk
Cost Effective
Enhance Business Process Enhance Business Process
Involves
Several Stakeholders
Co-ordination of tasks
Usually involves a small defined window of time
Includes cutover tasks
Also includes rollback tasks if needed
Go Live Ecology Bus.
Perspective
E
Bus.
Vol.
Go Live
A
B
C
D
TIME
A = Current Business volume, B = Business ramp up
C = Productivity Dip toward shutdown, D = Controlled Business ramp up, E = Stabilization
Go-Live Ecology IT Perspective
B
C
IT
Activities
Go Live
A
B
D
E
TIME
A = Overall Testing, B = Plan and Get Ready for Cutover
C = Execute Cutover, D = Support Business Ramp Up E = Steady State Support
Y-Z = Steady State Support
Y
Z
CUTOVER OVERVIEW CUTOVER OVERVIEW
Cutover Definition
Is A Process
Execution of Planned Tasks
By Several Stakeholders
Step by Step
Migrate Tested Functionality to Production Migrate Tested Functionality to Production
Performed at least once or twice to document issues
and timings
Variance from cutover for Production should be well
understood
Lessons should be definitely learnt
Cutover characteristics
Plan well ahead
Meet Customer Demand
Ramp down Business, (Close open items, Notify
customers)
Cutover Activities
Key Decision point made by stakeholder
Move forward
Roll Back
Go-Live or RollBack
Business Ramp up
Cutover Process
Pre-Cutover Activities
Build Production Environment
Cutover Plan development
Test Cutover Plan
Wash/Repeat/Rinse
Finalize Cutover Plan
Cutover Activities
Execute Cutover Plan
Perform checks
Go/No Go Decision
Post Go Live Support
Issue Management
Cutover Plan Cutover Plan
Cutover Plan
One document
Includes all cutover related tasks
Has a section for rollback also
Contains stakeholders and their tasks Contains stakeholders and their tasks
Has decision checkpoints
Has detailed timing information for trial cutovers
Cutover Plan
Facilitates co-ordination between key players
and stakeholders
Owned by a project manager or a key
stakeholder stakeholder
Business and IT own the cutover plan together
A tool to manage cutover process
A tool to report progress against cutover tasks
Cutover Plan Document
Needs to be managed very tightly
Changes to plan made only by cutover team
Change risk understood and contingency plan in
place place
Cutover Plan
Detailed Task List
Timings and dependencies for each tasks
Parallel execution and co-ordination of
independent tasks independent tasks
A contact list
Rollback Plan
Decision Points
Contains readiness criteria
Readiness Criteria
Criteria
Site
Technology
Training
Data Migration
Sustainment
Functionality
Cutover Planning
Criteria Scores
1-5
1-No Impact
2-Low Impact
3-Medium Impact
4-High Impact
5-Show Stopper
Risk Scorecard
Criteria/
Score
1-No
Impact
2-Low
Impact
3-Med.
Impact
4. High
Impact
5. Show
Stopper
Site
Technology
Training
Data Data
Migration
Sustainment
Functionality
Cutover
Planning
Totals
Overall Risk Score
Contingency Plan
Cutover Plans Formats
Cutover Plan Formats
Spreadsheet
Homegrown
Created out of necessity
AIM Document AIM Document
PM.030 Transition and Contingency Plan Document
Spreadsheet
Components
Document Control
Resources
Cutover Escalation
Post Implementation Support Plan Post Implementation Support Plan
On-Site/Remote Resources
War Room
Conf. Bridge
Risk Scorecard/Readiness Criteria
Cutover Plan
DR-Restore
Document Control
Version Control
Owner
Contributors
Reviewers Reviewers
Issue List
Resources
Cutover Escalation
Post Implementation Support Plan
On-Site/Remote Resources
Name Name
Contact (Cell/Home/Office)
Managers Contact
War Room/Conf. Bridge
A note on War Rooms
War Rooms are effective
When there are team chemistry issues
Post Go Live issues are certain
There are enough resources to staff a war room There are enough resources to staff a war room
around the clock
It is for a short period
There is a lot on the line
Cutover Plan
Task
Owner
Others Involved
Dependencies
Duration Duration
Planned Start and End
Actual Start and End
Variance in duration
Status
Notes
Score
Process Improvement Opportunity
DR-Restore
Same as Cutover Plan
Get back to Original State
AIM Document PM.030
PM.030
Transition and Contingency Plan
Owned by the Project Manager
Major Contributors Major Contributors
DBA Team
Infrastructure/OS Team
Development Team
Functional Team for Setups
Much easy if done ahead of time
PM.030 Sections
Detailed Transition Plan
Cutover Contingency Plan
Preparing for Production
Production Schedule First Week Production Schedule First Week
PM.030 Sections
Detailed Transition Plan
General Tasks
Detailed Checklist Tasks
Cutover Contingency Plan
Contingency Steps
Upon System Availability Upon System Availability
Preparing for Production
Approach
Production Schedule - First Week
Using the Company Support Infrastructure
Information Systems Production Feedback Session
Support Status
Walkthrough
Cutover Plan Spreadsheet
AIM PM.030 Document
Q U E S T I O N S Q U E S T I O N S
A N S W E R S A N S W E R S