Every successful project is based on good planning, which starts with a project plan. The plan includes what and how things will be done, as well as how risks, changes and control will be managed. More detailed task-specific plans and the implementation plan are made as separate attachments, which are referenced in the project plan, or maintained in a separate application. This is because the old saying: Well planned is half done is true.
It is important to think in advance when the project's outputs can be put into production. The criteria are recorded in a document that describes the conditions that must be met in order for the production import and commissioning phase to begin. Such things include:
- acceptance testing has been completed and passed
- the production environment is ready and tested to work
- all integrations are ready and tested to work
- new processes are ready and communicated
- trainings have been held
- possible migration has been tested and approved
If you have to compromise on the requirements, you should think about them beforehand in order to be able to assess what compromising on the criteria means. With a small saving, when it is possible to do the worst of the destruction of millions.
Risk assessment and minimization
Different risks typically occur in commissioning and implementation. In most cases, the deployment is compressed as short as possible. In this case, even small problems can ruin the entire commissioning schedule. When it comes to a larger implementation, it is good that it is practiced as accurately as possible from beginning to end.
The challenge in the limited time is also the coverage of the testing. The entire testing of the system has been done before and the production sample trusts that the system has been frozen after the last testing. In connection with production acceptance, only a few critical predefined checks are made, and there is no attempt to cover the entire system. The thoroughness of the review depends on the time available. If you have a lot of time, you should spend it on these.
Post-migration data should always be validated carefully, even if it has been tested before. The challenge is often that the data model of the new system is completely different from the old system. Because of this, you unfortunately often have to make complicated conversions. The data must be validated and the success of the conversion must be ensured carefully.
Data validation should be automated as far as possible during testing. During commissioning, it must be clear who makes the decisions.
In addition to the communication and project management model, it is important to define the escalation channels in the implementation plan. Part of the implementation plan is also a precise task plan, where each task is defined, held accountable and scheduled precisely. Large projects may have a deployment manager or a command center that directs and monitors the deployment. If the schedule falls behind or the tasks are failed, it is the task of the command center to escalate the situation according to the plan.
A deployment rollback plan is often tricky. If the no-go decision is made before switching to the new system, it is easy to return. If you have started using the new system, it may be difficult or even impossible to go back. There are points in the rollback plan that are impossible to test in advance despite careful planning. Then the alternative is to stick to the new system, where the problems are fixed.
If the installation or migration of a new system takes a long time, you must prepare for business continuity with your own plan. The plan includes measures to include the work done during the outage in the new system and ensure that information is not lost.
The use of an external specialist in the implementation project is justified. In the line organization, deployments are encountered quite rarely, and large deployments very rarely. For part of the project group, the assignment ends with production takeover, and it is also worth considering the increased need for resources for initial production. There are also many stages and different perspectives in a larger implementation, which you don't even think about the first time. The production export of a business-critical project must not fail, in which case these are often very hectic and pressurized situations. Over the years, Graniti's project experts have refined themselves in such situations and are used to working under high pressure.
We take your project from planning to implementation and all the way to the finish line! Contact Antti via email (antti.arminen@graniittiservices.fi), on the phone 050 537 9426 or book an appointment directly from the calendar and let's talk more about how we could be of help.
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