How to assess your go-live readiness
How do you know if you are ready to “go live” with your new system? The answer is, obviously, quite important. If you jump the gun early, the risks of failure are high. If you wait for the magical moment to arrive, your project may go on forever.
Assessing go-live readiness is both a science and an art. Emotions will be elevated. Teams will be tired. The budget will be depleted. Having a well-thought-out plan upfront will make the process easier when times get tougher.
Let's first talk about what go-live readiness means. At the highest level, three areas must come together - people, processes, and systems. Your people need to be trained and comfortable with the new solution. Your ”to-be” processes must be well thought out and functioning. Your systems must be ready to support your people and processes. Thus, if your people are comfortable running your to-be processes with your new systems, you are ready to go live. The key is developing a framework that can objectively measure their comfort level.
Here are a few suggestions.
People do not get comfortable with something until they become familiar with it. It takes time to build comfort. Set goals at the beginning, then test what’s been done a few times. Once you see that it works, you will feel comfortable with it. In this sense, readiness is a process rather than a point in time. It involves multiple iterations. It requires clear goals at the beginning. It demands several trials.
In project management, this corresponds to Conference Room Pilots (CRPs) which are also referred to as go-live simulations. During CRPs, a business runs the to-be processes through the new system using test scenarios. The results are tracked. If the test passes, it is a vote of confidence. If it fails, there is more work to do. The more tests that pass, the closer you are to go live.
In a typical project, you can have three CRPs prior to go-live. With each CRP, more tests should pass. Your business gets comfortable. You build confidence in the solution. Still, there are a couple of things to watch out for.
Define your test scenarios upfront. The criteria for your go-live depends on it. Each process you push through comes with its variations. For example, an order-to-cash scenario may involve an EDI order versus an e-commerce order. There are also mission-critical elements in these variations. For instance, how you handle a short pick and a partial shipment. Having a comprehensive list of test scenarios upfront sets the bar for the go-live. Note that these scenarios should cover end-to-end processes, not a portion of them. An example would be an order to cash process that should include everything from order capture through fulfillment to payment.
Do not underestimate end-user training. Test scenarios can help you assess the process and system readiness, but they will only give you a partial view of your people's readiness. Make sure you have a game plan to train your end-users. You may utilize a tailored online training platform, such as www.itembyitem.co for Dynamics 365.
You may not get 100% coverage with your test scenarios or not all your users will pass. You need to define the level your business is comfortable with. Thus, having a good plan upfront is important. Spend the time to put together a comprehensive one. Drive consensus for what is acceptable for a successful go-live. If you do your homework, the go-live readiness will be an objective evaluation rather than an emotional roller coaster.
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My name is Cem and this has been another gem.
