Prompt questions for Go-Live readiness or BAU Handover
Defining readiness, either for a go-live launch of a new system or servive, or a handover to BAU, can be tricky. Most of us focus on the big bits and forget the details.
Below is a fairly comprehensive list of prompt questions I use to define how ready we are for either stage.
It’s not necessarily the ultimate and final list, but is a very good starting point to tease out not just ‘are we ready with the big stuff’ but ‘have we really done all the little jobs that mean we are ready-ready?’
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Early-Life Support
Is an Early Life Support team in place to provide increased cover in the first few weeks of operation?
How long will this team be in place?
How should they be contacted?
What has been agreed about how quickly early life incidents should be resolved?
Users and Roles
Have all users been identified and granted the appropriate access levels?
Are there any users who need temporary elevated access for the go-live period?
Are there any users who required elevated access during testing that should now be revoked?
Are there any roles that require adjustments or additional permissions for the go-live?
Are there any shared, anonymous or generic accounts that need to be deactivated or removed before the go-live?
Is multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled for all privileged accounts?
Are there any outstanding access requests that need to be addressed before the go-live?
Have all access logs been created?
Have audit trails been established to track user activities?
IT Service Management
Have Digital/ServiceDesk/IT staff been trained in how to administer the system?
Have Digital/ServiceDesk/IT staff been given access to any supplier portals?
Have Digital/ServiceDesk/IT staff been made ‘authorised contacts’ on the account?
Have all assets been asset tagged and added to the Asset Register?
Have all servers been added to the monitoring system?
Is the backup schedule in place and have the routines been proven?
Have alerts and monitoring been setup and tested?
Is the new Starter/Leaver Process affected by this system? Has it been updated?
Have all BAU Processes related with this system/project been documented?
how to create a new user account
how to reset a password
how to deactivate an account
how to assign roles and permissions
how to amend a role profile
how to review access logs
how to resolve common Issues
how to use diagnostic tools
how to log a support call
how to escalate issues
how to perform system updates
how to handle data breaches
how to communicate updates
how to purchase consumables
IT Incident Management
Is there a planned maintenance window (daily, weekly, monthly, annual)?
Has the internal helpdesk been updated (with new forms or drop-downs etc.)?
Have internal staff been given access, URLs or logins for external helpdesk portals?
Have we whitelisted any external portals for access from our network?
Have we documented official Support Hours for this new system/service?
Have we documented SLA timescales for different incident types?
Has the escalation path been documented?
Do the appropriate third parties have access to the systems for remote support?
Non-Production Environments
Will a test or training environment remain after the project is complete?
Are all non-production environments (e.g., staging, testing, training) fully set up and configured?
Have the environments been updated to reflect the latest version? How often will these environments be updated to reflect Production?
Is the test data in non-production environments anonymized and representative of real-world scenarios?
Have training datasets been prepared?
Who will retain access to the test or training environment?
Are the non-production environments integrations with other systems? (i.e. email, SMS, CRM, MID etc.)
Is there a process in place for collecting and addressing feedback from testers and trainers?
IT Policies & Procedures Documentation
Has the Disaster Recovery Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Acceptable Use Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Data Security Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Password Management Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Incident Response Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Change Management Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Asset Management Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
Has the Privileged Access Policy been updated to reflect the new system/service?
IT Technical Documentation
Has the Server architecture document been updated?
Has the network design & configuration document been updated?
Has the Server Configuration and Policies been updated?
Training
Have any business processes been affected by this delivery and have they been updated to reflect any changes?
Have Operational staff received training on the new system, service or processes?
Have QC and Audits staff received training on the new processes?
Have Complaints staff received training on the new system, service or processes?
Have
End-User Documentation
Do we have an end-user guide for the system/device? Where is this stored or published?
Do we have a user guide for the Administrators?
Contract & Account Details
Have we documented Account number and Account Manager details?
Has the contract and Ts & Cs been moved from the project folder to the BAU folders?
Have we added the contract dates and termination notification reminders into the contracts/procurement calendar or system?
Finance
Has the supplier been advised to send and chase invoices to the correct Finance team email?
Has the Budget Holder been advised of on-going costs for renewable licences, support & maintenance charges and consumables?
Have any ongoing costs been included on the Budget?