Cutover Management : Planning and Orchestration

[Swastik]

      CUTOVER: HIGH-LEVEL PLANNING

• Cutover planning begins with the identification of Key stakeholders who will be actively or passively participating in the Cutover Process
• Identify the scope of Data Migration Objects; both Master Data and Transactional Data
• Identify the System Integration Channels and Third-Party Applications which will be impacted during Cutover Process
• Check the System availability considering Monthly / Weekly / Daily downtime of all connected Systems.
• Check the availability of resources considering Working hours, Time Zone and Holiday Calendar.
• Identify any business specific or application specific requirement for migrating Transactional data. Example : some transactions must be in a particular status to be migrated.
• Identify the requirement of archiving / purging old data in in Legacy System along with System de-commissioning as part Cutover Process.

  CUTOVER  : HIGH-LEVEL PLANNING : ARTIFACTS

  Following artifacts are produced as the output of High-Level Cutover Planning :

  High Level Cutover Plan : Prepare a high-level cutover plan which will depict a flow-chart of major activities and their time of execution during Project Cutover. Example of some of the major activities are :

  • Technical Cutover (Moving the Development and Configuration Objects to Production System)
  • Master Data Migration
  • Transactional Data Migration of individual Objects
  • System Ramp-Down and Ramp Up activities

  Business Milestone Calendar : Prepare a Business Milestone Calendar which will provide a clear guide-line to Business explaining when certain Business process must be stopped in the Legacy System, and when they can be re-started in the new System.

  Who-When-Where Plan : Prepare the detail plan of the resources needed, at what time and in which location (Office / Online / Stand-By) during the cutover.

  CUTOVER: PREPARE TASK LIST

  Once the High-Level Cutover Plan is aligned and approved by the required stakeholders, break-down the activities from High Level Cutover Plan to prepare a detail Cutover Tasks List.
  Cutover Task List should include the following details :

  • Task Description
  • Task Owner
  • Person Responsible
  • Start time and End Time of the Task
  • Task status.

  CUTOVER REHEARSAL: TESTING THE CUTOVER PLAN

  • Like any Products or Services, Cutover Plan must be tested before the actual implementation
    Cutover Plan is tested in UAT (User Acceptance Test) System as part of Cutover Rehearsal.
  • Usually, all the data migration objects, which are in the scope of Cutover Migration are included in Cutover Rehearsal.
  • Entire flow of Cutover activities and their corresponding task are executed in the Test System
  • Capture the issue identified during Rehearsal through defects and ensure they do not occur during actual cutover.
  • Monitor the execution time of each steps, compare that with Cutover Plan, and modify and refine the cutover plan if needed.

  PRODUCTION CUTOVER : PROJECT GO-LIVE

  Production Cutover kicks-off after the formal approval from Steering Committee. Usual pre-requisites are :

  • Successful completion of UAT
  • Successful completion of Cutover Rehearsal, and all Rehearsal Defects are closed
  • Completion of Application Readiness Tasks in Production
  • Completion of Master Data Migration and Validation
  • All logistics and resources are secured based on the Who-When-Where Plan

  During the Production Cutover, the Cutover Tasks are executed as per the Cutover Task List, which includes, System Ramp Down, Migration of Transactional Data, Validation of Transaction Data, System Ramp Up etc.
  Ensure no parallel transaction execution during or post cutover
  After completion of each major check points, Cutover Status Report is shared with all the Stakeholder.
  Post Go-Live Hypercare Support kicks-off and smooth transition to Hypercare Management must be ensured.