Putting together the go-live plan

Having a detailed plan put together, which can be used for multiple simulations prior to the go-live, is important. It gives you an opportunity to get the go-live plan validated and address any bugs/issues due to missed steps in the release plan. It also allows you to make changes to the plan, allows more time to review with multiple groups and identify the missing elements, and helps educate the team about dependencies and the big picture. The following are some guidelines for putting together your go-live plan:

• A smaller number of manual steps and more automation is ideal to ensure that you don't have too many steps to perform and track. As mentioned in Chapter 5, Data Migration – Scoping through Delivery, the validation of extraction, migration, and IT data should be automated as much as possible.
• Include a configuration checklist and any new configurations which need to be completed in the production environment prior to the go-live. Adopt...