The Final Decision
The decision making framework developed and approved during the implementation planning stage will be particularly useful at the time the decision is made whether or not to go live with the new system.
It is advised that one person, probably the System Owner, should be made ultimately responsible for that decision, and he/she should judge whether the system is ready to go into main production following due consultation with all key project personnel and review of system testing documentation and reports.
Testing, training and performance tuning are obvious areas where, with additional time, more could always be achieved to make 'go live' that much smoother. However, no matter how much testing is performed, some software bugs will remain in a large system even at the point of go live. The only true test comes when hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of users begin using the system in production mode. However, a 'cut off' point must be established that recognises when enough has been accomplished to make the final decision.
The same holds true for training and tuning and there is no such thing as too much of either. Without entirely credible Capacity, Performance and Volume Testing in the real live environment under normal day-to-day circumstances, there will inevitably be a risk that the new system might under-perform. A thorough testing regime will minimise the likelihood of poor performance and ensure that no significant performance issues remain to be resolved at the time the go live decision is made.
Depending on the size of the system and/or the implementation, it is critical that an appropriate cross-section of those staff who have been involved in the implementation are on hand during these early production runs to investigate possible solutions to remedy any under-performance. Unfortunately the hard work is unlikely to end with the go live date! It is therefore worthwhile ensuring that you have adequate resource following the go-live date (say for a period of two or three weeks) to crisis manage according to your plans. After this the implementation team can hopefully take a well-earned break, although in many cases these may be the same staff who transfer to production system support.
