Cutover planning is critical for successful transition to BAU. In this course you will learn how to plan and manage successful cutovers.

The course modules are outlined below.

Course Outline

Module One: Overview and principles

• What is project cutover?
• What is cutover best practice?
• Agree on the cutover strategy early in the project lifecycle.

Module Two: Why should you do a cutover dress rehearsal instead of a paper-based exercise?

• Limitations of paper-based cutover exercises.

Module Three: Objectives of cutover dress rehearsals

• Verify all aspects of the cutover, including runbook timings, data loads and the security configuration.
• Drive out any dependencies not uncovered during preparation of the cutover runbook.

Module Four: Benefits of cutover dress rehearsals

• Lower level of cutover risk.
• Higher level of assurance that the cutover will be completed within the time constraints. 
• Greater confidence and less stress leading up to the cutover.

Module Five: Cutover prerequisites and dependencies

• Typical cutover prerequisites.
• Items that may have long lead times and require careful management.

Module Six: Considerations when you are preparing the cutover plan

• Will the cutover be phased, or will all aspects of the project be delivered (and go live) at once?
• Does the organisation have a hard deadline that cannot be moved?
• Therefore, is an MVP approach being considered?
• What are the key features that must be delivered?
• What are the critical success factors?
• Are there resource constraints at different times of the year that would prevent cutover?
• The importance of planning in 15-minute increments and including checkpoints. 
• Including third parties in planning (for information or actions.)

Module Seven: Cutover impact on operations

• What are the key dates that must be avoided? (Due to pressure from BAU operations, year-end, etc.) 

Module Eight: Key dates and freeze points

• Planning and managing the impact of stopping existing systems.

Module Nine: Quality assurance

• The importance of data assurance steps in the cutover plan.
• The criticality of data accuracy before cutover. Data is the lifeblood of an organisation, and high-quality data is critical for cutover and BAU.
• Cutover runbook peer review and quality assurance.

Module Ten: Risk management

• The importance of a formal approach to cutover risk management.
• You are working in a live environment during the cutover, and you will need to include appropriate risk management steps in the runbook. 
• Pragmatic risk management leading up to and during cutover.

Module Eleven: Stakeholder engagement and communications

• Consult with all stakeholders to ensure that everyone understands roles, responsibilities, steps, communication, approvals over the cutover period, final approval to go live and escalation procedures in case there are issues during the cutover.

Module Twelve: Managing the cutover

• Using the runbook to manage the cutover.
• Escalation procedures.
• Importance of contingency resources.
• Communication during cutover. 

Module Thirteen: BAU support after the cutover

• Review meetings
• Analysis of issues and actions.
• Importance of superusers.
• Communication.