Case study 02 · Cutover & production readiness
A go-live that had been rehearsed twice before it happened
Sixty dependent cutover steps across Basis, functional and integration teams — and a rollback procedure that had never actually been executed.
Anonymised — reconstructed from missions listed in my CV. No client document, figure or outcome is disclosed.
Business contextThe cutover was planned as a single overnight window with dependencies living in a spreadsheet maintained by three people. The rollback section of the plan had been copied from a previous programme.
Challenges
- Sequencing dependencies held in one person's head
- Rollback never tested end to end
- No objective readiness criteria before the window opened
- Hypercare staffed by guesswork
My responsibilitiesCutover planning and readiness: building the runbook, the rehearsal and the decision criteria.
MethodologyThe plan was rebuilt step by step with an owner, a check and a rollback point per step. Two full rehearsals were run, the second timed, and the readiness gate was defined before the rehearsals rather than after.
Deliverables
- Cutover runbook with rollback points per step
- Two timed rehearsal reports
- Readiness gate criteria
- Hypercare plan and entry checklist
Business valueThe second rehearsal exposed two ordering faults that would have cost hours in the real window. The go/no-go was taken on evidence, the rollback was never needed — and was executable if it had been.