What do you do before Go Live ?

[Ritz]

Just got a call from old college , he is working in a big auto domain
project , go live is schedule this week end.

He is nervous like anything , and surprise is it not his first project , but
there is something messy & new in overall architecture.

He was telling he check everything from his side 100 times and but still not
comfortable and want to know how to bring this anxiety down.

all now technical suggestions well come like Best tune to listen before Go
Live night etc.

My question to you guys , what do you love to do just before a GO-LIVE day?

Hope I will get many fantastic suggestions.

Thanks

Ritesh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I selectively use a Go-Live procedure known as Organizational **** Reverse Deflectology (OBRD). That sounds complicated but it is actually quite simple -> you inform everyone that you are going live but then you don't actually do or change anything for a few days or even few weeks.

The double sided sword of this is that organizational problems come running (sometimes with considerable tempo...) to blame you for breaking things which worked before. You have to wait for that wave to pass... The deflection (which also gives them something to do while wondering what the duck happened) is to send them on wild goose chase in the QA system (which is live...) to find the problem and then they do some of the testing which they prior claimed to have done but didn't.

When the background noise and adhoc screams stop, then you Go-Live.

Cheers,

Julius

[Ritz · Accepted solution]

are you serious?

Its a great idea , i wish one day I would be in position to execute it without getting fired

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

Sounds more complicated than the actual terminology

pk

[Ritz · Accepted solution]

Go-Live procedure known as Organizational **** Reverse Deflectology (OBRD).

is it patented/ copyright ?

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

You might want to replace your avatar with one of emperor palpatine from Star Wars or the Mule from Asimov's Foundation Trigoly or any other puppeteering evil mastermind.

That approach really is daring, but, just like Ritesh, I assume it could very quickly lead to 'occupational realignment'.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that you must be wearing Birkenstock shoes and let the basis jargon flow through you if any questions are asked... then you will come to understand...

Jokes aside: I have done this several times, it works like a charm and even has a go-live simulation mode as next step (7.21 kernels and higher). You can of course also do it selectively and focus only on known organizational problems, but "the whole organization" has a nicer ring to it. Closer to "all of you" which is one of my favourite expressions...

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member]

Hi Ritesh,

Excellent Question!!!!

My First Experience...  I had no Idea what the term even meant... I just had to turn up in office on a Sunday (Damn Frustrating) and sit there and hook myself up to my Computer. Thankfully, I had a friend to give me company.  We made sure there was enough coffee, Cold Drink and Chips on the table.

We patched our selves into the Concall and then started our party. We had the privilege of Ordering a Pizza and everything went so smoothly that we just enjoyed the pizza and of course the Day and left.

Thanks &  Regards,

Tejas Bisen

[Ritz]

Tejas Bisen,

Thanks for sharing your experience, you were lucky that it goes on just like that.

I have experienced many tough instances. The important thing is every project is unique and every time we deal with new set of problems and expects many new issue on the final go live day.

It keeps anxiety on

Thanks

Ritesh

[former_member184701]

turn off all phones and go fishing

[Ritz]

mr. PPIO wrote:

turn off all phones and go fishing

I wish i could turn off all Phones of project team

[Sandip_S]

Hi Ritesh,

I think this is really nice topic to discuss and the ideas which are flowing are really interesting. Some one is saying it backward forward approch and some one saying take it lightly..Fix it before it gone..otherwise production is gone..

Anyways first go live is always a memorable thing in life. Some 5-6 years back, it was a retail implementation and everything was set..All consultants eyes were painted with red color because of two sleepless nights of data migration..nearly more than 100K of articles...their prices..etc. etc..and its show time..Early in the morning at 4AM..picking of fruits and vegetables done..invoice done..truck is loaded...now want a beutifully crafted. smartform (Invoice) to be printed which was tested perfectly in quality system..hundreds of time..to get the 30 truck out of the building..and...no sound of print out from the printer..enbrassing..very embrassing....every minutes is counting..Fresh vegetables to be reached to market before 6 AM and still no print outs from SAP....Printer light is green..SAP is running..what the problem????...anyways the problem was very small, but the pressure of business on the first day of ribbon cutting was horrible..

So the openion is to cross your fingers and say "All is well"..

Thanks,

Sandip

[Ritz]

wow what a experience,

By the way i hope you put papers in printer before you start printing.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Regards

Ritesh

[Former Member]

i will sit with client and ask him to test all the scenarios once in qas and later move to PRD box and have one full bottle and njoy

[Ritz]

I suggest allow few sips from your bottle to client too

Cheers

Ritesh

[matt]

Over the years, I've developed a relaxed approach. If things need to be done, then do them. If things need fixing, fix them. Don't panic, don't rush, do what needs to be done, according to the correct priorities. If it all goes horribly wrong after go-live, it goes horribly wrong - just do whatever needs to be done to fix it.

Shouting and screaming and arm waving and venomous blame casting won't actually cause anything to get fixed more quickly.

So, nowadays, just before go-live I grab some popcorn and watch the entertainment as everyone else's stress levels climb.

[Former Member]

Matthew Billingham wrote:

Shouting and screaming and arm waving and venomous blame casting won't actually cause anything to get fixed more quickly.

That is beautiful Matt! We need more people like you on the planet and the "arm waving" clowns should not only be in a minority, they should also be licensed to be gaged via publicly available remote control units.

I had a big fiasco about an IDOC a while back which had been stuck in WE05 for a while and was then post processed with the next one which got stuck and then everyone wanted to know where the IDOC had originally came from to know who was to blame for a stupid IDOC which could be sent again anyway, and was.

Fixing the problem took 10 seconds.

Investigating the IDOC based on speculation and presentations needed to top management to solve the case of the mysterious IDOC must have cost them at least 10 man days afterwards.

But my point is that this was in a test system during testing (nothing to do with production) - hence OBRD for the production go live.

Just a little example - sometimes people are nervous. At other times they don't want to go live...

Cheers,

Julius

[Ritz]

Thanks Matthew,

 Shouting and screaming and arm waving and venomous blame casting won't actually cause anything to get fixed more quickly.

What a fact , every buddy know it , but why cant people remember it at the time of Go-Live?

I am thankful killing consultants on Go-Live failure is not legal in any part of world

So, nowadays, just before go-live I grab some popcorn and watch the entertainment as everyone else's stress levels climb. 

What an Idea, i wish i can add a Beer with popcorn.

[Lakshmipathi]

If you take any project that went Go-Live on SAP, you can challenge that there would have been en number of issues in the initial period (say one or two months) and we had to break our head.  It could be configurational / customization gap, user error etc..  It could also due to some objects not transported properly.  You can say the projects with less issues in the initial period would be a successful implementation.

Having said this, ask your friend to be cool (assuming that he has already collected all the required Business Process Documentation - BRD) and just revalidate the configuration / customization by creating some test scenarios especially for major process, if not all.

G. Lakshmipathi

[former_member184657]

Hi,

In the two Implementation projects that I worked in, the so-called ribbon-cutting moment at the Go-Live ceremonies was executing custom transactions developed by me! So needless to say, the nervous wreck that I am, I'm usually on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Luckily for me, both times it was a flawless execution.

But yeah, Go-Lives are usually the butterflies-in-the-stomach moment for me.

pk

[Lukas_Weigelt]

Some suggestions:

• bathe in the wisdom of "The Tao of Programming" (I'm a Developer) The Tao Of Programming
• best Tune to listen to: R.E.M.: "It's the end of the world as we know it"
• perform black magic to ward against evil spirits

On a more serious note: aside from good/detailed planning ahead as Navaneetha already elaborated on, analyze and emphasize all possible risks and things that might remotely go wrong and prepare solutions and or fallback scenarios for them. Up until now I've fortunately never been in a go-live or migration situation that held only a "one-way-ticket" without any possibilities for a fallback.

Cheers, Lukas

[former_member184657]

analyze and emphasize all possible risks and things that might remotely go wrong and prepare solutions and or fallback scenarios for them. 

Like, keeping a QA session open and slyly run the ribbon-cutting transaction there in case something goes wrong with the PRD transaction?

pk

[Ritz]

Some suggestions:


bathe in the wisdom of "The Tao of Programming" (I'm a Developer) The Tao Of Programming
best Tune to listen to: R.E.M.: "It's the end of the world as we know it"
perform black magic to ward against evil spirits

cant stop laughing lol

[Lukas_Weigelt]

kishan P wrote:


analyze and emphasize all possible risks and things that might remotely go wrong and prepare solutions and or fallback scenarios for them. 

Like, keeping a QA session open and slyly run the ribbon-cutting transaction there in case something goes wrong with the PRD transaction? 

pk

Is that how you backed up your flawless executions? ;-D

[former_member184657]

The idea was definitely on the cards but voted-out

pk

[Ritz]

Dear Gali Kling Schneider,  Krysten Gentile,

how much time it take to publish content which are Currently Being Moderated?

????

Thanks

Ritesh

[BenedictV]

Thanks Lukas. That book was a real good read.

Benedict

[former_member183879]

Hi Ritesh,

A very nice topic for discussion. The anxiety and restlessness of your buddy can be empathised only by those who have done atleast one implementation. And as I say, there is a lot we can do to keep last minute surprises at bay.

In the last 4 years, I am in the 4th implementation / Rollout and things are not different when it comes to basic rules.

1. Always keep a strong plan-upto the last WBS element possible. A plan to the details of the last micro activity also is needed. I dont think there is any compromise on this. If this is not done, the only compromise is only quality!

2. When it comes to Cut over, there is no other alternative to effusing confidence other than multiple rounds of Mock Cutover and Migration with the correct data content and tools.

3. Whenever I go for Migration, data accuracy and migration accuracy takes precedence to time and the effort consumed. If we lack accuracy, we may end of doing the same thing multiple times.

4. There are still many, but these things are the basic blocks on which the other activities should reside on

[Ritz]

Thanks Navaneetha for reply, I do recommend you to add what non project things you do to keep a Go Love thoughts away from after office hours life

Thanks

Ritesh