7 Steps to Quality Go-Live

Launching a software project is a significant milestone, often marking the culmination of months, if not years, of hard work. However, ensuring a successful go-live requires careful planning and consideration of several critical factors. Here are seven essential steps you need to consider before going live with your software project. In fact, ideally, you want to be considering these things from the planning stage so they are built into the plan from day one, leaving no nasty surprises later in the SDLC.

1. Functional

The first step is to ensure that your software is functionally complete. This means that all features and functionalities specified in the requirements are implemented and working as intended. Comprehensive testing, including unit tests, integration tests, and user acceptance testing (UAT), is crucial to validate that the software meets the needs of its users. Engaging stakeholders in UAT can help identify any functional gaps that might have been overlooked during the development process.

Key Actions:

Including quality professionals as early as possible, to challenge requirements and plan in testability from inception.

Test early and often (shift left and right), conducting thorough testing at multiple levels.

Engage stakeholders throughout the project, not just for user acceptance testing.

Verify that all features meet the specified requirements.

2. Performant

Performance is a key determinant of user satisfaction. Your software should be able to handle the expected load without degrading in performance. Performance testing, including load testing and stress testing, helps identify bottlenecks and areas that need optimisation. Ensure your application performs well under peak load conditions and scales efficiently.

Key Actions:

Ensure quality professionals are consulted from inception to lock down non-functional requirements and how they will be proven.

Conduct load testing and stress testing.

Optimise performance bottlenecks.

Ensure scalability for future growth.

3. Secure

Security is paramount in today’s digital landscape. Ensuring your software is secure involves conducting thorough security testing, including vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. Implementing security best practices, such as data encryption, secure coding practices, and regular security audits, is essential to protect your software from threats and breaches.

Key Actions:

Get cyber experts involved early so that your new solution is secure by design.

Conduct vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.

Implement encryption and secure coding practices.

Perform regular security audits.

4. Ops Ready

Operational readiness ensures that your software can be managed and maintained effectively once it’s live. This includes having a robust monitoring and logging framework in place to track the application's health and performance. Additionally, establish incident response procedures and ensure your team is trained to handle potential issues that may arise post-launch.

Key Actions:

Engage the ops teams as early as possible, they need to be bought in to the change and ready to accept and run the new solution long term.

Implement monitoring and logging solutions.

Establish incident response procedures.

Train the operations team for post-launch support.

5. Business Ready

Your software should align with business objectives and be ready to deliver value from day one. This involves ensuring that all business processes and workflows are in place and that users are trained to use the new system. Additionally, having a clear communication plan to inform stakeholders and users about the go-live is essential for a smooth transition.

Key Actions:

Align software features with business objectives by engaging with the business early, after all, if the solution doesn’t meet the business objectives, why is it being implemented?

Train users and stakeholders to support user acceptance testing and their own day to day use of the solution long term.

Develop a clear communication plan throughout the programme and critically, for go-live.

6. Cutover Plan

A detailed cutover plan outlines the steps needed to transition from the old system to the new one. This includes planning for downtime, data migration, and rollback procedures in case something goes wrong. A well-defined cutover plan ensures minimal disruption to business operations during the transition period.

Key Actions:

Develop and rigorously test detailed cutover plan.

Plan for downtime and rollback procedures.

Coordinate with all relevant teams for a smooth transition.

7. Data Migration

Migrating data from the old system to the new one is a critical step that requires careful planning and execution. Data migration involves extracting, transforming, and loading data into the new system while ensuring data integrity and consistency. Thorough testing of the migration process is essential to avoid data loss or corruption.

Key Actions:

Plan and execute data extraction, transformation, and loading.

Ensure data integrity and consistency.

Test the migration process thoroughly before go-live.

Going live with a software project is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. By following these seven steps—ensuring your software is functional, performant, secure, ops ready, business ready, having a solid cutover plan, and executing a flawless data migration—you can significantly increase the chances of a successful launch. Remember, meticulous preparation, building quality in from the start and thorough testing throughout are key to achieving a quality go-live that meets user expectations and business goals.

If you’d like to have a chat about how Roq’s Quality Engineering services could save your business valuable time and money, reach out to a member of the team.