Readiness Assessments

Author: Neville Turbit

Overview

Deciding if you are ready to start a project, or ready to go live is often a matter of juggling dozens of criteria in your head. Is this done? Is that complete? It is better to have a list of criteria to check off so that you know what you are trying to achieve, and can work towards that goal.

Start a Project Readiness Assessment

There is usually a period of ‘getting organised’ before a project begins. Here are some points you may want to add to your “Start a Project Readiness Checklist”.

Project Charter complete and approved
Project Management Plan complete and approved
Project Schedule complete and approved
Resources assigned and ready to start
All roles have been assigned and accepted
Assigned resources are able to make decisions on behalf of the business
Backfill for assigned resources is in place
All team training is complete
Support teams (data conversion, Process Engineering, etc.) ready to support the project
Facilities in place for the team
Security, log ins, system access is in place
Kick off meeting scheduled
There are no key differences between any key stakeholders
A budget is approved
Tools to manage risks, issues, actions, changes are in place
No significant issues which could effect the future of the project are outstanding

Go Live Readiness Assessment

The following criteria apply to an IT systems implementation. You can develop your own list to suit your industry.

Criteria

The following should all be complete

Testing

User Acceptance Tests results signed off.
There is no outstanding testing
The full test plan was completed
All the open defects have been closed
Performance testing has been completed successfully
Interfaces to other systems have been tested successfully
Data conversion was tested and accepted by users

Infrastructure

Servers configured and deployed
Network is complete and tested
Desktop PCs configured and tested
Security profiles implemented
Printers installed and tested
Remote access tested (if required)
Power sources set up and tested (power points, UPS)
Backup and restore policy created and tested

Business Processes

Business processes have been reviewed
New processes are in place
Revised forms and templates available

Stakeholders & Communication

Stakeholders made aware of the implementation (Vendors, Customers)
Support in place for stakeholders that may be implemented

Data Quality

Data is of an agreed quality (may require separate list of criteria)
Data testing is complete
Any conversion data tasks have been completed
Data has been validated at conversion
Open data items are being managed

Applications Management

All the document deliverables (e.g. Operations documents, User documents) been put under suitable Configuration Management
The project team have made necessary arrangements to ensure that the document being released is the latest version
All the source code elements are under Configuration Management
The project team have made necessary arrangements to make sure that the version of source code element being released is the latest version
The traceability to changed requirements has been established in all work products such as design, code, unit tests, system tests, acceptance tests, etc
There is a list of items to be released
The list mentions file location and version number to be released

Contingency Planning

The corporate DR plan has been updated
There is a rollback plan in place
There are checkpoints for implementation of the plan
Someone is authorised to call for a rollback

Training and Support

All training is complete
User support materials are available
Support services are trained
Everyone is briefed on how to handle problems
Resources are available to fix problems

Benefits

The measurable benefits have been identified
We can measure benefits
We have benchmark measures for benefit realisation
Someone is responsible for measuring benefits

Summary

This list is only a starting point. Every organisation and every project will have unique requirements. Each project should contribute new items to the list and make it impossible for future projects to say “We didn’t think of that.”