- Introduction
- Definition of Production Acceptance
- The Benefits of a Production Acceptance Process
- Implementing a Production Acceptance Process
- Full Deployment of a New Application
- Distinguishing New Applications from New Versions of Existing Applications
- Distinguishing Production Acceptance from Change Management
- Case Study: Assessing the Production Acceptance Process at Seven Diverse Companies
- Summary
- Test Your Understanding
- Suggested Further Readings
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The Benefits of a Production Acceptance Process
An effective production deployment process offers several advantages to a variety of user groups. These beneficiaries include the applications department, executive management, various groups within the IT infrastructure, customers, and suppliers (see Table 9-1).
Table 9-1. Beneficiaries and Benefits of Production Acceptance
|
Beneficiary |
Benefits |
|
Applications |
1. Ensures that adequate network and system capacity is available for both development and production |
|
2. Identifies desktop upgrade requirements in advance to ensure sufficient budget, resources, and time frame |
|
|
3. Specifies detailed hardware and software configurations of both the development and production servers to ensure identical environments are used for testing and deployment |
|
|
4. Ensures infrastructure support groups (systems, networks, solution center) are trained on supporting the application weeks prior to cutover |
|
|
Executive Management |
1. Quantifies total ongoing support costs prior to project start-up |
|
2. Reduces overtime costs by identifying upgrade requirements early on |
|
|
3. Increases the likelihood of deploying production systems on schedule by ensuring thorough and timely testing |
|
|
Infrastructure |
1. Identifies initial system and network requirements early on |
|
2. Identifies future infrastructure requirements enabling more cost-effective capacity planning |
|
|
3. Identifies ongoing support requirements early on |
|
|
Customers |
1. Involves customers early in the planning phase |
|
2. Ensures customer equipment upgrades are identified early and scheduled with customer involvement |
|
|
3. Ensures satisfactory user testing |
|
|
Suppliers |
1. Involves key suppliers in the success of the project |
|
2. Identifies and partners key suppliers with each other and with support groups |
|
|
3. Provides suppliers with opportunities to suggest improvements for deployment |