- 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
Distinguishing New Applications from New Versions of Existing Applications
Users of a new process understandably will have questions about when and how to apply it. One of the most frequent questions I hear asked about production acceptance is: Should it be used only for new applications, or is it for new versions of existing applications as well? The answer lies in the overall objective of the process, which is to consistently and successfully deploy application systems into production.
A new version of an existing application often has major changes that impact customers and infrastructure groups alike. In this case, deploying it into production is very similar to deploying a new application. Test plans should be developed, customer acceptance pilots should be formulated, and capacity requirements should be identified well in advance. The guideline for deciding when to use production acceptance is this: Determine how different the new version of the system is from its predecessor. If users, support staff, and service desk personnel are likely to experience even moderate impact from a new version of an existing application, then the production acceptance process should be used.