IT Management Reference Guide

No matter how well we design and test an application, the first—and often lasting—impressions that users form about that application come from how successfully we deploy it into production. Developers and operations personnel sometimes let unnecessary obstacles divert their focus from the goal of a successful deployment. This section begins with a definition, from a management perspective, of the process of production acceptance. It then describes many of the benefits such a process provides to a variety of groups both inside and outside IT. Next I describe each of the 14 steps required to design and implement an effective production acceptance process. The section concludes with a guideline on the use of this process concerning new applications versus new versions of existing applications.

Definition of Production Acceptance

The primary objective of systems management is to provide a consistently stable and responsive operating environment. A secondary goal is to ensure that the production systems themselves run in a stable and responsive manner. The function of systems management that addresses this challenge is production acceptance—a methodology to consistently and successfully deploy application systems into a production environment regardless of platform.

Several key words are worth noting. While the methodology is consistent, it's not necessarily identical across all platforms. There are essential steps of the process for every production deployment, and then there are other steps that can be added, omitted, or modified depending on the type of platform selected for production use.

Deploying into a production environment implies that the process is not complete until all users are fully up and running on the new system. For large applications, this could involve thousands of users phased in over several months. The term application system refers to any group of software programs necessary for conducting a company's business, the end users of which are primarily (but not necessarily) in departments outside IT. This rule excludes software still in development, as well as software used as tools for IT support groups.

Benefits of a Production Acceptance Process

An effective production deployment process offers several advantages to a variety of user groups. The following table lists the beneficiaries of production acceptance and the specific benefits they acquire.

Beneficiaries and Benefits of Production Acceptance

Steps To Implementing a Production Acceptance Process

The following 14 steps describe how to implement a world-class production acceptance process. These steps are based on actual industry experience and entail many of the best practices associated with this type of process. This procedure is applicable to IT organizations of various sizes, scopes, and platforms.

1. Identify an executive sponsor. Production acceptance is one of a handful of systems management processes that directly involve departments outside the infrastructure group. In this case, the applications development area plays a key role in making this process effective. An executive sponsor is necessary to ensure ongoing support and cooperation between these two departments. Depending on the size and scope of the IT organization, the sponsor could be the CIO, the head of the infrastructure group, or some other executive in the infrastructure.

We should note that an application manager could be an excellent sponsor, provided that the head of the infrastructure agrees with the selection. In this case, executives from both the applications and infrastructure departments should concur on the choice of process owner, who needs to be from the infrastructure group.

In general, the higher the level of executive sponsor, the better. Senior executives have less available time than managers at lower levels, so you should plan support sessions well to ensure that they are straightforward and to the point.

The executive sponsor must be a champion of the process, particularly if the shop has gone many years with no structured turnover procedure in place. He or she needs to persuade other executives both inside and outside IT to follow the lead. This individual is responsible for providing executive leadership, direction, and support for the process. The executive sponsor is also responsible for selecting the process owner, for addressing conflicts that the process owner cannot resolve, and for providing marketing assistance.

2. Select a process owner. One of the first responsibilities of the executive sponsor is to select the production acceptance process owner. The process owner should be a member of the infrastructure organization, because most of the ongoing activities of operating and supporting a new production application fall within this group. This person will be interacting frequently with programmers who developed and will be maintaining the system.

This continual interaction with applications makes a working knowledge of application systems an important prerequisite for the process owner. Being able to evaluate applications documentation and to communicate effectively with program developers are two additional characteristics highly recommended in a process owner. These attributes and priorities may vary from shop to shop, but should emphasize the importance of predetermining the traits that will suit your organization best.

3. Solicit executive support. Production acceptance requires much cooperation and support between the applications development and infrastructure departments. The executive sponsor should solicit executive support from both of these departments to ensure that senior levels of management support and push down policies, and that decisions about the design of the process are backed up and pushed down from higher levels of management.

4. Assemble a production acceptance team. The process owner should assemble a cross-functional team to assist in developing and implementing a production acceptance process. The team should consist of key representatives from the development organization as well as those from operations, technical support, capacity planning, the help desk, and database administration. In cases where the development group is larger than a few hundred programmers, multiple development representatives should participate.

It's important that the cross-functional team represent all key areas within development to ensure support and buy-in for the process. Appropriate development representatives also ensure that the team identifies potential obstacles to success and resolve them to everyone's satisfaction. An effective executive sponsor and the soliciting of executive support (steps 1 and 3) can help to ensure proper representation.

At one company where I managed a large infrastructure group, there were more than 400 programmers in the development department, grouped into the areas of finance, engineering, manufacturing, and logistics. A representative from each of these areas participated in the development of a production acceptance procedure; each brought unique perspectives, and together they helped to ensure a successful result to the process.

5. Identify and prioritize requirements. Early in my career, I participated on a number of production acceptance teams that fell short in providing an effective production turnover process. In looking for common causes for these failed attempts, I noticed that in almost every case there were no agreed-upon requirements at the start; when requirements did exist, their originators seldom bothered to prioritize them. Later on, as I led my own production acceptance design teams, I realized that having all participants agree on and prioritize their requirements added greatly to the success of the teams.

6. Develop policy statements. The cross-functional team should develop policy statements for a production acceptance process that the executive sponsor supports and approves. This will help to ensure that compliance, enforcement, and accountability will be issues that senior management supports and communicates to the applicable levels of staffs.

7. Nominate a pilot system. When a cross-functional team designs and implements a production acceptance process, particularly in environments that have never had one, there is normally a major change in the deployment of application systems. Therefore, it's usually more effective to introduce this new method of production turnover on a smaller scale with a minimal-impact pilot system. If a small system is not available as a pilot, consider putting only an initial portion of a major system through the new process.

8. Design appropriate forms. During the requirements step, the cross-functional team will normally discuss the quantity, types, and characteristics of forms to be used with a production acceptance process. Some shops elect to combine some or all of these forms, depending on their complexity. The team proposes, designs, and finalizes the forms. Specific requirements of the forms vary from shop to shop, but the forms should always be simple, thorough, understandable, and accessible. Many shops today keep forms like these online via their company intranet for ease of use and access. The following figures show an example of a three-page form used by two of my clients after implementing a production acceptance process. The form outlines actions required during stages leading up to the deployment process.

Figure 2a Figure 2b Figure 2c

9. Document the procedures. The documentation of any systems management process is important, but it's especially so in the case of production acceptance because a large number of developers will be using it. The documentation for these procedures must be effective and accessible.

10. Execute the pilot system. After the process design team identifies the pilot, designs the forms, and puts appropriate procedures in place, it's time to execute the pilot system. User testing and acceptance plays a major role in this step, as does the involvement of support groups such as technical support, systems administration, and the help desk.

11. Conduct a "lessons learned" session. In this step, the process owner conducts a thorough, candid "lessons learned" session with key participants involved in executing the pilot system. Participants should include representatives from the user community, development area, support staff, and help desk.

12. Revise policies, procedures, and forms. The recommendations resulting from the "lessons learned" session may include revisions to policies, procedures, forms, test plans, and training techniques for users and support staff. The entire cross-functional team should agree to these revisions and implement them prior to full deployment.

13. Formulate a marketing strategy. Regardless of how thoroughly and effectively a cross-functional team designs a production acceptance process, it does little good if development groups don't support and apply the process. Once the final policies, procedures, and forms are in place, the process owner and design team should formulate and implement a marketing strategy. The marketing plan should include the benefits of using the process; the active support of the executive sponsor and peers; examples of any quick wins as evidenced by the pilot system; and testimonials from users, help desk personnel, and support staff.

14. Follow up for ongoing enforcement and improvements. Improvement processes such as production acceptance often enjoy much initial support and enthusiasm, but that enjoyment is sometimes short-lived. Changing priorities, conflicting schedules, budget constraints, turnover of staff or management, lack of adequate resources, and a general reluctance to adopt radically new procedures all contribute to the de-emphasis and avoidance of novel processes. One of the best ways to ensure ongoing support and consistent use is to follow up with reviews, postmortems, and "lessons learned," to constantly improve the overall quality, enforcement, and effectiveness of the process.