Implementation

• Configuration and Customisation Report
• Business Process Report
• Implementation Plan

1. Create a list of items that need to be completed prior to handover.
2. Hold a discussion with the production support team.
3. Agree the list.

• Handover plan

There may be a number of parties involved in managing the ongoing system. For convenience we have referred to them as "Production Support" but they may include support for infrastructure, applications and application maintenance, system security, contract management, training, business processes and service desk.

Preparing for handover will entail the following act ivies:

• Ensuring the system is stable
• Producing support documentation
• Training production staff if necessary
• Assigning all system management functionality to production including logons and passwords

The extent of work involved here will be dependant on the involvement of production support staff in the project. For a smaller organisation, or a simple implementation, Production Support may be involved from day one and there will be no handover. For larger organisations, or larger projects, the team may do the implementation and handover to production some time after go live.

A key thing in any project is to ensure that the necessary level of handover takes place. This included completing all of the above points before the Project Team disbands. It is not unknown for teams to disband only for Production Support to not have access to critical functions as they don't have security clearance or know the logon or password. In many cases, if something later goes wrong, there is no documentation that can be used to understand what is happening, or why something was set up in a certain way.

Start by the Project Team creating a list, then discuss with Production Support management and get agreement as to what needs to be in place for Production Support to begin. This may spin off a number of activities that need to be started prior to implementation, or at worst after implementation.

A first draft of the Handover Plan should be produced. It will be incomplete as some aspects such as issues outstanding will not be known. It will be completed during the Handover Phase.