Since we last “spoke” those of us in Click Professional Services have participated in the successful upgrade of existing customer sites to Extranet 5.6, helped usher in brand new compliance sites, and kicked off several new projects. It’s only fair to mention that none of this would be possible without your significant efforts. Don’t be shy, you know who you are.
Let’s take the process of upgrading to Extranet 5.6, for example. While we can help with all the technical bits, and guide your effort an upgrade will never go smoothly without the diligence of your technical and business staff to regression test your site to verify that there are no upgrade surprises. From a calendar time perspective, this is the biggest part of any upgrade. This past weekend was the culmination of a well executed upgrade project for a IRB and CTRC site. Though I stayed within reach of my computer all weekend just in case I was needed, I only received a couple of calls and the upgrade completed without any serious complications. This is a testament to the work done by the site owner to properly test and prepare for the actual upgrade and proves that a well executed upgrade doesn’t need to be characterized by a plethora of crossed fingers. I’m not saying it can be completely stress free as there are always those little worries and time pressures but those who are well prepared can keep those worries from defining the effort. Congratulations on a well executed upgrade!
Also this past weekend, I supported the roll out of a brand new IACUC and IBC site. New site deployments are often tricky as the communication plan which includes all the pre-launch training, the “new site is on it’s way” announcements and all the promises up the management chain really increase the stress level. First impressions of a site are so critical to it’s near term success that not meeting the commitments made about the when’s and what’s negatively contribute to those first impressions. On the flip side, rolling out the site as promised , on time and with the advertised features is the first step in establishing the long term success of the site. No pressure, right? The number of variables involved in rolling out a site also contributes to the stress level. Did the legacy data load work? Were any of the steps missed? Can the users properly log in? I’m so tired, why didn’t I eat a good breakfast this morning? Did I forget to turn off the stove? OK – those last two may seem unrelated but once we start down the path of worrying about all that can go wrong, the lines seem to blur a bit – or is that just me?
Just like an upgrade, most sources of angst can be minimized through proper preparation, practice, and testing. This means that time is allocated in the schedule for a “let the dust settle” period between development/test and deployment. This period is used to do all the little things that are often forgotten such as triple check the things that caused you to loose sleep and to make sure you turned off the stove. Hopefully this will help you gain a small amount of calm confidence.
Even if you aren’t able to achieve the desired level of calm, don’t worry. Realize that your users are new to this site as well and you know more than they do about how to use it. Expect there to be new issues discovered after going live and expect there to be a series of configuration updates to be applied to incrementally correct and tune the site. The feedback you will get over the first few weeks (and beyond) is a great source of information and informs your release planning process. Constructive feedback is not only a sign that user’s are using the site but that they are also invested in it’s success. If you haven’t already put your SDLC into action, now is the time because you have actual users, live data, and a steady stream of future enhancements to push out the door. Accept the fact that a site is never done but by all means celebrate your achievement of going live! Now where’s the party?
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment