Lesson 5 of 5
The go/no-go meeting
10 min
The go/no-go meeting turns all the readiness work into one decision. Done well, it is short, calm and boring: the criteria are known, the evidence has been reviewed, and the discussion focuses on the few items that are not green. Done badly, it is a long argument at midnight. This lesson shows how to run it and how to record and communicate the result.
Before the meeting
- Circulate the readiness scorecard 24 hours ahead: each criterion, its threshold, actual status and evidence link.
- Each process owner submits a written recommendation for their process: go, conditional go or no-go, with reasons.
- Risk acceptances and data acceptances are signed before the meeting, not during it.
- Agree who decides, who attends and who is consulted. Keep the decision group small.
Running the meeting
- Purpose and rulesDecision maker, criteria, and the three possible outcomes are restated
- Cutover statusLuis reports execution against plan and decision points
- Exceptions onlyWalk through criteria not met; process owners give their recommendation
- ConditionsFor each exception: accept, condition with owner and deadline, or no-go
- DecisionSteering committee decides; dissent is recorded
- CommunicateAgreed message to the business within the hour
Spend the meeting on exceptions. If 40 of 46 criteria are met, read them as a block and spend the time on the six that are not. For each, the owner states the gap, the impact, the proposed condition or workaround, and their recommendation.
Three outcomes
| Outcome | When | What is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Go | All criteria met, or misses formally accepted with no conditions needed | Decision, decision maker, date and time, scorecard version |
| Conditional go | Some criteria not met but covered by conditions with owners and deadlines | Each condition, owner, deadline, and what happens if it is missed |
| No-go | A criterion with high impact is not met and cannot be conditioned | Reasons, what must change, and the date of the next decision |
The decision record
| Field | Contoso example |
|---|---|
| Decision and time | Conditional go, Sunday 16:20 |
| Decision maker | Executive sponsor, on recommendation of the steering committee |
| Process recommendations | O2C: go (Dan, Maria). P2P: conditional go (bank interface). R2R: go |
| Conditions | Bank interface fixed and tested before Thursday payment run (owner: integration lead); manual bank upload as fallback (owner: AP lead) |
| Accepted risks | DEF-0412 (delivery note PO number, plant 1720) with workaround; credit review for customer group 03 |
| Data acceptance | Signed for all objects; payables difference for Lakeside Components explained (duplicate invoice in ECC, cleared before go-live) |
| Dissent | None recorded |
| Next review | Hypercare daily stand-up Monday 08:00; conditions reviewed Wednesday |
A go/no-go decision record.
Record dissent. If a process owner recommended no-go and was overruled, the record should say so, with the risk the steering committee accepted. That protects both the process owner and the organization: the decision was made knowingly, by the right people.
Keep the decision record with the program's sign-off pack, next to the UAT sign-offs, data acceptances and risk acceptances. Together they tell the story of how the go-live decision was made. Auditors, new process owners and the next upgrade team will all look for it, and the conditions in it are the starting agenda for the first hypercare reviews.
Communicating the outcome
Tell the business quickly and plainly what was decided, what it means for them on Monday, and what is different from normal. For a conditional go, name the workarounds people will use. For a no-go, say what happens to the legacy system (re-opened for business as usual), when the next attempt is planned and what triggered the decision. Avoid blame; a well-made no-go is a success of governance.
What would you do?
In the go/no-go meeting, Contoso's CFO says, "We've announced Monday to customers; let's just go." Dan's O2C recommendation is conditional go, with one condition: invoice output for Chicago must be fixed by Wednesday. What should Dan say?
- Circulate the scorecard and written process recommendations before the meeting; sign acceptances beforehand.
- Spend the meeting on exceptions; for each, accept, condition or no-go.
- Record the decision, decision maker, conditions with owners and deadlines, accepted risks and dissent.
- Communicate the outcome to the business quickly and plainly, including workarounds.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What should be circulated 24 hours before the go/no-go meeting?
2. How should the meeting spend most of its time?
3. Why record dissent in the decision record?
4. Which outcome fits misses covered by conditions with owners and deadlines?