Lesson 5 of 5
Go-live decision
11 min
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The go-live decision is the moment the integrated plan pays off. If gates were real, evidence is already in packs, and the decision is a review of facts. If they were not, the steering committee meets to discover the program's state, and the decision becomes a negotiation. Leading it well means designing the decision as carefully as the cutover itself: who decides, on what criteria, with what evidence, at which moments, and what happens if the answer is no.
Two decisions, not one
There are two different questions. The readiness decision, about a week before the weekend, asks whether the program is ready to start the cutover: G5 passed, business ready, people and communications in place. The go/no-go decisions on the weekend ask whether this conversion, on this weekend, met its criteria: at Contoso, go/no-go 1 on Saturday 18:00 and go/no-go 2 on Sunday 14:00, before the point of no return on Monday 06:00.
- About three weeks beforeDress rehearsal and G5Runbook proven and frozen; gate pack prepared
- About a week beforeReadiness decisionSteering committee confirms the program is ready to start the cutover
- Friday afternoonStart decisionPreconditions met; window starts 18:00
- Saturday 18:00 and Sunday 14:00Go/no-go 1 and 2Mid-SUM technical checkpoint; then finance sign-off and smoke tests before business validation
- After go-liveHypercare exitStability criteria met; handover to run; Wave 2 can start
The weekend clock
| Decision point | Criteria | If the answer is no |
|---|---|---|
| Go/no-go 1, Saturday 18:00 | SUM on plan against Mock 2 timings; no blocking errors (a mid-SUM checkpoint, not “conversion complete”) | Abort while it is cheap: EP1 is still intact; restart ECC and reschedule |
| Go/no-go 2, Sunday 14:00 | Post-processing done; finance reconciliations signed by Dan; core smoke tests passed | Start the fallback, at the latest Sunday 18:00 |
| Latest fallback start, Sunday 18:00 | Monday 06:00 minus the 9-hour fallback measured in Mock 2, minus a 3-hour margin | After this, fallback can no longer finish before the business opens |
| Point of no return, Monday 06:00 | Business validation and ramp-up complete | Issues are handled in hypercare, not by fallback |
Contoso’s weekend decision criteria. Each decision has a yes path and a pre-agreed no path.
Prepare the messages before the weekend: a “go” note for the business on Monday morning, a “delay” note for a go/no-go 1 abort, and a “fallback” note telling users that ECC is back and which transactions to re-enter. Pre-written messages turn a stressful decision into a click and stop improvised wording from reaching customers and suppliers.
Decision rights
| Decision | Decides | Recommends | Confirms their area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Readiness decision | Steering committee (business sponsor chairs) | Grace with the workstream leads | Dan, Maria, Priya, Luis, Sam, Kenji |
| Start decision | Grace's decision group | Luis | Sam, Priya |
| Go/no-go 1 and 2 | Grace's decision group | Luis | Dan (finance), Maria (order to cash), Priya (testing), Sam (technical) |
| Fallback | Grace's decision group, sponsor informed | Luis and Sam | All process owners |
Contoso's decision rights. Agree them in writing before the dress rehearsal.
The readiness evidence pack
- Gates: G1 to G5 decisions, with every carried condition closed or explicitly accepted.
- Testing: regression, integration and user acceptance results, open defects against thresholds, each open high defect with a workaround; Priya's signed test summary.
- Finance: reconciliations at zero in Mock 2 and the dress rehearsal; a period-end close passed on converted data; Dan's acceptance.
- Cutover: dress rehearsal timeline with contingency, measured fallback, frozen runbook, go/no-go criteria.
- Business readiness: training completion for affected roles, business contingency plans, communications approved.
- Support: hypercare staffing, known-issue list with workarounds, SAP and partner support arrangements for the weekend.
Facilitating the decision
The program lead's role in the meeting is to make the evidence visible and the options clear, not to sell a go. Present criteria and status in the same order as the gate pack. Name the open risks and their containment. Ask each owner to confirm their area in their own words. Offer the real options (go, go with conditions, delay to a named date) with their consequences. Then record the decision and its conditions.
- Is every readiness criterion met or accepted as a condition?Yes → next question · No → delay to a named date with a plan to close the gaps
- Are all conditions owned, dated and contained by workarounds?Yes → next question · No → treat as unmet; delay
- Have the owners confirmed their areas?Yes → go, recorded with conditions · No → resolve the objection before deciding
What would you do?
At the readiness decision, all evidence is green except one item: user acceptance of the new credit management process passed, but the credit team's training completion is 60% because of vacation. The sponsor asks Grace for a recommendation. What should she recommend?
Deciding when hypercare ends
The last decision in the sequence is hypercare exit, and it deserves the same discipline. Contoso agrees its criteria at the readiness decision so nobody argues them later: the first month-end close passed and compared with the rehearsal close; no open critical incidents and high incidents within an agreed count, each with a workaround; incident arrival below closure for two consecutive weeks; interfaces on PO running without manual restarts; and support handed over to the run organization with SAP Cloud ALM monitoring in place. Grace's decision group takes the exit decision on evidence, and only then can Wave 2 mock loads for company code 1910 start.
- Separate the readiness decision from the weekend go/no-go decisions.
- Agree decision rights in writing before the dress rehearsal.
- Bring an evidence pack: gates, testing, finance, cutover, business readiness, support.
- Facilitate with evidence and real options; record decisions and conditions.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What does the readiness decision ask?
2. When should decision rights for go-live be agreed?
3. What is the program lead's role in the readiness meeting?
4. Which item belongs in the readiness evidence pack?
5. Why is Contoso’s latest fallback start set at Sunday 18:00?