Lesson 1 of 5
Why rehearse cutover
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Every SAP program spends months testing the solution: unit tests, string tests, integration cycles, user acceptance. Then, over one long weekend, it runs a process it has never tested at full scale: the cutover. Cutover is the sequence of technical, data and business steps that moves the company from the old system to the new one. It has its own plan, its own people, its own data and its own failure modes. It deserves its own testing.
A cutover rehearsal (often called a mock cutover, and the final one a dress rehearsal) runs the cutover runbook end to end in a production-like environment, with the real team, against realistic data volumes, using the real clock. SAP Activate places cutover execution in the Deploy phase, after integration testing and user acceptance testing are complete. The rehearsals happen before that, typically from late Realize into Deploy, so there is time to fix what they find.
What a rehearsal actually tests
A rehearsal is not a repeat of integration testing. The solution has already been tested. A rehearsal tests the plan, the people and the timings:
| Question | What the rehearsal shows | Contoso example |
|---|---|---|
| Is the sequence right? | Steps run in an order that respects dependencies; nothing starts before its inputs exist. | Open sales orders for Great Lakes Fleet Services cannot load until customer master and pricing are in place. |
| Does it fit the window? | Actual durations against the planned downtime, with the critical path visible. | Contoso has a 60-hour weekend window; mock 1 took 71 hours. |
| Do people know their roles? | Each task owner starts on time, knows the handoff and knows whom to call. | The finance team did not know they had to approve the balance load at 02:00 Saturday. |
| Do the checkpoints work? | Reconciliations, validation reports and approvals happen where the runbook says they do. | Inventory reconciliation for plant 1720 Chicago had no named signer. |
| Can we go back? | Fallback steps are realistic and timed. | Restoring the legacy system had never been tried. |
A rehearsal tests the cutover plan, not the configured solution.
- Late RealizeMock 1First full run of the draft runbook. Expect overruns and missing steps.
- Early DeployMock 2Corrected runbook, fuller data volumes, timings captured per task.
- DeployDress rehearsalFinal runbook, final team, production-like timing. Should look like the real weekend.
- Go-live weekendProduction cutoverRun the proven runbook, verify, sign off, release the business.
Why the dress rehearsal is different
Early mocks are allowed to be messy. Their job is to find gaps. The dress rehearsal has a different job: to prove that the final runbook works as written, in the time available, with the people who will do it on the night. A useful rule is that the dress rehearsal should contain everything planned for go-live, including late fixes and last-minute transports, and that every go-live critical issue it finds must be resolved before the production cutover starts. If the dress rehearsal needs heroics to finish, it has not passed.
| Early mocks | Dress rehearsal | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Find gaps in sequence, timing and roles | Prove the final runbook works as written |
| Runbook | Draft, changing between runs | Final, including late fixes and last-minute transports |
| Team | Stand-ins tolerated and recorded | The people who will be there on the night |
| Overruns | Expected; Contoso's Mock 1 took 71 of 60 hours | Not acceptable; must finish inside the window without heroics |
| Issues found | Fixed before the next mock | Every go-live critical issue closed before production cutover |
Who needs to be there
- Cutover manager (Luis): owns the runbook, runs the command center, tracks timings.
- Basis / platform team: system locks, backups, transports, job scheduling, interface switches.
- Data migration team: extraction, transformation, load and technical reconciliation.
- Business data owners and key users: business reconciliation and approvals (for example Dan for finance balances, Maria for open sales orders).
- Test lead (Priya): production verification tests, evidence and defect triage during the window.
- PMO lead (Grace): go/no-go governance and communication.
If a role is substituted during a rehearsal, record it. A rehearsal run by stand-ins proves less than one run by the people who will be there on the night, and the timing data will be optimistic.
What would you do?
Two weeks before Contoso's dress rehearsal, Grace suggests skipping it because "mock 2 went fine and the team is tired." Mock 2 finished on time but used 70% of production data volumes and a substitute for the finance approver. What should Priya recommend?
- Cutover is a process in its own right, with its own plan, people, data and risks, and it must be tested.
- Rehearsals test sequence, timing, roles, checkpoints and fallback, not the configured solution.
- Early mocks find gaps; the dress rehearsal proves the final runbook with the real team and realistic volumes.
- Go-live critical issues found in the dress rehearsal must be closed before production cutover begins.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What is the primary object under test in a cutover rehearsal?
2. Mock 1 at Contoso overran by 11 hours. What is the right reading of that result?
3. Which statement best describes a dress rehearsal?
4. A rehearsal used a stand-in for the finance approver. What should you do?