A new application is in production. Acceptance is complete, and the project team has delivered.
For the people who work with it every day, day-to-day use now begins.
Being accessible does not mean being ready for operation
A simplified example from public transport: an application for handling customer enquiries is accessible. Login works. But some enquiries are not forwarded to the team responsible.
Who notices? Who assesses the impact? And who coordinates the solution when several systems or service providers are involved?
Five questions to ask before go-live
For me, these questions belong early in project planning:
- Who is responsible for ongoing operations?
- How do we know that the business workflows are functioning?
- How can employees report problems, and who keeps them informed about progress?
- After an incident, how do we ensure that cases left pending are processed?
- Who plans necessary updates and ongoing maintenance?
Preparing for operations starts during development
The answers already influence development:
What information must an application provide for troubleshooting? What tasks does support need to handle? What knowledge does the operations team need?
In my view, operational readiness is therefore part of a good software solution. It comes from technical preparation, clear responsibilities and an understandable handover.