“Go Live” is an important milestone in any IT project.
It’s an important hurdle for the vendor. It’s an important hurdle for the customer.
Attitudes change. Tensions evaporate. Management and end-users are happy. The euphoria kicks in.
Pink tinted glasses get put on again. Life is lovely
“Go Live” is probably the most interesting time in the life of a project.
The future looks bright. People start talking about replicating success, excellence centres, rolling it out to the whole organisation, to their customer’s organisations, to their customer’s customers… world domination.
But for a developer, “Go-live” is just a formal milestone in the project. You get the pat on the back from management, enjoy 5 minutes in the sunshine, and then back to the drawing board.
Unlike common belief, the developer’s personal project high point is not at “Go-Live”
It’s actually way before that – at the end of the development stage.
Most developers enjoy the creativity. You’re creating something new. exciting. We love a good challenge, overcoming the problems.
Those impossible requirements that were thrown at you. Mission Impossible?
You’ve done it!! You’re the man! You’re brilliant!! Way to go!! Woohhoo!!
Unfortunately, the only one patting you on your back is yourself. Everyone else is looking to pick holes in your work, or add work. But that’s life…
The months of pressure, the fear of failure, the intensity, the concentration, deadlines – one big adrenalin rush.
And suddenly the sun comes up and you’ve won the battle.
Most new customers don’t go for a big bang approach, the full BPM programme across the organisation. They want to see the first process up and running properly before they commit to more. But once you’ve proven it’s possible – they want more, and then it’s your turn to slow them down.
Ok, fun time is over. Everyone back to standing on their head.
Adam Deane 
BPM, agile, waterfall, “pick yer poision” efforts aside, I think the go-live milestone is actually pretty significant to a developer. It’s a final affirmation that someone will actually use (and get value) from the stuff they built. Without this milestone the death march they endured is, well, just that… a death march.
By: Chris Sanchez on 27/07/2011
at 10:00 pm
Hi Chris,
Yes, I agree with you that the affirmation that someone will actually use it is important to the developer.
Why do you see BPM as another development methodology to agile and waterfall. Do you not see BPM as agile?
Cheers,
Adam
By: Adam Deane on 28/07/2011
at 2:58 am
Actually I don’t see BPM as a development methodology. Though more aligned to an agile methodology, you *could* approach BPM delivery using non-agile development methods – I guess. My point is that it doesn’t matter how you solve the problem – the milestone is important. With BPM the hope is that there are many, many of these milestones as you work your way through the organization.
By: Chris Sanchez on 28/07/2011
at 4:47 pm
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By: The Go-Live » Process for the Enterprise on 05/08/2011
at 3:49 am