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The delivery metrics across your large-scale transformation program look strong. The closure report is signed off. The steering committee congratulates the team. And then, quietly, the organization continues doing things the old way...
Employers often favor candidates who already have real-world execution experience. That leaves many capable professionals stuck trying to break into a field that increasingly expects them to already know how to operate inside it.
Eventually, most managers confront performance issues or out-of-warranty replacement needs for hardware and software infrastructure that host their critical applications. While it is always an uphill battle to obtain management approvals for such important spending needs, when you do get the necessary budgets approved, there are some pointers that might help you easily transition during the upgrade process.
Do not expect internal resources to be up to task for the upgrade
However confident you are about your organization’s internal technical resources, you will often need the experts for something as critical as this. Lack of expertise and low sense of priority are common factors that will often disappoint you if you opt to choose internal resources. Feel free to rope in the experts and be prepared to pay the big bucks rather than get the wrong person who could put the whole project at risk. Ensure the person has been involved in such upgrades in the past. Avoid vendor franchisees or independent contractors if you have the option to source directly from the vendor. If you cannot find the right person, your second best choice is often the resource with the right contacts. Call this out as a major project risk and track it very closely.
Do not expect business owners to be excited about the IT upgrade
No matter how important it is, no matter how much the business will benefit from the upgrade, no matter how hard you try to convince them, always remember that this is an IT project. It is not that they don’t care, but they have more pressing matters at hand and very limited time to understand all the technical mumbo jumbo.
While you may never get the support and excitement that you would normally expect, continue to engage them as key stakeholders, constantly reminding them that their application is hosted on the IT platform being upgraded and it may affect uptime if proper attention and support is not provided during the project. However critical the timing of the upgrade is, business priority always rules and this should be your first schedule-related risk. Continuously track business projects that are scheduled to go live during the upgrade. A sound understanding of strategic business priorities provides key guidance when you negotiate in favor of the upgrade and against other business initiatives. Be creative in explaining the impact of various dependant projects and--although difficult--try to avoid the technical details if possible. Visual aids always help better depict dependencies and severity of impacts.
Since there are no functionality changes, do not expect to limit testing
Extensive testing is a must. Upgrades may touch the length and breadth of hosted applications, especially if software packages (APIs) that are being referred by the application are also being upgraded to newer versions. It helps to create custom test scenarios for this level of testing. The level of testing required is often halfway between high-level sanity testing and detailed test scenarios, although this may vary from project to project. As always, it is mandatory that business sign off on the final testing even if there is little or no functional change.
Do not expect work/efforts to drive the timelines: schedule/duration rules in infrastructure projects
While it may only take only a couple of days to FedEx the hardware, the PO approval may take week. It’s much worse if you need specialized hardware; it may take a lot longer than expected. Do not make assumptions based on common sense or basic needs. In a recent project that I worked on, we had severe space and power constraint issues in a specific location. Talk to as many people as possible and base your project plan on the worst-case turnaround time for the various activities such as hardware, firewall, etc.
Expect issues and delays related to security/firewall changes
Expect this in any upgrade project. No matter how aggressive you or the organization may be, this is so sensitive an area that most managers or senior managers would like to avoid influencing unless absolutely necessary. IT security guys are the uncrowned kings of the IT world, so they will have it their way and you can do very little about it. So give it enough time on the project plan. A simple five-minute firewall change would take you weeks, if not months, to be approved and implement. Secure the right resources and try to engage them as early as possible in the project. However early you start, you will still feel the pinch until the end of the project or sometimes even later, so expect the worst.
Expect hardware and software incompatibility issues
Determine ahead of time all compatibilities issues--even if the chosen vendor and software are very common and popular. There is no guarantee that applications are compatible with each other or with the operating system they are hosted on.
In a recent project, we discovered that an application server was not guaranteed against a popular operating system and we had to change to another edition. Fortunately, in our case the discovery was made during the early stages of the project. But you may not be so lucky. Question every possible permutations and combinations related to compatibility. Are the software libraries selected for upgrade compatible with each other, the application and the operating system? Have the vendors guaranteed support for the application server on a specific operating system? Is the selected hardware compatible with the operating system? Does your hardware have the muscle to handle your performance needs? Can virtual machines deliver your performance needs and compare to physical boxes? Finally, have the relevant resources sign off prior to implementation.
Success as usual depends on being proactive. The more answers you seek in the initial phases of the project, the fewer surprises you will face later on.
Pradip Radhakrishnan, PMP is a senior project manager with extensive experience in many verticals. He is currently working with one of the leading Fortune 500 companies in the Bay area. He specializes in application development-related project management with extensive exposure to Web development and internet technologies. He is experienced in several software development processes. Above all, he believes that a robust process combined with a great working environment is vital for long-term success of any organization.
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