When a system has been moved to production environment, do I use the term 'Go-Live' or 'moved to production' in my official communication to stakeholders' from the project management perspective?
Suresh KumarSenior Executive - IT Delivery (Testing and Quality Assurance)| Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB)Seremban, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, Malaysia
I used the term 'go-live' but my project manager disagreed and said I should use 'moved to production' since there is a data validation period. Please advise. Saving Changes...
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Prasanta SwainPractice Director| ITOrizonBangalore, Karnataka, India
Hi Suresh, Not sure regarding context of your customer's situation but based on your description, it looks like you have moved a piece of S/W to production that could potentially be rolled back if something (data validation) goes wrong. Looks like you are deploying using feature flags/DevOps? But remember once your S/W starts fulfilling desired outcome in production ... it is nothing but "gone live"! So be receptive to take up the "Choice of Word" coined by your manager as same action/task could mean different in different business context. Saving Changes...
David DillehayPMO Manager| CentralSquare TechnologiesOviedo, Fl, United States
We use the term Go-live in our current methodology for the first time a client is using the system in a production environment. We are looking for a new term but have not decided on one as of yet. Launch has come up in conversation. Personally, There is more ceremony in the term go-live. Moved to production does not have much fanfare in my opinion and you need to celebrate the milestone. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
The logic is sound, as there are multiple steps from approving in Test, moving to Production, then some revalidation period, then an official Go-Live. In the past, I have used this same approach. A move to Production and Go-Live are two distinct actions. Go-Live is done in conjunction with the customer as part of their change management process and release readiness procedures. Saving Changes...
"Deployed to production" would be another option. I do agree that you want to differentiate the completion of production deployment from when it is safe for users to start to use the updated system. "Ready for production usage" might be a way to indicate the latter...
"Deployed" could mean that production has the tool, but it has not been validated. "Fully implemented" would be more descriptive that the tool is now "live".
On a humorous side note, we had executives who used the term, "Flip the Switch" to refer to when a new multi-billion dollar BOM system would be activated. When they became frustrated with the time it was taking to implement this massive system, they insisted we go ahead and flip the switch. They were quite disappointed to learn there was no actual switch, but rather a very involved migration and cut-over process. Apparently they thought it was like Dr. Frankenstein flipping some big manual switch and shouting "It's Alive!!!" Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
In my actual work place governance model we use GO-LIVE to specify that the whole operation is up. For us, system is not a software system, is more than that. Previous activity is FINAL PREPARATION where we check the organization readiness before the GO-LIVE. Go-Live is not only move to production. After GO-LIVE we usually have a hypercare period and after that we perform PROJECT CLOSE. So, the chain for us, is FINAL PREPARATION-GO LIVE-PROJECT CLOSE. Saving Changes...
Ravi Kishan PaliwalProject Manager - UKI| IBM India Pvt LtdNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Go-live can be considered in situation when we just want to show the tool is working with default features. Saving Changes...
Though it is in production. Things are off for public and my be open for certain group for FUT / SLT to validate. Fixing bugs. Then launch for public.
Mere moving to PROD is not a GO-LIVE Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Agree on common terminology with your stakeholders and call it whatever you agree upon. Go Live, Commissioning, Production. WHO CARES except those who do not understand what you are talking about. And whatever is agreed, add it in the glossary so that those who were not there to agree will understand the definition of whatever you call it. Saving Changes...
