IT Management Reference Guide

This is the second of a four-part series on designing, implementing and maintaining a robust production acceptance process. In part one I offered and explained a working definition of a production acceptance process, and described many of the benefits such a process offers to a variety of groups both inside and outside of IT. In this segment I summarize the 14 steps required to implement a robust production acceptance process and explain the first four of these in detail.

Implementing a Production Acceptance Process

Listing 1 lists 14 steps necessary for implementing an effective production acceptance process. Along with a detailed discussion of each of these steps, I will look at actual experiences from industry, where appropriate, to highlight recommendations to pursue and obstacles to avoid.

Listing 1: Steps for Implementing a Production Acceptance Process

1. Identify an executive sponsor
2. Select a process owner
3. Solicit executive support
4. Assemble a production acceptance team
5. Identify and prioritize requirements
6. Develop policy statements
7. Nominate a pilot system
8. Design appropriate forms
9. Document the procedures
10. Execute the pilot system
11. Conduct a lessons-learned session
12. Revise policies, procedures, and forms
13. Formulate marketing strategy
14. Follow up on ongoing enforcement and improvements

Step 1: Identify an Executive Sponsor. Production acceptance is one of a handful of systems management processes that directly involve departments outside of the infrastructure group. In this case it is the applications development area that plays a key role in making this process effective. An executive sponsor is necessary to ensure ongoing support and cooperation between these two departments. Depending on the size and scope of the IT organization, the sponsor could be the CIO, the head of the infrastructure group, or some other executive in the infrastructure. (It should be noted that an application manager can be an excellent sponsor providing the head of the infrastructure agrees with the selection. In this case, the executives from both departments should concur on the choice of process owner, who needs to be from the infrastructure group.)

In general, the higher the level of executive sponsor the better. Senior executives are usually more time constrained than those at lower levels, so support sessions should be well planned, straightforward, and to the point.

The executive sponsor must be a champion of the process, particularly if the shop has gone many years with no structured turnover procedure in place. He or she needs to be able to persuade other executives both inside and outside of IT to follow the lead. This individual is responsible for providing executive leadership, direction, and support for the process. The executive sponsor is also responsible for selecting the process owner, for addressing conflicts that the process owner cannot resolve, and for providing marketing assistance.

Table 1: Prioritized Characteristics for a Production Acceptance Process Owner

Step 2: Select a Process Owner. One of the first responsibilities of the executive sponsor is to select the production acceptance process owner. The process owner should be a member of the infrastructure organization since most of the ongoing activities of operating and supporting a new production application fall within this group. This person will be interacting frequently with programmers who developed and will be maintaining the system.

This continual interaction with applications makes a working knowledge of application systems an important prerequisite for the process owner. Being able to evaluate applications documentation and to communicate effectively with program developers are two additional characteristics highly recommended in a process owner. Several other medium-priority and lower priority characteristics (shown in Table 1) will assist in selecting the process lead. These attributes and priorities may vary from shop to shop, but are intended to emphasize the importance of predetermining the traits that will suit your organization best.

Step 3: Solicit Executive Support. Production acceptance requires much cooperation and support between the applications development and infrastructure departments. Executive support from both of these departments should be solicited to ensure that policies and decisions about the design of the process are backed up and pushed down from higher levels of management.

Step 4: Assemble a Production Acceptance Team. The process owner should assemble a cross-functional team to assist in developing and implementing a production acceptance process. The team should consist of key representatives from the development organization as well as those from operations, technical support, capacity planning, the help desk, and database administration. In cases where the development group is larger than a few hundred programmers, multiple development representatives should participate.

It is important that all key areas within development be represented on this team to ensure support and buy-in for the process. Appropriate development representatives also ensure that potential obstacles to success are identified and resolved to everyone's satisfaction. An effective executive sponsor and the soliciting of executive support (steps 1 and 3) can help to ensure proper representation.

At one company where I managed a large infrastructure group, there were over 400 programmers in the development department grouped into the four areas of finance, engineering, manufacturing, and logistics. A representative from each of these four areas participated in the development of a production acceptance procedure; each brought unique perspectives, and together they helped to ensure a successful result to the process.

Summary of Production Acceptance Process Part Two — Initial Steps

In this second segment of the four-part series on developing, implementing and maintaining an effective production acceptance process, I summarized the 14 steps required to implement a robust production acceptance process and explained the first four of these in detail. Part three continues with detailed explanations of middle portion of these steps.