Trapped

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

On a far too regular basis, I come across organisations and teams sometimes trapped into a troublesome relationship with a software supplier, due to going live too soon.

You might reasonably ask what I mean by ‘too soon’.

The client might be rushing to meet a deadline, some logical reason like another solution going end of life for example, or a platform they have committed to leave. Alternatively, a CEO, director or other senior manager might have ‘made a decree’ a certain date needs to be hit. I have also worked with sites who are changing location quickly and that has been the driver.

While its great to meet deadlines, they need to be set sensibly and planned in advance sufficiently to be determined to be practically achievable. Its been my job sometimes to have to stop folk in their tracks and tell my client to rethink the plan, as either supplier or client have not sufficiently estimated/assessed their limits. Indeed on occasion, I have asked suppliers 4 or 5 times, are they absolutely sure these promised milestones can be achieved, before getting dates written into contracts, with hefty penalties and service credits. Even at that late stage, its sometimes waved through, than re-thought.

The other elephant in the room is UAT - User Acceptance Testing.

If UAT is lightweight, or issues are not diligently collated and suppliers are challenged to fix before go-live, clients can be persuaded, urged or pushed to go-live prematurely. This can lead to a situation where there’s live running, issues coming out of the woodwork causing wasted effort, workarounds and duplication, that could have most likely been reasonably ironed out before go-live. In addition, useful features may be de-scoped, left for later, that may have been essential for an efficient go-live.

Another essential step I recommend is to have your managers/stakeholder leaders sign off the decision to go-live. Not just ICT or a single team close to the project. Ensure all stakeholders are represented and have a voice, in an honest Go/No-Go decision.

Is a pre-mature go-live in the suppliers interest?

Well a cynic might say yes, as there is usually a hefty payment milestone dependant on go-live (to what ever degree it was ‘successful’). Also, once you are live, you are essentially for most purposes, ‘trapped’ into that solution and supplier. Any pre-leverage is minimised and the client is at the mercy of the kindness of the software supplier.

Also, beware of what a ‘go-live’ really means. Are you truly live with everything expected, or were certain aspects/modules/features descoped because they were not ready, not written, waiting for ‘a sprint’ or just ‘difficult’. These should be warning signs in any software or transformation project. From the initial procurement, be clear what the expectations are on both sides of the relationship. Dont be fooled by talk of a so-called 'Agile Approach' will make it all right. Look how the UC rollout fared !

If you are having problems defining those initial expectations, struggling with UAT, pressure to go-live or suffering the aftereffects of a scrappy go-live, feel free to get in touch!

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew. 

I will bring plenty of Ginger Nuts ☕😋

       Related Post: Ever wonder if you could test less and get away with it in UAT? 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Utopia- Trapped.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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. . . . . . . . . . . .

Parallel Life

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



As readers of this blog are aware, I get involved with a lot of procurements of Housing and Financial systems. Also on many occasions I get involved in project management or helping to recover/kick start stalled projects. For the later, in many cases these days, an old system is being replaced with a shiny new one. This we would hope is going to provide a step change in efficiency or customer service levels, or some other benefit.

The logical thing to do, you would have thought, is do a bit of parallel running, between changing systems. That would entail repeating work in two systems (old and new).

Surprisingly perhaps, I don’t think I have ever experienced anyone truly parallel running, across the 50 or more implementation projects, I have been involved with over the years. The reasons for that are the doubling of resources needed to get it right and the difficulty in being disciplined enough to carry it out in reality.

Inevitably, once a new system goes live, there is little chance of going back.

The practical alternative is to the classic parallel run, is to have great quality UAT (User Acceptance Testing), to conclusively prove as many core functions and processes as practical. For some clients, I have provided UAT build and monitoring support, to enable tightly controlled and well evidenced testing.

UAT in progress and some progress %ages

In some of my projects, when go-live has gone smoothly, with few issues, on more than one occasion, I have heard users and often managers saying, “I don’t know what the fuss with all the testing was about, it’s all gone smoothly!”. That kind of misses the point, as high-quality testing does reveal all the problems, that can be fixed prior to the go/no-go decision, a week or two before.

What does good quality testing look like then?

Well testing by actual users for a start. They will be at the sharp end using your new systems after all. Splitting testing into distinct areas helps, as does creating tests, where record ID’s of data created or accessed can/must be recorded, for easy evidencing. The UAT document can also allow links to processes, diagrams, videos or other documentation, to help testers to tackle each area.

Each test can generate issues and queries, as well as be stalled for fixes and re-tests. I usually structure my UAT’s, so it’s really easy to monitor progress.

Users who cheat while completing the UAT, cause problems later down the line with go-live or after.  I remember a project where a rent debit raise had apparently been tested, but caused an issue which meant that a whole housing association was without a system for a whole day. So, discipline is essential. While testing, users are using the skills gained during training too, which can only be good. Too much training occurs too early in projects, so can be of little use sometimes, once UAT occurs or go-live approaches.

Do bear some of the above points in mind. Feel free to contact me if you think you could use some help, around your new application/system UAT processes. Get them right, for more successful go-live.

Related Post: Is an app, what your residents need? 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Saint Jude – Parallel Life.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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