Cutover Plan

The end of the life of a software and the commissioning of a new one is called Cutover. It is not quite right to express it only as software, but perhaps it would be more accurate to express it as the commissioning of any project. We call the cutover plan, in which step-by-step transition stages are detailed and related activities are planned. As well as the quality of the project, it is also important to plan the transition process correctly and to implement this right plan step by step and even hourly or minutely according to the plan. Unfortunately, it is not very common to make a cutover plan, since the planning part is not given the necessary attention. This situation makes some of the effort and costs spent in the project worthless and causes failure or mistakes to occur even in very successful works.

So what should we pay attention to when making a cutover plan:

• Identification of All Activities: In this step, the tasks  that need to be done in both new and old system should be identified. If there are interconnected transactions between these steps (such as B must be done immediately after A or Y must be completed before X is done), these notes should be clearly added to the plan.  All project stakeholders and decision makers should be together while taking the steps and provide input when determining the relevant steps. The most frequently skipped steps in S/4 projects are creating number ranges and opening posting periods.

• Appointment of responsible persons: The responsible person for each task should be determined , and these responsible should be clearly written in the plan and this information should be conveyed to all stakeholders. It would not be realistic to expect the plan to be followed in an environment where those responsible are not clearly expressed or announced.

• Plan Scheduling: The day and time of all activities must be determined in the plan. It is very important to comply with these hours, especially in interrelated steps. It should be noted that the delay in the linked steps will cause the delay of the next activity.

• Communication Plan: An accurate communication plan should be made to track all completed activities and initiate or complete pending activities and this communication plan should be announced in advance.

• Implementation and follow-up of the plan: The activities in the plan should be followed up and controlled, and in case of any delay, the plan should be updated and announced again.