A high-quality course will give you an understanding of key actions, regardless of methodology, that make the difference between success and failure. It isn’t usual to find information on activities that enhance methodologies in introductory courses.

The objective of project management is to deliver projects that meet the critical success factors to an agreed budget and timescale. When you complete an excellent project management course, you will have the knowledge to accomplish this. 

The standard topics typically found in introduction to project management courses include:

• The role of a project manager.
• The skills and characteristics you need to be a successful project manager.
• A career as a project manager.
• How to plan projects.
• Budget management.
• Dependencies and constraints.
• Risk management.
• How to manage testing activities.
• Cutover planning and management.

To enhance your learning, it’s important that insights and examples from projects and programmes bring these topics to life. 

An outstanding introduction to project management will include the standard topics, but you will gain invaluable insights that are the key to delivering successful projects. At the end of one of these courses you should have the knowledge to:

• Prepare documentation, including the project initiation document, the project plan, the dress rehearsal document and the cutover runbook.
• View projects holistically and add additional activities as required to ensure successful delivery.
• Complete the project initiation phase professionally.
• Understand estimating principles and the reasons so many projects encounter issues with this.
• Reflect realistic resource information in your plans.
• Be able to agree on critical success factors with stakeholders and understand how to report progress. 
• Be able to plan and manage small-scale IT projects. (Support from a senior project manager may be required according to the complexity of the project.)
• Proactively manage risks using a simple, but effective, tool. 
• Manage the project budget.
• Manage data quality activities.
• Understand the importance of quality assurance and how to include this activity in your project plans.
• Be able to plan and run dress rehearsals. (Along with professional project initiation, dress rehearsals are the most critical activity for ensuring a successful project.)
• Manage and communicate with stakeholders.
• Prepare Go/No Go documentation and manage the Go/No Go meetings.
• Manage cutover to BAU.
• Handover to post-go-live support.

Additional Information on Critical Activities

Please check to ensure that the course covers the following key activities of project initiation, dress rehearsals and cutover.

Project Initiation

This is a critical activity. Studies have shown that problems with project initiation are a major contributing factor to project failures. 

What are some of the common issues with project initiation?

• Insufficient focus on dependencies and constraints.
• Underestimating effort. (Tasks typically take twice as long as the estimate.)
• Overestimating resource availability.
• Not allowing the appropriate amount of time for the first use of development tools or implementation of new technology. 
• Incorrect assumptions relating to the availability of third-party resources. 
• Not allocating the correct amount of time for infrastructure configuration, training, non-functional tests, data quality, and security.
• Not including business and cutover dress rehearsals.
• Lack of focus on cutover and post-go-live activities.

These are just examples; there are many more potential issues with project initiation.

The level of documentation depends on the size and complexity of the project. The following items need to be considered:

• The size of the project is a significant consideration. Do you have a development team of five and one stakeholder or ten teams, 200 IT staff, 50 business people and 20 key stakeholders?
• Does the project have a hard deadline that is not negotiable? For example, is there a critical business requirement that includes supporting a product launch or delivery of a statutory or regulatory project?
• Is additional infrastructure required?
• Are new non-functional requirements included in the project scope? 

Please include all relevant sections in the project initiation document, regardless of the methodology used. The level of documentation must be commensurate with the size of the project or programme.

The advice on project initiation is the same as for other aspects of project management: be pragmatic but rigorous. You do not want to overlook things. They will impact the later phases of the project. As you move through the project lifecycle, the cost of correcting omissions increases exponentially. This scenario applies to both Agile and Waterfall projects. For example, if security requirements are not considered during project initiation, this may result in changes to the product and infrastructure.

The PID usually contains the following sections:

• Background.
• Business case.
• Project definition.
• Project objectives.
• Critical success factors and expected benefits. 
• Project methodology.
• Project scope.
• In scope.
• Out of scope.
• Timescales.
• Stage plan.
• Deliverables.
• The project resource responsible for the deliverables.
• Constraints.
• Dependencies.
• Assumptions.
• Quality assurance, including quality standards.
• Risk management.
• Test approach.
• Dress rehearsals.
• Cutover planning. 
• Post go-live support. 

Other items may need to be added depending on the type and complexity of the project. Please note that the contents of the PID may vary based on the organisation's standards, the type of project, and the methodology used. Return on investment information may be required.

You may want to include work packages as part of project initiation. They are very useful in planning and provide a high level of control over costs and deliverables.

Please ensure you allocate sufficient time to prepare the PID or project brief. This is a critical document.

Dress Rehearsals

Along with professional project initiation, dress rehearsals are the most critical activity for ensuring a successful project. Dress rehearsals will draw attention to problems not encountered during any test phase. The users will approach go-live with a high level of confidence because they have already completed critical business scenarios in the dress rehearsals.

Dress rehearsals are not a rerun of UAT. They are a separate activity with different objectives.

What are business scenario dress rehearsals? 

In this activity, users complete core business processes in an isolated environment to provide the highest level of assurance for cutover and BAU. The business decides on the key business scenarios with advice from the project team, if required.

What are the principles of dress rehearsals? 

• Users run their critical business processes in a dedicated environment to prove readiness for go-live.
• The mindset of the dress rehearsal participants is that this is the first day of go-live.
• The business scenarios are agreed upon, and the users run them exactly as they will in BAU.
• Test scripts are not used. 
• The dress rehearsal sequence is based on business priority and level of risk. The most critical ones are completed first. Please note that multiple scenarios may be run in parallel.
• Superusers assist the participants, and the support team is on call in case there are any issues.
• People responsible for the role after go-live should complete the activities in the dress rehearsal.
• Run at least the first week’s BAU activities and additional weeks if possible. (One full month is recommended.) Include any additional priority activities such as critical reports, etc.
• Dress rehearsals are not a rerun of UAT or any other test phase.
• Ideally, production data should be used for the dress rehearsals to ensure data quality and to confirm the validity of the dress rehearsals.
• Roles and permissions are validated to ensure they will support BAU processing.
• Run integrations using the production schedules and BAU volume data to prove timing.

Cutover Management

Cutover Implementation Strategy

It is best practice to agree on the implementation approach from the start of the project. The amount of effort required to plan this will depend on the business objectives, the complexity of the project, the go-live deadline, the number of implementation options, and other factors.

There can be a tendency to push this planning work back, especially on projects with a go-live date of eighteen months or more in the future. This is a mistake, because the implementation strategy can impact development, testing, training, and other activities.

It is best practice to base the implementation strategy on a risk-averse approach. The idea may seem obvious, but many projects do not give this the amount of thought required. Things to consider include:

• Implementation prerequisites.
• Cutover impact on operations.
• Freeze points. (When the existing system, or parts of the system, will no longer be used.)
• Quality assurance.
• Dependencies.
• Key dates.
• Risk management

Cutover Planning

Cutover planning is critical for a successful transition to BAU. Early in the project lifecycle, start working on the cutover strategy, as it can influence virtually all aspects of the project. 

Key decisions and considerations relating to cutover include:

• Will the cutover be phased, or will all aspects of the project be delivered (and go live) at once?
• Does the organisation have a hard deadline that cannot be moved? Therefore, is a minimum viable product (MVP) approach being considered?
• What are the key features that must be delivered?
• What are the critical success factors?
• What are the key dates that must be avoided? (Due to pressure from BAU operations, year-end, etc.) 
• Are there resource constraints at different times of the year that would prevent cutover?

There is an important point about resource constraints and cutover planning. You’ve probably heard someone say, ‘We don’t have time to fix it before go-live; we’ll do it later.’ Please think about the logic of this statement and push back on it. Before the cutover, the project team possesses all the knowledge related to analysis, development, testing, and other relevant areas. As soon as the project goes live (or at the end of the warranty period), critical resources will be reallocated. Support teams are usually under pressure with BAU problems, and it will take them longer to understand and fix the issues.

You may have a hard deadline and minor issues. In these circumstances, confirm that the support team has the knowledge and time to complete the work within the agreed-upon timeframe. However, do everything to deliver the highest quality product possible while you have the project resource.  

Implementation and Cutover Prerequisites

It’s important to document the cutover prerequisites, and this is another activity that should start at the beginning of the project. Cutover planning should be an integral part of all planning activities to prevent issues as you approach go-live. 

Typical cutover prerequisites include:

• Development completed.
• Quality assurance activities completed and confirmation that the quality thresholds have been achieved. 
• All test phases completed.
• Integration testing completed.
• Dress rehearsals completed.
• Training completed.
• Security configuration implemented.
• Security testing completed.
• Recommendations from the security test have been implemented. (With an agreed plan for any outstanding activities.)
• Monitoring is in place and proven in tests and dress rehearsals. 
• Superusers trained and briefed on cutover responsibilities.
• Risk assessment completed.
• Cutover resource confirmed.
• Rollback or fix-forward options have been analysed, and the agreed approach has been signed off.
• Contingency resource in place for critical cutover activities.
• Prerequisite data loads completed.
• Infrastructure build completed and signed off.
• Post go-live support environment activities have been completed. 
• Performance testing completed.
• Support model agreed.
• User access (Role Based Access Control) configuration documented and proven.
• Parallel runs completed if applicable.
• Business sign-off obtained.
• CAB approval.
• Any third-party application updates completed.
• Data quality assurance completed.
• Quick reference guides signed off.
• Report testing completed.
• Master data signed off.
• Go/No Go meetings completed with a Go decision.
• Go communications sent out.

This isn’t an exhaustive list but provides a starting point for your plans.

Cutover Risk Management

A formal approach to cutover risk management will benefit the project and facilitate the Go/No Go decisions.

People will usually have different opinions of the level of risk associated with the cutover to the new system. This is understandable because they will be looking at the cutover from their involvement in the project and the perceived impact on their areas of the business. 

An overview of the risk, which everyone can agree on, is required. In our Introduction to Project Management course, you will learn how to prepare and use a Go-Live Risk Assessment spreadsheet. This has worked well on projects because it:

• Is based on 'Yes' or 'No' answers.
• Takes minutes to complete.
• It provides an objective assessment of the risks.

The spreadsheet can be used throughout the complete project lifecycle. At the beginning, the risk score is expected to be high. As the project progresses, it is expected to reduce. (If it doesn’t, there is a serious problem.)

There will be some items that have an inherent level of risk that can’t be mitigated.

It is best practice to review the risk items that can’t be mitigated at the start of the project to determine the target risk score. On some projects you will be able to mitigate the risks to a low or medium level, but on others the score will remain high despite the project team doing everything possible to manage the risks.

It is very useful to understand the expected level of cutover risk in the early stages of the project. Such knowledge focuses the team on risk mitigation, and the stakeholders will appreciate an understanding of the risks months, instead of days, before the cutover. The process also instils confidence because of the level of control this demonstrates.

Cutover Runbook

The cutover runbook is a key document. It should be prepared as early in the project lifecycle as possible and definitely before the start of the dress rehearsals. It is important to consult with all stakeholders to ensure that everyone understands roles, responsibilities, steps, communication, approvals over the cutover period, final approval to go live and escalation procedures in case there are issues during the cutover.

Consider the following in your planning and preparation of the runbook:

• Stakeholder engagement in the cutover is critical. Final business sign-off is a prerequisite for go-live.
• Agree and include the business assurance scenarios in the cutover runbook. They are required for business go-live approval. 
• Review the steps in the backout plan in case issues are encountered during cutover. 
• An example scenario would be the discovery of a data corruption issue two days after go-live. You will need to know whether it would be possible to revert to the original system and the impact of doing so.
• Run all the steps in the runbook in a dress rehearsal before the cutover date.
• Have contingency resources on standby in case any of the key people are not available during the cutover period. (Many cutovers are scheduled for the weekend to minimise BAU disruption.)
• It is critical that the cutover dress rehearsals use the To Be production configuration. 
• Before the start of cutover, security configuration, user access (RBAC), integrations, and security keys must all be in place and proven.
• Include all the prerequisite cutover activities in the runbook. 
• The runbook should be detailed, with activities at fifteen-minute intervals. 
• Have an open meeting (Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc.) from the start until the completion of the implementation. Include the team and all stakeholders in the invite. 
• Agree on the attendees of the escalation meeting if required. (If an issue is encountered that may result in a decision to abandon the cutover.)
• Hold early review meetings of the draft runbook with the team that will complete the activities. Once the review is complete, disseminate it to the broader stakeholders.
• Obtain sign-off of the data in advance of the cutover.
• Be certain that the stakeholders and users understand their responsibility for signing off on the system.
• Work through the cutover plan to determine the level of contingency at each checkpoint.
• Third parties. Include any proving activities with the third parties. Determine if this is a prerequisite for sign-off to go live. If so, request their support over the cutover period.

Reference Material

A high-quality Introduction to Project Management course should include a reference book to enhance your learning and to use when managing projects. Please find below the topics included in the book that supports the Pathway IT course. 

The main topics in the book are:

• Project management – What is it?
• Typical project manager roles and responsibilities
• What skills and characteristics do you need to be an IT project manager?
• Careers in IT Project Management
• Overview of Waterfall and Agile
• Planning Projects
• Overview of preparing a plan for a Waterfall project
• Project Initiation
• Key activities in project initiation
• Requirements/analysis
• System design
• Agile design
• Implementation
• Testing in Waterfall projects
• Testing in Agile projects
• Tests that are critical regardless of methodology
• Test tools and the use of live data
• Testing prerequisites
• Deployment/Cutover
• Cutover implementation strategy
• Cutover planning
• Implementation and cutover prerequisites
• Maintenance
• Post go-live support
• Critical Activities Regardless of Methodology
• Dress rehearsals
• What are business scenario dress rehearsals?
• What are the principles of dress rehearsals?
• Strong project governance
• Business process change
• Benefits management and critical success factors
• Risk management
• Deliverables
• Project budget
• Communication plan
• Quality plan and quality assurance
• Project board
• Estimating
• Resource planning
• Work packages
• Project delivery
• High-performing project teams

The Pathway IT Introduction to Project Management™ course offers an essential introduction to project management, including planning, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, and stakeholder communication. Real-world projects and case studies provide practical experience. By the end, you'll have a strong grasp of project management principles, preparing you for career advancement.

This is available as a self-study course or instructor-led. (Half-day on Fridays at Milton Keynes or at your office.)