It’s been a year of multiple Production Go Live implementations. All the Prod Go Live implementations tend to be intense with lot of activities packed into a very short period of time, usually a weekend to minimize downtime for the customer so that users can start using the new/upgraded application/s at the start of the following week. Most times failure is not an option but a distinct possibility. Production Go Live implementations are like participating in full marathons testing one’s endurance and with many aspects
Physical: At various points the body sends message it needs to pause and rest but the crunched schedule doesn’t allow for it
Mental: All Prod Go Lives are scheduled to complete within a time window to allow for enough time to test and confirm before releasing to customer. If one task takes longer than estimated it has a cascading impact on following tasks and the mind is calculating about being able to able to complete all tasks within acceptable time similar to a marathon runner trying to complete the run in a time that would be deemed successful (or acceptable if there is a cut off for acceptable time)
Psychological: To keep going one has to resort to play psychological games with oneself like we are more than halfway through successfully already, most of the hard tasks are done and the remaining tasks are easier tasks etc
Spiritual: For all the preparations done in advance success is not a given. Just as external factors like weather, running conditions can impact the result of a marathon in addition to condition of the runner Prod Go Lives can be impacted by external factors like network, 3rd party dependency in addition to any unknowns that could come into play for the first time. That’s where the spiritual aspect comes in. One discovers what one is made of as well as the stuff that participating teams are made of as everyone works through any issues that could be encountered to complete the implementation successfully. Finally one has to be prepared to accept whatever the end result after one’s best effort. Just as a marathon runner could either finish the race successfully and possibly ahead of expected time OR fail to complete Prod Go Live implementations could complete successfully ahead of time/in time as planned OR end in DNF. That’s where the ultimate spiritual aspect comes in. Treat success and failure with calm, not get too elated or disappointed either ways if the effort is 100%
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