Review team (lead)

• Review lessons that previous review team leads learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  
• Set scope, parameters, and agenda of review.
  
• Communicate meeting details to team members.
  
• Facilitate the review.
  
• Knowledge and authority to make decisions regarding the release.
  
• Commitment to action items for functional area he or she represents.
  

Security

• Intellectual Property Protection
  
• Network and System Security
  
• Intrusion Detection
  
• Virus Protection
  
• Audit and Compliance Administration
  
• Contingency Planning
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous security team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Ensure that all required documentation relative to the security function is adequate.
  
• Ensure that the release was built and staged according to the organization's security standards, policies, and procedures.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure that the release conforms to the organization's security standards and policies and does not create security risks.
  
• Ensure that the intellectual property protection, network and system security (authentication), intrusion detection, and virus protection solutions are in place, and that they encompass the new release.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure that the release has been included in audit.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Development

• Development
  
• Release Development
  
• Testing
  
• User Education
  
• Logistics
  
• Supportability Requirements
  
• Documentation
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous development team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Provide evidence that the release has been built and staged according to the organization's standards, policies, and procedures. For example, in the case of migrating software components from development to operation, definitive software library migration security and standards are implemented.
  
• Provide documentation on the functionality and configuration of the release.
  
• Provide documentation on the release for support and operations, including documentation on backups, monitoring, and maintenance.
  
• Provide evidence that all bugs associated with the release have been identified and adequate action plans are in place to address or work around them.
  
• Bring back lessons learned from the release review to developers to apply to future releases.
  

Target Environment

• Provide evidence that all hardware and software required for the release is in place.
  
• Provide evidence of customer/user agreement to proceed.
  

Rollout Plan

• Provide evidence that the organization (support and operations) is trained and ready.
  
• Provide rollout plan including:
  
  • "Day of" plan
    
  • Build plan
    
  • Test plan
    
  • Contingency plan
    
  • Communications plan
    
  • Contact information
    

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  
• Action plans to fix documentation that was inadequate.
  
• Identify all workarounds addressing bugs associated with the release.
  
• Confirm that the customer/user experience of the deployment was in line with expectations.
  

Users

Users of the release are operational "hands on the keyboard" users.

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous user team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Confirm that all required documentation and training relative to this release exist and are adequate.
  
• Ensure acceptance of the release for release review.
  

Target Environment

• Report on how the release may affect users' daily activities.
  
• Ensure that communications are in place to all key stakeholders to ensure they are aware of the change, the reasons for the change, the risks and associated mitigation plans, and their role in the change.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure communication and understanding of the deployment schedule and its impact on the users.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Customers

Customers are usually the managers who have approved and funded the development of the release.

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous customer team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Ensure acceptance of release for release.
  
• Ensure status of all outstanding bugs and associated action plans are in place to address or work around them.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure support, operations, and partner organizations can meet SLAs/OLAs.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure release SLAs/OLAs will be met.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Release

Change Management

Release/Systems Engineering

Configuration Management

Software Distribution/Licensing

Quality Assurance

MSF/Change Development Liaison

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous release team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  
• Ensure impact analysis is complete.
  

Release

• Provide evidence that all release, configuration, and change management documentation is in order.
  
• Provide evidence that each identified bug has a corresponding action plan to address or work around it.
  
• Ensure that test results, performance, pilot results, and QA metrics meet established guidelines required for a go decision for the release implementation.
  

Target Environment

• Provide evidence that all key stakeholders are aware of the proposed change, the reasons for the change, the risks and associated mitigation plans, as well as their role in the change.
  
• Provide evidence that all configuration management database (CMDB) information has been provided.
  
• Ensure that all possible negative impacts on existing releases have been identified and dealt with adequately.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure completeness, accuracy, and reasonableness of the rollout plan. For completeness, the plan must include a:
  
  • "Day of" plan
    
  • Build plan
    
  • Test plan
    
  • Contingency plan
    
  • Communications plan
    
  • Contact information
    
• Provide evidence that the rollout plan has been reviewed for impact on existing configuration and other concurrent changes.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Infrastructure

• Enterprise Architecture
  
• Infrastructure Engineering
  
• Capacity Management
  
• Cost/IT Budget Management
  
• Resource and Long-Range Planning
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous infrastructure team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Ensure that all hardware and software required for the release is in place.
  
• Ensure that the release meets site standards for hardware, software, media, and documentation.
  
• Ensure that the release meets site standards for enterprise architecture, infrastructure engineering, and resource and long-range planning.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure that the SLAs/OLAs can be achieved based on the planned infrastructure.
  
• Ensure that adequate capacity exists for the initial and future needs of the release (including client, server, and network hardware and software in the existing environment).
  
• Establish baseline capacity.
  
• Ensure that all initial and ongoing costs have been adequately accounted for (such as licenses, support, software maintenance, and consumables).
  

Rollout Plan

• Approve the installation plan and risk management plans.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Support

• Service Desk/Help Desk
  
• Incident Management
  
• Production/Product Support
  
• Problem Management
  
• Service Level Management
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous support team representatives learned in previous release.
  

Release

• Ensure that all required support documentation, procedures, contacts, and escalation paths exist and are adequate.
  
• Ensure that problem management is aware of all known errors, bugs, and so forth, associated with the release and that adequate action plans are in place to address or work around them.
  
• Assess the need for additional partner resources to perform support tasks.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure service desk/help desk and production/product support staffing is in place and adequate (such as sufficient staffing levels and skills) for the release, both for initial release and thereafter.
  
• Ensure reasonableness of SLAs/OLAs for this particular release relative to the support organization.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure that training and transition plans are adequate for support personnel and customers/users.
  
• Ensure that rollout plan adequately reflects needs for support during the initial cutover period.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Operations

• Service Monitoring and Control
  
• Directory Services Administration
  
• Availability Management
  
• Messaging Operations
  
• Database Operations
  
• Network Administration
  
• Storage Management
  
• Availability Management
  
• Job Scheduling
  
• Print/Output Management
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous operations team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Ensure that all required operations documentation, including backups, monitoring, maintenance, procedures, contacts, and escalation paths exist and are adequate.
  
• Ensure that the release was built and staged according to the organization's operations standards, policies, and procedures.
  
• Assess the need for additional partner resources to perform operational tasks.
  
• Ensure that the release met site standards for messaging operations, database operations, network administration, monitoring/metrics, and availability management.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure operations staffing is in place and adequate (such as sufficient staffing levels and skills) for the release, both for initial release and on an ongoing basis.
  
• Ensure reasonableness of SLAs/OLAs relative to the operations function.
  
• Ensure all automated infrastructure support mechanisms work, are sufficient to meet SLAs/OLAs, and have thresholds set correctly.
  
• Ensure backups can be made initially within specified timelines and on an ongoing basis based on projected growth.
  
• Ensure that a test of backup integrity (both system and database) is planned.
  
• Ensure reasonableness of all operations staff work tasks related to the monitoring, backup, directory, telecom, and print services related to the release.
  
• Ensure that written procedures exist for each of these tasks, including escalation paths and primary/secondary support/contact information.
  
• Ensure that administrative tasks expected of the operations staff are documented and reasonable, given operations staff workload.
  
• Ensure that failover and recovery, availability management, and security measures are adequate for meeting SLAs/OLAs for the particular release.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure that training and transition plans are adequate for operations personnel as well as customers and users.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.
  

Partners

• Maintenance Vendors
  
• Environment Support
  
• Managed Services, Outsourcers, Trading Partners
  
• Software and Hardware Suppliers
  

Pre-work

• Review lessons that previous partner team representatives learned in previous release readiness and post-implementation review meetings.
  

Release

• Ensure that all required documentation relative to services supplied for the particular release is adequate.
  
• Assess if current contract, headcount, and staff skill levels are sufficient to support this particular release, or if adjustments need to be made to meet SLAs/OLAs.
  
• Ensure that the release meets site standards for maintenance vendors, environment support, managed services, outsourcers, training partners, as well as software and hardware suppliers.
  

Target Environment

• Ensure reasonableness of SLAs/OLAs for the release relative to the partner's function.
  

Rollout Plan

• Ensure that training, documentation, and transition plans are adequate for the partner to support SLAs/OLAs through the use of underpinning contracts.
  

Post-Implementation Review

• Identify results that did not meet the plan and their causes.
  
• Define action items to resolve outstanding issues.
  
• Identify best practices to repeat in the future.
  
• Identify mistakes to avoid in the future.