What do you need to know to avoid IT implementation and testing risks?

Scope creep requires special attention. With new versions and tools being released everyday, often leadership ends up going for the latest and greatest software without realizing the true cost of change in the middle of implementation.

Changing something during a project gets geometrically more expensive as you progress through the project phases. This makes the discovery and high level design stages absolutely critical because changing something on a sheet of paper is significantly cheaper than once you have started to build it. The number one questions to be asking as a consultant at this stage is : What problem are you trying to solve? Follow it up with: Why is that a problem? What do you expect the solution to do? And, how are you going to measure its success? IT projects all too often fall victim to the Next Shiny Toy syndrome. Where people start chasing the latest technology without truly understanding it or the problem that they are applying it to.

Acknowledging that zero risk is unattainable is key to IT risk management. It's essential to select acceptable risks, employ solutions like rollback and data backups, and embrace agile, incremental value deliveries. Ultimately, the best contingency is a skilled and dedicated team.

To avoid IT implementation and testing risks it's imperative to understand the "4 Gaps" in IT delivery. Gap 1 is Strategy, Gap 2 is Design 3 is Transition and 4 is Operations. Any implementation risk in terms of failing to meet customer or user expectations arises from a leadership failure in one or more of these Gaps. For example, when leaders don't get the full story about needs, they make a poor decision, that cascades to design and the solution developed isn't aligned with its expectations. What gets put into production doesn't quite meet needs, resulting in operations staff having to over-deliver.

Create a RASCI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted, Informed) to clearly show where responsibility lies within a project team.

Navigating IT risks, demands a precise balance of steadfastness and agility in design and development. Often overlooked as standard practice, choosing a project-specific methodology is paramount. Developers may shy away from documentation, but even brief, clear notes ensure clarity and traceability, (without needing exhaustive details like multiple Confluence pages :) ). Regular code reviews and post-mortem analyses are invaluable, steering continuous improvement. Take a startup crafting a mobile banking app, for instance. They adopt Agile, given the nimble team and iterative necessities. When an unforeseen outage hits, a post-mortem promptly identifies and rectifies a server issue, finetuning their approach for subsequent releases.

Systematic testing and QA/QE are pivotal for IT risk mitigation. Imagine launching a new e-commerce platform. While the backend might function impeccably, if the user interface is glitchy, customers will retreat. User acceptance testing would spot such issues before the release. Or consider a software update; without regression testing, older features could malfunction. Tools like test automation accelerate this process, ensuring timely deliveries. If, post-release, a security loophole is found, swift defect tracking is a lifesaver, literally. The more you are able to shift testing 'left', the less defects will hit production down the road. #earlyandoften

Tackling a Deployment Plan can seem daunting, but try approaching it as an iterative document that you build with the team. I've had great success with scheduling breakout sessions with subject-matter experts as needed to outline specific deliverables for each phase and then bringing team leads in to approve of the plan once it's ready. Don't forget to publish the Deployment Plan to make it available to all team members and organization leaders to ensure everyone is on the same page.

We all know that testing pre-launch is a thing but what happens after? Take, for instance, a newly launched social media app. While initial tests showed no glitches, real-world usage might reveal issues only when thousands simultaneously upload videos. We need to be able to catch those unexpected spikes and addressing those issues promptly is essential to retain users. Using tools like NewRelic, provides real-time insights into server health and user behavior. By embracing Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, teams can proactively manage system reliability, ensuring uptime and performance optimization. The key is not just to spot but predict.