Here’s how you find out in 48 hours:
1. Run a
Pull your SMEs, business leads, and a few C‑Suite sponsors into a room. Give them a realistic scenario: «The cutover failed. Data didn’t migrate. Go-live is in 12 hours. What do you do?»
- Red flag: If they freeze, defer to IT, or start blaming the SI, they’re not ready.
- Green light: If they outline clear steps — escalation paths, backup plans, who owns what — they’ve been prepped.
2. Ask Three Questions
Pose these to your business users. Their answers will tell you everything:
- «What’s the one thing you’re most worried about breaking during go-live?»
- Bad answer: «I don’t know» or «The system.»
- Good answer: «Customer order processing because we haven’t tested the edge cases with [specific team].»
- «Who do you call at 2 AM if your critical report fails?»
- Bad answer: «I’d email the helpdesk.»
- Good answer: «I call [name] in the delivery team, and here’s the backup process we agreed on.»
- «What’s your personal plan for the first 72 hours post-go-live?»
- Bad answer: «Show up and see what happens.»
- Good answer: «I’ve blocked my calendar, prepped my team on manual workarounds, and know where the issue logs are.»
3.
- Unprepared teams have no time allocated for testing, training, or issue resolution.
- Prepared teams have dedicated slots for UAT, dry runs, and hypercare support—and they’ve delegated BAU tasks in advance.
4. Review Their «Cheat Sheets»
Ask for their .
- Unprepared users have nothing or rely on generic training docs.
- Prepared users have custom checklists, contact lists, and workflow diagrams they built themselves.
5.
Give them a hypothetical problem (e.g., «A key report is wrong, and the SI is swamped. How do you diagnose it?»).
- Unprepared: «I’d wait for IT.»
- Prepared: «I’d pull the data manually, cross-check with [tool], and escalate with these details: [specifics].»
The Brutal Truth: If these tests, your upgrade is already in trouble. Fix it now — delay the go-live, intensify training, or bring in reinforcements. .
What concrete strategies can replace hope in ERP upgrade planning?