Marketing Automation - Are you ready for an upgrade? Part II of II
In part I of this two-part series, we discussed the two major types of upgrades - service releases and feature enhancements and identified key areas of consideration when making the decision to upgrade.
In this post, we'll assume that you've made the decision to upgrade and will talk through a few additional considerations that can help determine the "when" and the "how" of upgrades. I'll also share a few best practices that might help you get started.
Before embarking upon a major upgrade, ask yourself:
- Has the software been out long enough to detect any significant problems? I usually recommend that clients wait approximately 4-6 months after a major new software version is released before upgrading. In the first few months, the software company finds bugs they didn't identify during testing, and they prepare a service release or minor upgrade to fix those problems. Waiting until the first service release is available will reduce the risk of running into unexpected and potentially significant problems.
- How long will it take to complete the upgrade? What resources are required? Most every installation will have different criteria that you will need to examine before answering these questions. Build a basic checklist that will allow you establish the upgrade path that makes the most sense for your organization. For example your checklist may need to account for: the number of environments involved (Test, Dev & Prod); upgrade procedures by operating system; new hardware requirements, migration scripts; any customization and/or system integration requirements; risk management (e.g., what could be lost when moving from legacy version and how can we mitigate?); UAT plan and requirements; ownership; new business processes required; and training...to name a few. Keep in mind that any customization you've made to your existing software will require a specialized conversion path to the new release if the new version does not allow for backward compatibility.
- What will the deployment downtime look like? New software versions can sometimes require significant downtime for deployment and could impact business operations. As a result, you might decide to upgrade using a phased rather than "cut over" approach to mitigate downtime issues and make it easier to migrate and train users.
Many organizations are not equipped to address all of these questions and often need the assistance of an experienced Systems Integrator or Services Provider to scope the level of effort for upgrading to the new release.
For any marketing automation new version upgrade, my best advice is this:
- Involve members of the cross-functional teams that support and use the applications to evaluate the new version for resulting business and technical impacts.
- Prepare a comprehensive checklist to guide your discovery so you may account for all of the tasks that need to be eventually manifested in a detailed upgrade project plan. With this baseline, you should be poised to measure the level of effort of each resource involved and establish a budget for the time that needs to be invested to be up in production and benefiting from your application upgrade
- Create a migration forum for the business and end users to leverage and help them better understand the new features/functionality to adopt the new solution more readily.
- Identify the appropriate resources (both in-house and external experts) to help make the upgrade as smooth and seamless as possible.
Are you undertaking a major software upgrade in the near future? Let me know if this guidance helps at all. I look forward to your feedback.
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