ON-POINT Insight #05 - expertise from the consulting frontline
The Beautiful Chaos of Go-Live — Creating Miracles with Spreadsheets by Vlad Stoenescu
Picture this: it’s 3:37 am, you’re wearing the same hoodie you’ve worn for the last three dress rehearsals, the coffee machine is making a noise like a dying walrus, and you’re staring at 189 steps of a go-live runbook like it’s a cosmic riddle whispered to you by a sadistic oracle. This, dear reader, is cutover. For the uninitiated, cut-over is the sacred weekend when a company decides to stop pretending its old system isn’t held together with chewing gum and Excel macros from 2004 and instead launch a shiny new one that has been tested (probably), blessed (definitely), and may even work (ideally). It’s the Big Switch. The Moment of Truth. The “Oh god, did we remember the firewall rule for the upstream batch interface?” phase. And like all acts of cosmic alignment — solar eclipses, intergalactic collisions, or convincing an executive to join a 4-hour mock cutover call — it requires precision, coordination, and a strong stomach.
The Philosophy of Cut-Over
Cut-over is not just a process. It is a state of mind. A liminal space between “before” and “after”, where timelines bend, and one misstep means someone in Finance won’t be able to pay bonuses on Monday.
Cut-over is Schrödinger’s weekend. Until Monday morning, you’re both live and not live. Every stakeholder is simultaneously satisfied and on the brink of calling their lawyer. The production environment is either pristine or on fire, and you won’t know until the final checkpoint call with someone named Dieter who always joins five minutes late and asks, “So, where are we?”
On the Seventh Day… We Rolled Back
There is a myth that good cut-overs don’t need rollback plans. This is false. That’s like saying skydiving doesn’t need parachutes if your intentions are pure. Every cut-over needs a rollback plan, and a rollback of the rollback plan, and someone on standby who knows how to reboot the core banking system without causing the ATMs to speak in tongues.
You may ask: But surely with enough preparation, nothing will go wrong?
To which I say: You sweet summer child. Even the Titanic had lifeboats… well, sort of.
Tools of the Trade
To survive a cut-over, you will need:
- A master runbook that has been rehearsed more times than Hamlet.
- At least one person who can summon a virtual bridge in under 10 seconds.
- Coffee. So much coffee.
- A deep respect for dependencies. Ignore one, and you will discover what it means to truly weep.
- And finally, someone whose sole job is to say, “Let’s pause here,” before anyone makes a change at 04:02 because “it looks harmless.”
The People
Cutover brings people together in the same way natural disasters do. The project manager, the release manager, the cutover lead, and someone called Hans from Batch Processing who speaks only in monosyllables and system codes.
In these wee hours of tension and sleep deprivation, you will form bonds stronger than blood. Or at least stronger than the VPN connection after 2am.
Post-Go-Live Enlightenment
If the cutover succeeds — and it will, because failure isn’t an option unless you’re working on legacy tax systems — there comes a moment of stillness.
A gentle hush as everyone checks the monitoring dashboards and holds their breath.
And then it comes. A transaction processed. A screen loaded. A user logged in without screaming.
This, my friends, is transcendence.
In Conclusion: The Divine Madness of Go-Live
To participate in a cutover is to stand at the edge of chaos and yell, “Ready for checkpoint 3B?”
It is an art. A science. A religious experience. A crime against sleep.
But when done well, it is invisible. Seamless. Like a heart transplant that the patient doesn’t notice until they’re out dancing on Monday.
So, the next time someone asks you what a cut-over manager does, just smile and say: I create miracles with spreadsheets… and then walk away before they ask you for actual details.
Cut-over doesn’t have to be chaos — let’s choreograph your next go-live together.
At ON-POINT, we bring consulting expertise from the front line — helping you deliver complex projects with confidence. Reach out to Vlad Stenescu to start the conversation.