Creating Production work practice
The production work practice outlines the production phase of the project. The purpose of this work practice is to highlight the major deliverables/products and processes. The production phase defines how the application will transition from a project to a production system.
Getting ready
Before starting, it is important to have an understanding of your project methodology and determine:
- The existing work practices
- The key roles which will be involved in the work practice
- How production support is delivered within your organization
How to do it...
Work practices are best created as a visual tool. To do this, start up a diagramming tool such as Microsoft Visio or Microsoft PowerPoint:
- In the diagramming application, create a new tab or slide called Production.
- On the diagram, create swimlanes. In each swimlane, add the key role.
- Step through this phase of the project logically, and add the key products/deliverables and processes.
- A sample production work practice is shown here:
- Once you have created your products and processes, you will need to describe each of them.
For example, the Hand Over process is used to transition the application from development into production support.
- Once all the products and processes are described, you can now determine the deliverables (information relating to the definition of the product) for each product (component you are building) and the role responsible for delivering it, based on the swimlane.
- For example, the deliverable for Hand Over is a set of steps that are discussed and documented. These steps outline how to manage and maintain the application, developed by the developers during the software development lifecycle.
How it works...
Work practices give members of the project a quick and easy way to understand the flow of activities within the phase, and all the deliverables required with the phase.
There's more...
It is important to understand your organization's production support capabilities and processes. These will determine which artifacts are required to execute this work practice and can drive project timelines.