Professional services team often have to prepare and analyze all the possible cases in order to avoid unwanted results. In this blogpost, we will explain how to ensure the success of a maintenance window (or at least how to avoid a catastrophe!).
All starts when the COL (Customer Operation Leader) generates a ticket (a Work Order) to Professional Services team.
Once this ticket has been generated, the Professional Services team starts working on the project. First, the focus is on the Engineering and Requirements. In this step, we analyze the SOW (Scope of Work) and, based on that, specific customer requests are made. Connections, open ports and OS versioning are included in the requirement.
Once the customer meets the basic requirements, the second stage starts, which includes the installation and setting in a development environment (Model). This feature is implemented as requested by the customer and then the necessary adjustments to successfully validate the new implementation are performed.
The first step to achieve a successful start of the window is to perform validations on the environment (Model). The ATP (Acceptance Test Protocol) is a series of validations predefined by the product area. It is important to highlight that if no point matches the aspects indicated in the SOW, the Professional Services team meets the other teams involved, such as the Development team.
Upon completion of the internal ATP, we begin to perform the ATP with the Customer. At this stage of the project, the technical staff of the company that hires the services is involved so you can review the success of the required solution together with the Professional Services team. It is important that the Customer can validate the necessary proof and to sign his/her agreement with the parties of the project.
Once the ATP has been accepted, we proceed to prepare for the maintenance window. At this stage, we write a document called MOP (Method Of Procedure), in which we define the involved servers, the changes to be made, the necessary tasks and the devices to be validated. Once these points have been drawn up, the Customer shall sign his/her agreement.
In the penultimate step, the window maintenance is carried out, where the changes that were noted in the MOP are performed. Having finished the window, Triple Play validations are performed with the client and the tests that provide changes and requests are made.
Finally, the process concludes with an introduction of the changes to the Technical Support team. In the team, the members are trained so that they can provide a service with the highest levels of quality.
Following these steps, success can often be achieved or at least, a catastrophe can be prevented when having to make improvements to the Customer productive environment.
I hope this information has been useful for you. If you have any questions or enquirers, please do not hesitate to contact me at martin.kociman@intraway.com.
