A flying f*%kup
You’ve spent years and swathes of cash planning a major upgrade. Importing the best engineers, business consultants, designers and researchers, you’ve planned your project down to the finest detail, assessing risks, inviting all the right stakeholders to contribute and undertaking stringent testing procedures before launch.
There are no cutting corners and no getting it wrong - you’re upgrading once of the most important and most highly trafficked sites in the world and any downtime would have a severe effect on a large number of people.
Going live - the moment you’ve been waiting for for what seems like years has come. Are we ready? Have we checked all the systems? Is everyone trained on how to deal with the infrastructure and networks? Is our backup plan prepared?
“Ok! Flick the switch!”
Nothing.
“Flick it again!”
Still nothing.
The pressure is mounting. Complaints start to trickle in. Your visitors are wondering what is going on as there is no service. Total chaos ensues.
No, I’m not talking about a website now, but Heathrow Terminal 5. My trip to Amsterdam to see Mark Knopfler in concert, planned months ago, has been thwarted by “a catalogue of errors“.