Application Readiness Checklist

In a project that deals with implementing new applications for users to use, it is important to have the following:

1) Name and General Description of the Application- this includes the purpose of the application and the number of users that are going to use the application.

2) Software

3) Hardware

4) Operating Systems and Patching Requirements

5) Installation and Configuration Guidelines- includes runbooks

6) Application Design- includes flowchart and dependencies

7) Monitoring and Systems Management

8) Key Support & Maintenance Items

9) Back-up, Data Retention and Data Archiving Policies

10) Issues Logs

11) Security Plan

12) Service Level Documentation

The application readiness checklist ensures that the application is ready and fully supportable once deployed. It serves as a guideline for the project teams. Only after listing all the details included in the above sample checklist, and everyone in the project in agreement and the team signing-off, can the application be ready for deployment. The application will first go into UAT or QA to test for bugs and issues, which will be also noted on the "Issues Logs", then after thorough testing and debugging can go into full production.

The project manager researches each requirement and interviews each project member for their input. By engaging the developers, engineers, support groups and information security groups, the project manager will gather all the details needed to meet each requirement. During the time when each group receives their assignments and tasks for delivery, they are also responsible to document their group's work. This may include designs, installation steps, hardware information, grid location of hardware, software and version control. Inclusive in their documentation is the process on how to support the application and how to keep the application healthy by doing proactive monitoring and health checks. To keep the environment more stable, updates and patches should be documented. It is also necessary to include documentation of back-up and retention policies in order to ensure that regular back-ups of the system and data happens, so that should the system crashes, the data is recoverable.

Prior to implementation of the new application, the project manager will schedule a series of meetings to go over the application readiness checklist. Invited to these meetings would be each group responsible for completing each section. During the walk-through, the group reviews and discusses the documentation put together by the project manager to confirm validity and make necessary changes or updates as needed.

Application readiness is an important process in a project involving deployment or new application. By doing so, it ensures that the application documentation is in place should the needs arise. Organizing documentation in one repository will also ensure that the document will be easy to find even when the original project team has moved on to another project or responsibility.