PROJECT NAME

Early Life Support Plan

Prepared by: Author

PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT
Early life support is a time-limited, enhanced level of assistance to ensure appropriate levels
of support are provided during stabilisation, issues are addressed quickly and knowledge
transfer is occurring to the run organisation. The objective of the plan is to establish specific
activities that will occur that are above and beyond the standard production support plan as
well as establish criteria for stabilization

RACI
Responsible Accountable Consult Inform
Project Manager Project Board & Business Owner,
Project Executive Infrastructure,
Applications,
Services
Management,
Research IT

GUIDANCE NOTE: This should show who is responsible, accountable, consulted and
informed with regard the document
DOCUMENT CONTROL

CHANGE CONTROL TABLE

Version Amendment Description Release Date Updated by

APPROVALS

Approver Title Date of issue Version

DISTRIBUTION
This document has been distributed to:

Name Title Date of issue Version

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Contents

1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 4

2 Support Desk Type, Roles and Expectations............................................................................4

3 Support Activities and Resource During ELS...........................................................................5

4 Communications.......................................................................................................................... 6

5 ELS Duration and Stabilisation (Exit) Criteria...........................................................................8

6 Stabilisation Review and Escalation........................................................................................ 10

7 Approval to Exit ELS.................................................................................................................. 11

8 Contact Information................................................................................................................... 12

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1 Introduction
Early life support is a time-limited, enhanced level of assistance following successful deployment to ensure that:

 Appropriate levels of support are provided during stabilisation.

 Issues relating to deployment are addressed quickly.
 Knowledge transfer occurs to the Service Desk and BAU support teams.
The Early Life Support Plan covers the following:
1. Defined support activities
2. Communication expectations during ELS
3. Exit criteria and measurement
4. Escalation paths

2 Support Desk Type, Roles and Expectations

GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the standard text in the table as required

Type Roles & Qty Required Details Timeframe Contact

ELS Help Desk * Service Desk Analysts The roles will be managed respectively by the Service Duration of
(temporary / Desk Manager and the Project Manager who will agree ELS
* Project Team Members
virtual) on:
* Dept (or legacy) Support
* Team member working hours
* Knowledge transfer expectations
* Phone / customer contact expectations
* Response / Fix turn-around expectations
3 Support Activities and Resource During ELS
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the standard text below and in the table as required
The following activities will be conducted during Early Life Support. The specifics around each activity area should be determined in consultation with
users as to their needs, support groups as to their assessment of reasonable level of support and the business owner as to appropriate commitment

Contact Resource Agreed

Activity Details Timeframe Resource
Information With
Ensuring
application
operation is
acceptable

Ensuring
Operational
readiness

On-Call support

Troubleshooting
network,
filestore, OS or
application
problems

Responding to
basic user
queries

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4 Communications
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the standard text in the table as required.

Communicated
Description Possible Recipient(s) Frequency Method
by:
The Project Manager will * Project Team members Regular (likely daily) Project and Deployment Teams will
conduct regular meetings, attend regular meetings. The purpose
* Client Devices Manager
communicate about issues as of the meeting is to identify specific
or representative
needed and coordinate with incidents and determine necessary
others who may also need to * Campus Customer courses of action.
attend. Support Managers or
Other topics that arise needing more
representatives
than a few minutes to address will be
* Service Desk Manager set aside for later discussion among
or representative the necessary parties.

* Applications Support
Managers
* FRMs
* Others deemed
necessary for specific
concerns

Tracking progress against * Service Desk Manager At the end of Project Via regular e-mail, phone or in-person
stabilisation criteria. ‘stand-by’ period (day discussions or meetings when
* Service T & A Manager
4 post-migration), necessary.
then as required until
ELS exit.

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 Announcing stabilisation and * All Support Teams On final decision Via formal meeting between Project
early life support exit and the Managers, Service Desk Manager,
* Project Board
move to standard support. relevant Support Team Managers and
* Lead Team Service T&A Manager.

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5 ELS Duration and Stabilisation (Exit) Criteria
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the example text below and in the table as required.
The ELS period will last for a period of up to two weeks from go-live provided the following stabilisation criteria are met. Some criteria are measured
using specific indicators, others are based on feedback.

Measurement
Metric Required for Stabilisation Report/Feedback Provided by
Category
Operational Platform / Operational Requirements
Infrastructure Testing Checklist

Known issues without Number of known errors / issues Number of user-impacting, known errors or
workaround relating to Operating System or issues arising since migration without a
application performance. workaround = 0 (zero)

Known Issues with Number of known errors / issues Number of known errors or issues arising since
workaround relating to Operating System or migration with a workaround < 5
application performance.

Significant Incidents P1 or P2 Incidents reported over Significant (P1 or P2) migration-related Incident
a set number of consecutive tickets raised by department or school in the
business days. previous 2 business days = 0 (zero)

Knowledge Transfer Support teams (including Confirmation from all support teams that they
Applications and Infrastructure) have all required information and knowledge to
in possession of required take on BAU support.
documentation, scripts and
Known Error logs.

Support Resource Number of outstanding resource Number of outstanding resource requirements Support Team Managers

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 Requirements requirements as identified in the =0
Support Model.

CMDB Update Registering of new configuration All new configuration items provided in agreed Configuration Analyst
items format to the CMDB Analyst.

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6 Stabilisation Review and Escalation
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the standard text below and in the table as required
The triggers for immediate stabilisation review and the required escalation process are defined below:

Trigger Escalation Point Contingency

1 or more criteria metrics at risk Project Manager creates corrective course of action in Manageable resolution with an extension of stabilisation
or experiencing significant collaboration with other work/resource managers to period for as long as necessary and with necessary
issues allocate staff. resources allocated.
If resources become unavailable, Project Manager will Stabilisation criteria re-evaluated and priorities adjusted
refer to appropriate ITS leadership to identify where appropriate.
resources.
Contingency plans must be consistently communicated
with Service Desk Manager, Service T&A Manager and
FRMs as required.

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7 Approval to Exit ELS
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add to the standard text below and in the table as required

Role Name Signature* and Date

IT Service Owner e.g. AD Applications, AD Infrastructure

Applications / Database Manager

Servers & Storage Manager

Client Devices Manager

Service Desk Manager

CCS Manager

Project Manager

Service Transition & Acceptance

Manager

* Electronic signature or notification of acceptance is a valid method of approval. The project manager should maintain a record of any such notifications
in the project folder structure.

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8 Contact Information
GUIDANCE NOTE: Update, amend or add contact details of stakeholders to the table as required

Project Team: Servers and Storage:

 

Applications: Service Desk:

  Service Desk Analysts, ext. 8888

Client Devices: Service Transition and Acceptance Manager:

 

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