The decision to Go Live or not to Go Live is one of the most important decisions in the project lifecycle, and it should not be taken lightly. Wrong decisions can jeopardize the success of the entire project. The decision to Go Live is highly dependent on the quality of end-to-end testing and user/organizational readiness, as mentioned earlier.

The implications and costs of a failed or unstable Go Live are often far worse than a minor delay in the schedule. Sometimes, the project manager or the delivery team can be under pressure to deliver on time. However, if things are not good, it is important to take a step back and delay Go Live rather than risking the project's success.

The following are some personal experiences that I would like to share in this area:

• Once, I was in a room full of executives, making a decision about pulling the trigger on a new system. Everyone was under pressure from the CEO to say, We are ready. However, most of them were not ready. They did not have enough time to go through the testing due to a lack of staff, but everyone said yes (there was a fear of getting fired; this was way back in 2009 when the economy wasn't doing well). I failed to push back as well. Any guesses as to what happened next? The customer went live, and it was very painful to stabilize them--but, lesson learnt!
• A similar situation occurred again, a couple of years later. Of course, I was smarter this time. The CIO called for a meeting to check the readiness on the project. Everyone said they were ready (the CIO was driving the dates very hard, and again there was fear of getting fired). It was my turn--I bravely stood up and said no, handing over a list of areas I wasn't comfortable with and which needed more testing. The CIO called for another meeting to better understand what was needed to finish those areas and decided not to Go Live. We ended up extending the schedule by six weeks based on what was on the list. The CIO thanked me (and still continues to) for standing up and challenging the decision to Go Live based on the bugs that were reported/fixed in those six weeks.
• On another project, I was involved in the capacity of an executive reviewer; I challenged their readiness, but the CEO did not want to listen. I told them that it was their call, and we would support the release if they signed a liability waiver, as my team was not comfortable with them going live (due to lack of testing from the business team). When we gave them a piece of paper to sign, the CEO chose to reconsider his decision. The customer ended up delaying the release by four weeks. The CEO who was not very happy when he received the push back, but now he feels thankful to my team for watching his back.

There are more instances like these that we can share. The point is that you need to think about the client and the impact on their business. As a consultant, you are their advocate, and you need to protect the customer from hurting themselves (even though it's not what they wanted to hear, you are doing it in their best interest). This is the time to utilize the relationships and respect you have earned from the customer to protect them. Don't be shy.

It is even trickier when you have to stand up for someone else's deliverables. For example, say the customer owns certain deliverables internally, which are not production-ready. You need to request the delay due to their internal deliverables,  as you don't want the project to fail due to specific areas.

Saying that you need more testing is easy. The tough part is to decide how much more time you need. You won't get such an opportunity again. Thorough planning needs to be done to identify all the pieces that are incomplete and to put together a plan to come up with a realistic date. Many project managers fail in this exercise; just hitting the snooze button and delaying this by a few weeks may cost you a job eventually.

Picking realistic dates that will work for the business is important. You don't want to perform an ERP Go Live right before or during the peak periods of the business. Challenges from Go Live will have a severe impact on the business. There are many examples of companies going out of business due to an ERP Go Live during or just before the busy holiday season.