What to Do Before a Major Technology Upgrade

The best time to discover a dependency is before the upgrade begins.

Document the current environment

Know the important devices, applications, accounts, providers and network connections.

Identify what cannot be unavailable

Some systems can tolerate downtime. Others cannot. Define those requirements before scheduling work.

Verify backups

A backup is especially important before making a significant change. More importantly, know how recovery would work.

Identify dependencies

A new network, phone system or cloud service may affect printers, applications, authentication, remote access and other systems.

Plan communication

Staff should know what is changing, when it is changing and what they should do if something behaves differently.

Have a rollback or recovery plan

Not every upgrade goes perfectly. A realistic recovery plan reduces pressure when something unexpected happens.