Cutover Plan
A cutover plan is the document that sets out how a transition to a new system will be run. It covers scope and approach, the timeline and window, roles and contacts, go/no-go criteria, the freeze, the rollback position, communications and post-cutover verification. It is agreed in advance; the runbook is the task-level script executed inside it.
The plan answers questions that have to be settled before the window opens, when there is still time to argue about them. It is written for the people who will approve the go-live as much as for the people who will execute it, which is why it reads as a document rather than a task list.
What it contains
| Section | What it sets out |
|---|---|
| Scope and approach | Which systems, sites and data are in scope; whether the transition is big bang or phased; what stays on the old system |
| Timeline and window | The start and end of the window, the key checkpoints, and the contingency held inside it |
| Roles and contacts | Cutover manager, technical leads, business validators, vendor contacts, the bridge details and the on-call rota |
| Go/no-go criteria | The conditions checked before the irreversible steps begin, with owners and evidence |
| Freeze | What is frozen, from when, who approves exceptions and who enforces it |
| Data migration approach | Extract, load and reconciliation, with the tolerances that constitute a pass |
| Rollback | Triggers, decision authority, the point of no return and the reverse sequence in outline |
| Communications | Who is told what, at which points, through which channel — internal, customer-facing and vendor |
| Post-cutover verification | Smoke tests, business validation, the first business day checks and who signs them off |
| Support handover | When the support model changes, and the entry point into hypercare |
How it is used
The plan is circulated and agreed weeks before the window. It is the basis for the readiness review and for the go/no-go meeting: the criteria discussed at that meeting are the ones written in the plan, not new ones invented on the day. Once the window opens, attention moves to the runbook, and the plan is referred to only for the decisions it pre-agreed — rollback triggers, decision authority, communication points.
A rehearsal usually rewrites parts of it. Timings, sequence and the contingency figure all change once the transition has been run once at full volume. The comparison of cutover plans and runbooks sets out which content belongs in which document, and the Go Live Readiness Deck covers the presentation layer that draws from the plan.
Where it goes wrong
Plans written for approval rather than for execution are the common case: forty slides of approach with no times, no owners and no rollback position. They pass the governance forum and are useless at 2am.
The second failure is unagreed go/no-go criteria. If the criteria are drafted the day before the meeting, the meeting becomes a negotiation about the standard rather than an assessment against it. The third is a rollback section written as a paragraph — the intent is recorded, the sequence is not, and nobody has timed it. The fourth is a communications plan that covers the project and forgets the people who will phone the service desk on Monday morning.
The fifth is a plan that is never reissued. Rehearsals, scope changes and late decisions all move the content, and if the version circulated in March is still the one people are reading in June, the criteria being assessed at the go/no-go are not the criteria the team has been working to. Reissuing it after each rehearsal, with the timings and contingency updated, keeps the approved document and the executed one in the same shape.
Related terms
See also cutover, cutover runbook and rollback plan.
Questions
What is the difference between a cutover plan and a cutover runbook?
The plan sets out the approach, criteria and decisions. The runbook is the timed, task-level script executed during the window, with owners and start times per step.
When should a cutover plan be written?
Early enough that the freeze, the rehearsal and the readiness review can all be planned against it — normally weeks before the window, not days.
Does a cutover plan need to include rollback?
It sets out the rollback position: the triggers, who decides, and the point after which rollback is no longer available. The step-by-step reverse sequence usually sits in its own document.
Who approves a cutover plan?
The forum that will take the go/no-go decision, typically with the business owner, the technical lead and the party that will support the system afterwards.