Early Life Support
Early life support is the bounded period after go-live during which the delivery team works alongside the permanent support organisation while it takes the system on. It has a defined scope, a staffing arrangement, reporting and exit criteria. The term comes from IT service management practice and overlaps closely with what many programmes call hypercare.
Early life support, usually shortened to ELS, is a service management term for the same problem hypercare addresses: for a period after go-live the permanent support organisation does not yet know the system well enough to run it alone. Where organisations distinguish the two, hypercare is described as project-led and ELS as service-led — the support function owns the arrangement and draws on the delivery team as a resource. Many organisations use only one of the terms, and use it for both meanings.
What it contains
| Element | What it defines |
|---|---|
| Scope | Which services, sites and user groups are covered, and what is already in normal support |
| Start and end | The period, set in advance, usually beginning at go-live |
| Staffing | Which delivery-team roles remain available, at what level of commitment, and on what rota |
| Ticket routing | How calls reach the right place — normally through the service desk from day one, so the permanent route is exercised |
| Priority definitions | The severity scale in use during the period, and the response expectations at each level |
| Escalation | When and how an item moves from support to the delivery team, and who authorises it |
| Reporting | Ticket volumes, backlog by severity, trend, recurring themes and open critical items |
| Knowledge capture | Resolutions written into the knowledge base as they are found, rather than at the end |
| Exit criteria | What must be true for the arrangement to end, measured rather than asserted |
| Closure | Transfer of remaining open items, final documentation updates and a recorded handover |
The Cutover Runbook & Hypercare Pack carries the rota, the log and the exit criteria for this period; the hypercare guide covers scope, duration and exit in more depth.
How it is used
The distinguishing feature of ELS as commonly practised is that tickets go through the normal route from the first day. Users contact the service desk, support attempts resolution, and the delivery team is engaged behind that line. The intent is that the permanent support organisation builds knowledge under supervision rather than inheriting a system cold at the end of the period.
Reporting is used to show whether that is happening. A backlog held by the delivery team rather than by support, or escalation rates that are not falling, indicates the transfer is not taking, whatever the calendar says. The wider handover it sits within is the service transition itself, of which this period is one component.
Where it goes wrong
Bypassing the service desk is the first failure. If users email the project team directly because it is faster, support learns nothing and the arrangement cannot end. The second is treating ELS as an extension of the project, staffed by the same people doing the same work, with no transfer built into it.
The third is undated exit. Without measured criteria the period ends when the delivery team is pulled to the next programme, which is an availability decision rather than a readiness one. The fourth is knowledge captured at the end: resolutions found in week one are documented in week eight, by which time the detail has gone.
Related terms
See also hypercare, service transition and go-live.
Questions
What does ELS stand for?
Early life support. It refers to the bounded period after go-live in which the delivery team supports the permanent service organisation as it takes a new system on.
Is early life support the same as hypercare?
The two overlap heavily and are often used interchangeably. Where a distinction is drawn, hypercare is run by the delivery team and early life support by the service organisation.
How long does early life support last?
It is set in advance and ends against written criteria. Covering at least one full business cycle, such as a period close, is a common consideration when setting the length.
What ends early life support?
The exit criteria being met — typically no open critical items, ticket volumes and escalations trending down, and the support organisation resolving without engaging the delivery team.