Hypercare Exit Checklist: Tick Off the Criteria That Close Hypercare
A hypercare exit checklist records what must be true before a release stops being treated as special and becomes business as usual. The interactive list below covers twenty criteria across incidents, data, business acceptance, support readiness and the exit decision, with a progress counter, a not-applicable option per line and a running count of what is still open.
0 of 20 in-scope criteria met. 20 open. 0 marked not applicable.
| Criterion | Met | Not applicable |
|---|---|---|
| Incident volume for the last full week reviewed against the agreed exit threshold | ||
| No open priority 1 incidents attributable to the release | ||
| Every open priority 2 incident has a named owner and a target date | ||
| Remaining defects triaged and moved into the standard change or backlog process | ||
| Known errors and workarounds written up in the support knowledge base | ||
| Business sign-off recorded for each in-scope process, with date and name | ||
| Data reconciliation results accepted by the data owner | ||
| Interfaces observed running clean for the agreed number of consecutive days | ||
| Batch and scheduled jobs completed successfully for the agreed number of cycles | ||
| A full period-end cycle completed in the live system, where one falls in scope | ||
| Performance measured under normal load against the agreed baseline | ||
| Service desk trained, scripts published and first-line routing configured | ||
| Ticket categories, support groups and assignment rules updated in the service tool | ||
| Monitoring, alerting and thresholds handed to the team that will run them | ||
| Third-line and vendor support arrangements confirmed beyond the hypercare period | ||
| Access, roles and licences reconciled against the approved list | ||
| Standing hypercare calls stood down or folded into the normal run cadence | ||
| Outstanding change requests logged and assigned to the receiving team | ||
| Handover pack reviewed and accepted by the named service owner | ||
| Exit decision recorded with date, approver and any conditions attached |
What the checklist covers
Twenty criteria across five areas: incidents and defects, data and interfaces, business acceptance, support readiness, and the exit decision itself. Each line can be ticked as met or marked not applicable, and the counter at the top reports how many in-scope criteria are met and how many are still open. Marking a line not applicable takes it out of the denominator rather than counting it as done, so the two are never confused when someone reads the number.
The list is deliberately generic. A payroll go-live wants a full pay run before exit; a warehouse system wants a peak day; a finance system wants a period close. Those belong in the list before hypercare starts, not argued about in the week somebody wants their people back.
Not applicable is a decision, not a shortcut
The most common way hypercare ends badly is quietly: criteria that were never agreed, then a date that arrives and a team that disperses. The second most common is a criterion marked not applicable by whoever wanted it gone. Recording who decided a line does not apply, and why, costs one column in the real document and settles the argument that surfaces three weeks later when the same issue arrives at a support desk that never expected it.
Thresholds matter as much as the criteria. "Incident volume acceptable" means nothing without a number and a period — incidents per day, over a full week, at or below an agreed level. The hypercare guide works through scope, duration, staffing and the exit criteria that stop it running forever.
Where the criteria come from
Exit criteria are easiest to write at the same time as the go-live readiness criteria, because they are the mirror image: what had to be true to release, and what has to be true to stop treating the release as special. Writing both in the same week means the same definitions get used twice. The go-live checklist covers the entry side.
Once exit is agreed, the work moves to handover and closure — benefits handed to their owner, lessons captured while people still remember, and support formally accepting the service. The cutover runbook and hypercare pack carries the hypercare tabs alongside the cutover weekend, and the project closure report covers what happens after the last criterion is ticked.
Privacy
Ticks live in the page only. Nothing is saved, so reloading clears the checklist — record the real decisions in a document that has an owner and a date.
Questions
How long should hypercare last?
Long enough to cover the cycles that only happen periodically, which usually means at least one period-end for finance systems and a full peak cycle for operational ones. The duration is agreed up front and the exit criteria decide when it actually ends.
What happens to criteria marked not applicable?
They come out of the total rather than counting as met, so the counter shows met, open and not applicable separately. In the real document, record who decided the line does not apply.
Are the ticks saved if I close the tab?
No. The checklist holds nothing between visits and stores nothing in the browser. It is a working view, not a record.
Who signs off hypercare exit?
Whoever owns the service afterwards, alongside the business owner accepting the processes. The checklist records the criteria; the exit decision itself needs a date, an approver and any conditions attached.
Can criteria be added or changed?
The list here is fixed and generic. Copy it into your own document and add the cycles specific to the system: a pay run, a period close, a peak trading day.