Cutover
Transition cutover is that part of a software project where you take what you have been working on for, in this case, nearly eight months, and you begin to move it over into the production environment. Migrating code and data, getting all of those moving parts to suddenly line up and fall together.
We started last night, so I was up off and on through the night, fielding phone calls, answering email. It is currently about five thirty AM and I have already been at it about two hours, running on short sleep, coffee, and discipline. I will run pretty much around the clock for three days in a row. This is a relatively small project so the cut-over is a relatively short time period and the plan allows for sleep. The best laid plans of mice and men often...well you know the rest.
The peak of the stress was a few weeks ago and this time period, though stomach tangling, is mostly lined up. This is the time period when all of the stress of the previous weeks either pays off or doesn't. I've been on a few train wrecks at transition cutover during my years in this line of work. This won't be one. You usually know going in if you are going to crash. Of course, I caught a new wrinkle in thing last night, but it is peripheral to everything else and won't effect go live. It will just get dropped on the list of things to discuss and craft a solution for.
All stress of course is relative - I see the morning news dominated by the floods in Cedar Rapids and you know, I have next to nothing to fret about in the grand scheme of things. I am safe, I am warm, I am well fed, I am happy, and those nearest and dearest to me are mostly the same, save those who are voluntarily in harms way somewhere. My friends, though they have their challenges, are basically well.
If you think of yourself as a vessel, and stress as the steam inside of the vessel, this is the dangerous part of high stress - its the point where you begin to open the valve and let the pressure start to bleed off to return to normal. On personal level, I just try and focus on letting myself return slowly. Be aware that I can be emotionally raw. Be aware that I might take offense at something that was not intended to offend. Be aware that I am seeing the world through a distorting filter.
Now, that distorting filter has its advantages. I tend to see the world through a strange set of filters anyway, LOL, so sometimes the distorting filters work as a double negative. If you see the world as a strange place and the filters are strange, does that make you see the world as normal? Hahahahaha - I have no idea really, but the idea appeals to me.
It is during times like this that I often feel deeply and profoundly and humbly human. Human in the classic sense of being interconnected with everyone else - good, bad, and indifferent. So, that is a good thing as well.
As the pressure comes off, I am looking forward to a period of insights and looking forward to sharing them. Today will be a day of calm focus and disciplined engineering processes - and I am sure some strange thoughts through the strange filters. As a manager, and on this particular project, my part as a technical resource is done and there is a project manager who has oversight of the cutover plan and who job it is to drive it through to completion. My job is to just support people and deal with challenges as they arise, so I will be heading into the office shortly - and mostly doing nothing.
I may spend a good portion of the day starting to pull together the notes, read the old email, circle around a couple of times and make sure things are accounted for. I am sure I will spend a good part of it just monitoring email and teleconferences.
It may also be a creative day as I attempt to capture all of the thoughts and impressions that flow out of the pressure valve as the steam slowly releases over the next couple of days.
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