My contribution
- Planned and executed test to stage to production promotions with defined exit gates and severity rules.
- Defined performance benchmarks and coordinated vendor resolution of issues.
- Managed training, job aids, communications, rollback planning, contingency planning, and change freezes.
Outcome
Strengthened quality control, readiness planning, and stakeholder confidence for a high-visibility enterprise platform release.
Overview
This upgrade advances the entire RMS suite to the newest supported UI release. The strategy follows our lifecycle plan to perform upgrades annually, minimizing technical debt and positioning us to adopt improvements from the vendor.
Guiding principle: Govern promotions with defined exit gates and severity rules, ensuring zero Showstoppers and verified performance before each move.
In Scope
- Suite upgrade to the new RMS UI release
- Promotion path: TEST → STAGE → PROD with exit gates
- Regression & UAT on business-critical workflows
- Performance targets & smoke tests
- Change management: comms, job-aids, training
Out of Scope
- Unrelated net-new features at go-live
- Non-essential redesigns beyond the vendor UI release
Objectives
- Adopt the redesigned UI while maintaining functional parity
- Meet performance & availability targets through cutover
- Minimize end-user friction via communication & training
Objectives and cadence per kickoff & planning docs.
What’s New in the Approach
- Exit-gate policy with severity rules and promotion blocks for Showstoppers
- Manual timing benchmarks (≤3s page load, ≤5s actions) tracked in TEST/STAGE
- Documented rollback, contingency, and change-freeze procedures
Requirements & NFRs summarized from spec.
Timeline
- • July 2025 - September 2025
Project Team Roles Managed
- Project Manager (my role)
- Product Owner / Business Alignment
- Business Analysts (workflow & UX impacts)
- App Analysts / DevOps (environments & deployments)
- Developers (config & vendor coordination)
- QA & UAT Testers
- Change Management (comms, training, job-aids)
Governance & Exit Gates
Environment Promotion Policy
- TEST→STAGE: 0 Showstoppers; triage of remaining defects; rehearsal complete
- STAGE→PROD: UAT complete; performance targets met; comms delivered; change-freeze
- Post-PROD: snapshot captured; smoke test GREEN; DEV refresh planned
As defined in the Requirements Specification.
Vendor & Validation
- Vendor performs the upgrades in TEST, STAGE, and PROD; provides release notes & change docs
- WashU team executes regression, integration checks, and UAT; manages risk and comms
- Downtime, rollback, and contingency plans documented and communicated
Vendor & team responsibilities summarized.