Auditor Involvement in Systems Deployment - Auditing Information Systems: Enhancing Performance of the Enterprise - page 115

Go Live
After the system has been tested and the users have been trained, the next stage is to go
live. The method of going live will really depend on the circumstances and requirements of
the enterprise.
The enterprise might choose to use a parallel system or direct changeover implementation
where the old system is dropped and completely replaced with the new system. Cost and
availability of resources might be a factor in deciding which method to use.
Going live means that the users and management have signed off the project and they are
ready for its use in the enterprise. The IS auditor, having been a member of the project team
from start to this point, should also sign off and indicate satisfaction with the project and
that it meets all the requirements as specified in the project goals statement.
It is important that the system has a rollback strategy. In the event of a major system failure
or incidents affecting key modules, the go live can be aborted and rolled back to the old
system. The IS auditor should ensure that this strategy is developed before the system is
completely implemented. The rollback procedures should be properly tested and approved
by the project team.
Documentation for the system which have been developed throughout the project should
now be consolidated and updated where necessary. A number of things could have changed
from the beginning of the project to this point and would include some key objectives. The
changes need to be reflected in the documentation as they will be used for future training
and for updating procedures.
The IS auditor should now be preparing for a new life. A project can be very involving and
take a long period especially if it is a large system concerning a large number of users, cus-
tomers, and in some cases, branch offices located in different countries.
The IS auditor should start at this point considering developing an audit program for the
new application system. He might be required to develop audit objectives for the new ap-
plication which the IS audit team should use to audit the new application system in the near
future.
Post Implementation
The project team will require regular meetings to review operations of the system during
the agreed period of post implementation. There is no standard duration of post implement-
ation. The duration depends on the size of the project and complexity of the system. There
could be many other reasons which might cause the enterprise to require a longer duration
for post implementation.