Page History

Resources

Low Resources

Moderate Resources

High Resources

Based on the number of personnel required to execute the retirement (including any client transitions): low, moderate or high

Work can be done generally be done by an INDIVIDUAL staff member or equivalent, within the context of existing assignments and responsibilities; no separate budgeting and resource allocation is usually done for this level; time is usually measured in DAYS

• Email retirement date to release-core@mit.edu

Usually confined to a single TEAM with contacts into other parts of the organization and into business stakeholder groups; formal resource allocation is often involved, and an ad-hoc team may be formed; projects in this category may involve software licenses and other materials and services budget items; time is usually measured in WEEKS

• (Include low resources task list)
• Review Retirement Decision Template with business owner and stakeholders: Retirement Decision Template
• Create retirement team

May involve an entire ORGANIZATION of project teams, operational teams, and transition teams, staff in many parts of the organizations, consultants, formal budgets usually accounted for as part of IS&T’s central budgeting process, significant licensing, materials and services, and capital budgets; time is usually measured in MONTHS or YEARS

• (Include low and medium resource task lists)
• Obtain senior staff approval

Impact to the MIT Community

Low Impact

Moderate Impact

High Impact

How much of the MIT community will this effort affect and how much will they be affected?

LOW impact confined to behind the scenes, internal areas of IS&T, and business support groups; little to no customer-facing impact

• Update IS&T Service Portfolio listings
• * Place retirement date on Change Communication Calendar
• * Send announcement and change log to release-core@mit.edu once retirement is complete*
• Update any known open issues affected by retirement and close

LOCAL or bounded to small group, roles, or department; group of customers of service offering or product, while it may be significant in size, is usually within a specific domain with well-established communications channels; we know who uses product or service offering and how they will react to changes

• (Include steps from low impact list)* Contact Help Desk at inception to determine proper level engagement
• * If transitioning customers to an alternative product or service offering, contact training at inception to determine proper level engagement*
• Contact documentation/content owners at inception to determine proper level engagement
• * Contact key stakeholders at inception to determine proper level engagement* Review need to de-support of previous version(s)*
• Discuss retirement with DITR
• * If sending outside of IS&T, send draft retirement announcement to IS&T communications team (ist-comm@mit.edu) at least 2 business days prior to retirement*
• Contact production@mit.edu to schedule changes in software grid (if applicable) to coincide with sending of retirement announcement*
• Inform release-core@mit.edu of retirement at least 1 business day prior to retirement
• * Execute (Send announcement, remove any applicable software from download server, etc.)*
• If actual dates do not match previously expected dates, update Change Communication Calendar

WIDE impact to large segments of the MIT community, often with incomplete understanding of precise impact and user base, and without complete communication channels into community segments; customers often rely on affected products and service offerings for their day-to-day work

• (Include steps from low & medium impact lists)*
• Contact DLCs at inception to determine proper level engagement
• * Consider how to support customers transitioning to alternative product or service offering*
• Create communication plan

Risk to IS&T

Low Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

How much will the retirement of the product or decommissioning of the service offering affect IS&T relationship with our customers?

Negligible to LOW; service alternatives are readily available, service continuity is not at risk, and changes can be backed out quickly and quietly

• Search http://ist.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org and http://kb.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org for any articles that would be invalidated by retirement and update as needed

MEDIUM, with failure to transition customers of potentially significant impact but affecting a limited audience; contingency and roll-back checklists are needed, but can be executed and communicated quickly in the event of a problem; limited, well-understood decommissioning and transition timeline is generally acceptable to stakeholders and customers

• (Include low risk task list)
• Test alternative or replacement software on all supported operating systems
• If posting new software, place latest version of old software in definitive software library

HIGH risk is involved at this level; failure to transition customers will have significant negative impact on IS&T’s reputation and customer’s ability to get work done; formal mitigation plans, fully tested and approved contingency plans, and communications plans in the event of failures are called for

• (Include low and medium risk task lists)
• Create detailed transition plan including contingencies