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Cutover Runbook

An hour-by-hour ERP cutover runbook with owners, dependencies, planned versus actual timing, go/no-go gates, rollback steps and an escalation list.

Free

Free Excel workbook. An hour-by-hour ERP cutover runbook with owners, dependencies, planned versus actual timing, go/no-go gates, rollback steps and an escalation list. Download it, add your project details and use it today: no sign-up for software, no paywall.

Plan and run your ERP go-live weekend from one workbook. The Runbook sheet sequences every task across freeze, technical cutover, data migration, business validation and go-live, with owners, backups, dependencies, verification evidence and a rollback step for each task. Planned end times, actual durations and variances calculate automatically, so you can rehearse in mock cutovers and track live progress against the window. Go/no-go checkpoints record criteria, evidence and decisions, and the contacts sheet holds the escalation path. The summary shows progress, critical-path exposure and gate status for steering committee calls.

What's inside

  • Runbook: Every cutover task in sequence with owner, timing, dependency, verification and rollback step.
  • Go-No-Go Checkpoints: Decision gates during cutover. No later phase starts until the gate is Go.
  • Contacts and Escalation: Who to call during cutover, in which shift, and the escalation path.
  • Summary: key numbers calculated automatically from your data
  • Drop-down lists, worked example rows and formulas you can rely on

How to use it

  1. Draft the runbook early, during build, and refine it after every mock migration and the dress rehearsal. Use dress-rehearsal timings for planned hours.
  2. Write each task so someone other than the owner could execute it: what to do, where, and how to prove it is done.
  3. Record dependencies by Task ID and mark the tasks on the critical path. Name a backup owner for every critical-path task.
  4. Add a rollback step for every task that changes production data or configuration, and agree the point of no return with the steering committee.
  5. Define go/no-go gates with measurable criteria and the evidence required. Do not start the next phase until the gate decision is recorded.
  6. During cutover, update actual start, actual end and status in real time. Review the Summary sheet at every checkpoint call.
  7. After go-live, keep the completed runbook as an audit record and capture lessons learned for future rollouts.

Who it's for

Project managers, solution architects, functional consultants and client-side leads who want their ERP program to go live on time and actually deliver value.

Let's connect

I'm Pranshu Shubham, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O Solution Architect and PMP-certified program lead with 8+ years of ERP and AI transformation across the USA, Europe and APAC. I created this resource from real project experience, and I'd love to hear how you use it.