Implementation Approach: Direct Setup in Production Environment
During a new implementation, the project team is configuring all necessary elements—such as statuses, master data, milestones, and other process-supporting components—directly within the Production (PROD) environment. This method differs from the traditional approach where initial setup and testing occur in a Test (TEST) environment.
Rationale Behind This Approach
Avoiding Sync Issues Between TEST and PROD Keeping PROD and TEST environments perfectly in sync is often an illusion. Despite best efforts, minor configurations are frequently missed, leading to go-live issues. Additionally, the process of making a change first in TEST and then repeating it in PROD is time-consuming and error-prone.
Ensuring Correct Endpoint Usage Configuring directly in PROD ensures all external integrations—such as scanners, web portals, EDI connections, board computers, etc.—use the correct production endpoints from the start.
Performance Considerations The PROD environment typically offers the best performance, which is essential when configuring and testing time-sensitive components and integrations.
Transactional Data Cleanup The solution includes a dedicated job for deleting transactional data. This cleanup process is executed several times throughout the implementation and once more the day before go-live to ensure a clean production environment.
Monitoring and Tracking Changes
Automatic Timestamps In 3PL Dynamics, each record created or modified is automatically timestamped with the user and datetime. This is generally sufficient for tracking and auditing purposes.
Change Log Monitoring For more granular tracking, Change Log Monitoring can be activated when necessary.
Use of RAPP Environment for Change Management
- Users are allowed to make changes in the RAPP environment, which is a daily copy of PROD (refreshed every night).
- Once a change works as expected in RAPP, it must be replicated in PROD manually by the user.
- The daily copy enforces discipline and ensures that changes are deliberately and consciously applied in the live environment.