Everyone talks about change management. But no one talks about transition.

And that’s a problem — because most IT failures don’t come from rogue deployments. They come from rushed, half-baked transitions that leave teams blind and unsupported.

Service Transition is where theory hits reality. It’s where the service proves whether it can survive — or implode.

This isn’t paperwork. It’s where you make or break operational stability.

The Real Problem: We Confuse ‘Go Live’ With ‘Ready’

Here’s the game that gets played:

• Solution is built.

• UAT passes (barely).

• Stakeholders nod. Project team high-fives.

• Ops team gets a handover doc. Maybe.

And then the incidents begin.

Support isn’t ready. Monitoring is misconfigured. SLAs aren’t realistic. Knowledge base is empty. The service lands like a grenade.

There was no controlled transition. Just a release and a prayer.

✅ The Good: When Transition Is Treated Like a Controlled Change

In high-performing orgs, Service Transition is governed like any major programme:

• Ops are involved early — not handed a grenade.

• Go-live criteria are non-negotiable.

• Roles, RACI and escalation are baked in.

• Training is planned and delivered.

• Runbooks and KBs are validated.

• SLAs are tested and monitored.

• Hypercare is real — with ownership and funding.

Transition is a managed evolution, not a chaotic launch.

❌ The Bad: When ‘Go Live’ Means ‘Good Luck’

We see this far too often:

• Support teams find out after go-live.

• Monitoring tools don’t know what to track.

• Business expectations aren’t aligned.

• SLAs exist, but are unachievable.

• Knowledge is tribal, not documented.

This isn’t just risky. It’s irresponsible.

🧠 CIO WAR CHEST: Questions That Define Real Transition

1. What are the go-live readiness criteria — and who signed them off?

   • Ask: Transition Manager, Project Lead

   • Data: Readiness checklist, sign-off logs

2. Which ops teams were trained — and what artefacts did they receive?

   • Ask: Ops Manager, Service Owner

   • Data: Training decks, knowledge base audit, Problem Management Known Errors

3. What’s the Hypercare model — and who owns the escalations?

   • Ask: Service Manager

   • Data: Hypercare RACI, escalation logs

4. Are the support SLAs tested — and do they match reality?

   • Ask: Service Desk Lead

   • Data: SLA report, live Service Readiness test results

5. What monitoring exists — and was it tested pre-launch?

   • Ask: Observability Lead, Event Manager

   • Data: Alert dashboard, test incident reports, Event plan,

🧨 Transition Isn’t Optional — It’s the Control Layer Between Chaos and Competence

Go-live without a real transition, and you’ll bleed credibility fast.

As CIO, it’s your job to insist on a structured, supported, and fully tested transition process — or own the mess that follows.

🚀 Need Help Making Transitions Stick?

We help CIOs turn transition from checkbox to control layer — aligning teams, artefacts, and readiness across the lifecycle.

👉 https://harrisonjamesit.com/contact