There are major four ways of rolling out any project:-
Pilot: – Actual production system is installed at a single or to limited number of users. Pilot basically means that the product is actually rolled out to limited users for real work. Gradual Implementation: – In this implementation we ship the entire product to the limited users or all users at the customer end. Here the developers get instant feedback from the earlier recipients which allow them to make changes before the product is available. But yes the downside is that developers and testers maintain more than one version at one time.
Phased implementation: – In this the product is rolled out to all users in a increment fashion. That means each successive roll out has some added functionality. So as new functionality come in, new installations happen and customer tests progressively. The good part for this kind of roll outs are that customer can start using the functionality and provide valuable feedback progressively. The only issue here is with each roll out and added functionality the integration becomes more complicated.
Parallel Implementation: – In these types of roll-outs the existing application is run side by side with the new application. If there are any issues with the new application we again move back to old application. One of the biggest problem with parallel implementation is we need extra hardware, software and resources.
Below figure shows the different launch strategies for a project roll out.
Launch Strategies