All hands on deck

Most of the time our work fits into the (insert your normal working hours here).  This means we may or may not see the whole team we work with at any given time, and we can reasonably expect to be unavailable when we go home to do things like not work.  There are, however, times when we need everyone to be available outside those hours.  These situations tend to be big deployments, massive outages and other (thankfully!) non-standard events.  While everyone knows they come up, they do frequently cause a lot of friction… after all, who wants to be dragged into the (virtual) office on a Sunday?

I’ve found a number of things help at least easy the pain of these events:

Plan it out in advance

When possible these events should be planned out in advance.  This is easier to do on bigger projects where you can predict when major events (like a go-live) occur, but to some extent this can also be performed through risk planning.  For example if you know a holiday is coming up and your system may be stressed, have more folks placed on call.  

Planning it in advance helps everyone plan for it; now they can not take holiday and they can move other personal things out of the way.  Planning it out also helps everyone see it’s an important part of the project/etc. And sets an expectation that its a required action vs. an optional event.

EVERYONE shows up

I usually serve as the project manager, so I’m rarely the one actually performing the go-live.  This means my presence isn’t as critical as the developers, but I still make a point of being in the room as things unfold.  This extends beyond my own personal sense of ownership of the project and into a sense of camaraderie.  If everyone knows that everyone else will be there during crunch time, it’s more likely they’ll show up.  Experiencing this stressful event together will help the team bond, and make it feel more like, well, a team.

Loosen protocol

Depending on the office culture this may or may not be a good tip, but loosening protocol (e.g. dress codes, eating at your desk, whatever) during these events helps to ease folks into it.  It also helps deflate arguments about people being available as they can be more comfortable… or at the very least makes it more palatable (well at least I can wear my jeans).

Clearly define what needs doing

This goes with the “plan it in advance”, but you should (ideally) have a plan in place for what needs to happen during crunch time.  This helps reinforce the “this is important” aspect of things, but also signals to your team that they aren’t going to be wasting their time.  It also gives you a finish line to point at and keep driving towards.