Ticketing system transition grace periods

Moving to a new ticketing system (or starting one for the first time) can be jarring for everyone.  Customers won't know how to ask for help, agents won't know how to update things and process managers will be scrambling for metrics.  These challenges are common to all system changes, after all change is hard (citation needed).

To help combat this I find having a brief 'grace period' after deployment to be very helpful. During this period agents won't be too harsh on folks putting in tickets improperly, managers won't be expected to have a complete grasp of everything and agents can be forgiven for missing new SLAs or mis-tagging tickets.  The length of this period can vary, but in general at least a few weeks is needed to help with the transition.

This grace period doesn't mean I'm not paying close attention to how things are going.  Instead it's the exact opposite.  With all the new changes and process I'm paying more attention to possible challenges.  The grace period isn’t just for the team, it’s also for me to figure out what adjustments are needed to further improve how things operate.  Taking extra time and energy to identify, and correct, defects at this stage will pay off later since it's all new.  

Implementing a new ticketing system (or really any systems) presents an opportunity to set expectations on how folks interact with it.  Once everyone has had time to learn bad habits it will be MUCH harder to reshape behaviors.  This makes having a set window where everyone acknowledges they’re still learning, and ensuring folks are actively aware they need to change, very important in this shift.

I also find that treating this grace period like a retrospective and regularly review everything with the team (and customers!) is beneficial.  I find calling attention to mistakes, and using them as learning opportunities, is a great way to help the team improve during this time and helps provide the best transition possible.