Did You Remember Everything Before Deploying to Production?

When it matters, don’t trust your memory. Secure digital solutions matter. PAP is a solution.

Secure digital solutions are of the utmost importance to companies of today. But how can you be sure that your systems really are secure? Did you now remember everything before deploying to production? 🙄

This process and our virtual team of experts guide business and development teams before deploying to production. Together we ensure that If’s solutions are according to best practices from a technical, security, legal and business perspective — every time you deploy to production.

So, when we create new digital solutions or make big changes in an already existing one there can be a lot to think about, lots of different people to talk to, options and restrictions to navigate.

Being human, it’s quite common to think along the lines of: “How difficult can it be! I’m going to remember it all!” Trust me, you won’t. In worst case you may have forgotten something very important that in the end hurts the business.

Have you experienced this feeling of uncertainty where you start asking yourself: “Did I choose the best options? Did I forget or miss something?” This is for sure not a feeling you are looking for. So, how could then confidence be strengthen and what kind of help can be offered to avoid missing important things?

Production approval process (PAP) is a process created to support business & development teams, so that they can get the best possible guidance and support before they deploy to production. Icing on the cake is our dedicated PAP-team with expertise.

This PAP-team with expertise comes from different parts of our organization. Service Delivery owns and leads the process and works in close relation with representatives from platforms and departments such as API product management, Cloud & DevOps Center of Excellence, IT Security, Data Protection Office, Legal and Identity & Access Management.

The team helps you to navigate as easy as possible in a structured way, so solutions end up with a better quality and ensure that your time and money are used in a smart way. Together we make sure nothing important is missed and solutions become more reliable, compliant and secure.

What is this PAP process about?

Well, when you have this great idea — the idea must travel along this winding road with lot of activities to perform until it arrives at the finish line.

We see the PAP process like a guide, or a co-pilot, that helps you navigate as easy as possible. Our PAP-team will work by your side all the way and help you with e.g. pointing out any warning signs that are easy to miss. Also, they can guide you to some new tools or technology that might help you.

So, when you as Product Owner Product Manager or similar, together with your team, come to PAP with your idea to get some guiding — it is a bit like reading the lonely planet guide to see what are the best places to go to, and what are the best tips to navigate around. We kick off the process with an information & orientation meeting where the team presents its idea to the PAP-team, this is done to share experiences in their respective fields, as well as their organizational network, and some proven practices that can help you along the road. This collaboration continues with our experts to a later final approval meeting.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Does everyone now love this process at If? People are different and it varies, but I would say that those who have been into the process understand that all of this would have had to be done anyway and this way we help each other. We need to continue to communicate and inform about the process values, benefits and why this is needed. Independence is an illusion, collaboration is the way to make it smooth and will make us grow and become better. A team will learn, mature and over time it will be easier to get everything in place.

We improve our process continuously as we meet and learn from each other, with the aim to get best value for our business and development teams. With flexibility we can continue make the process better and better in the future. This means the process may vary from time to time.

When everything is in place and approved, we can again stamp another new awesome digital solution in If.

The PAP Team is looking very much forward to continue helping and guiding business and development teams in If. 😉

Hope you found this reading interesting.

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