IT ISSUE · PROJECTS AND CHANGE
Device rollout
The build is repeatable. What one person does that nobody else does is not.Building ten identical machines is straightforward and gets easier with each one. What isn't repeatable is the set of things one person does that nobody else does, and those only appear once that person is sitting in front of a new computer with work to deliver.
What tends to surface late
- An application only one team uses.
- Hardware that has to keep working: a label printer, a scanner, a reader.
- A licence tied to the old machine rather than the person.
- Files kept locally rather than anywhere synced.
- A process that depends on an old version of something.
Start with the hardest person, not the easiest
We agree a standard build, confirm what each group needs and sequence the rollout so surprises arrive while there is still time to absorb them.
Most rollouts start with whoever is easiest, which feels like progress and proves nothing. Give the first machine to the person with the strangest setup. If it works for them, the rest of the rollout is a known quantity; if it doesn't, you have found that out on machine one rather than machine nine, with everybody else still working.