Live

Purpose

Live is the sustainable operation and continuous improvement phase. The goal is to run the service safely, monitor performance and keep improving it based on evidence.

When to Use This Phase

Use live when the service has passed readiness checks, is being used operationally and requires ongoing support, improvement and governance.

Primary Decision

At the end of this phase, we should be able to answer:

How do we keep the service healthy, valuable, secure and improving over time?

Core Questions

• Is the service meeting user needs?

• Are service levels acceptable?

• What are users struggling with?

• What incidents or defects are occurring?

• What technical debt is emerging?

• What security risks need treatment?

• What should be improved next?

• Is the service still cost-effective?

Key Activities

• service monitoring

• incident management

• support management

• user feedback analysis

• performance analysis

• security monitoring

• vulnerability management

• release management

• continuous improvement

• technical debt management

• roadmap review

• service reporting

Expected Outputs

• service performance reports

• support reports

• incident records

• improvement backlog

• release notes

• security updates

• technical debt register

• service roadmap

• operational review records

Entry Criteria

• live readiness approved

• support model in place

• monitoring in place

• incident process agreed

• security controls implemented

• service owner identified

• operational documentation complete

Exit Criteria

• live continues until the service is transitioned, replaced or retired

• where retirement is needed, retirement criteria and plan are agreed

Evidence to Capture

• analytics reports

• uptime and monitoring records

• incident logs

• support metrics

• research findings

• release records

• security scan results

• change records

• service review minutes

Commercial and Statement of Work Considerations

• define live support scope clearly

• separate support, maintenance and enhancement work

• track service credits or service levels where applicable

• use change control for new features outside scope

• align recurring charges to agreed service obligations

IP and Accelerator Considerations

• continue improving reusable accelerators where permitted

• record operational improvements that may be reusable

• maintain separation between customer-specific configuration and reusable components

• review third-party component obligations during service life

Security, Data and Assurance Considerations

• monitor vulnerabilities

• review access regularly

• manage incidents promptly

• maintain audit evidence

• review data retention

• test resilience and recovery where required

Common Risks

• support scope creep

• technical debt ignored

• no clear service owner

• metrics not reviewed

• security patching delayed

• knowledge concentrated in one person

• improvement backlog not prioritised

Practical Checklist

• Confirm service ownership

• Review service metrics

• Review support tickets and incidents

• Review user feedback

• Prioritise improvement backlog

• Plan releases

• Review security and access

• Review technical debt

• Report service health

• Escalate retirement or transition triggers where needed