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Go Live Checklist Items

Units should allow at least two weeks for these tasks once a site is ready to be live for end-users.

1. Content has been approved for end users by the owning unit
   • Content within pages needs to be finalized and approved by the unit prior to moving ahead with the steps below.
2. The site has been reviewed for accessibility 
   • Units are responsible for ensuring their site complies with accessibility laws and best practices prior to going live.
3. Contact AITS Web Content Management Services to schedule a security vulnerability scan and begin targeting dates for the go live event.
   
   • AITS requires all new sites be scanned for security vulnerabilities prior to go live in a non-production environment (development or test). Units should allow up to one week for scheduling and completion of the scanning process. Any high or medium severity issues identified by the scan will need to be addressing prior to go live. If a site uses external data integrations or extensive use of scripting, addressing any found vulnerabilities may require additional time and resources.
4. The site roll out is scheduled with AITS Application Administration
   • Once a site has passed security vulnerability scanning and is ready to go live, the go live event (roll out) may be scheduled. Go live events require resources from several different units within AITS; units should allow one week to coordinate resources for a roll out event. Several steps may need to be done including EAS/security changes, DNS changes, and server configurations. If the production URL of the site is not within uillinois.edu (such as illinois.edu, uic.edu, something.com, etc.) additional time may be required to coordinate with external DNS providers.
5. The Go Live Event (roll out)
   • Roll out events are scheduled for Tuesdays or Thursdays beginning at 5pm. Units are required to participate in the roll out event, and will be asked to briefly review and approve the site at the end of the roll out event (Production Readiness Testing, or PRT). Items to review include:
     • Verify the site works as expected using the long-term production URL, including SSL (https) and any redirects (www or no www);
     • Scan pages and test several links to verify the production URL and basic site functionality;
     • Login and review basic SitePublish access and functionality under the production URL;
     • Test the Page Not Found functionality;
     • Search functionality may not be fully working until a day or two after the event as search engines may need to recrawl the site to reindex search results.

Contact AITS Web Content Management Services with any questions.