In a midsize software development company, the quarterly maintenance windows
had to avoid various dates immediately before and after scheduled release dates,
which typically occurred three times a year, as the engineering and operations divisions
required the systems to be operational to make the release. Dates leading up
to and during the major trade show for the company’s products had to be avoided because
engineering typically produced new alpha versions for the show, and demos at
the trade show might rely on equipment at the office. End-of-month, end-of-quarter,
and end-of-year dates, when the sales support and finance departments relied on
full availability to enter figures, had to be avoided. Events likely to cause a spike in
customer-support calls, such as a special product promotion, needed to be coordinated
with outages, although they were typically scheduled after the maintenance
windows were set.
As you can see, finding empty windows was a tricky business. However, maintenance
schedules were set at least a year in advance and were well advertised so that
the rest of the company could plan around them
Once the dates were set, weekly reminders were posted beginning 6 weeks in advance
of each window, with additional notices the final week. At the end of each
notice, the schedule for all the following maintenance windows was attached, as far
ahead as they had been scheduled
The maintenance notice highlighted a major item from those that were scheduled,
to advertise as the benefit to the company of the outage period, such as bringing
a new data center online or upgrading the mail infrastructure. This helped the
customers understand the benefit they received in return for the interruption of
service.
Unfortunately for the SA group, the rest of the company saw the maintenance
weekends as the perfect times to schedule company picnics and other events, because
no one would feel compelled to work---except for the SAs, of course.
That’s life.