The traditional approach for rollback planning was to document a procedure, include it in the migration plans, and hope that nobody would ever need it.

It was a theoretical problem because migrations move slowly enough to fix cutover issues forward, rather than rolling them back.

The cutover windows are now smaller. The business tolerance for prolonged disruptions is lower. Because environments are so complex, fixing things forward is not always possible when something breaks in the middle of the night.

Rollback planning is not complete without testing it. It is important to know exactly how long it takes to rollback, not just estimate. This time window determines if rollback can be done before the impact on business becomes unacceptable.

The difference between a plan for a rollback on paper and one you have actually practiced, is the difference between having an option and a false feeling of security.

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