"Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right ...."

One of the most critical items of any go live is making sure you have the right resources for each task including validation. For example tonight we had the director of accounting and a senior underwriter look at policy output and invoices form the first validation cycle. They could very quickly spot issues that a developer or QA resource may not. So when you plan a go live event look at the tasks and schedule and make sure each has the key person or persons assigned. Then go back and look at implied items such as print jobs etc and make the right resources are also available.