WINDOWS 1002000 PROFESSIONAL RESOURCE KIT [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Planning Your Deployment

Planning your deployment of Windows 2000 Professional includes the following primary tasks:

Defining project scope and objectives

Assembling your project team

Assessing and documenting your current computing environment

Establishing standards and guidelines

Creating a testing environment

Creating a master project plan and associated documents

When you begin the project, start preparations by identifying your organization's objectives. By keeping business objectives in mind while creating the project objectives, you ensure that your project aligns with the long-term vision of your organization. The project objectives need to answer the following questions:

What is the business problem?

How will the business change with the new Windows 2000 Professional client configuration?

How does the Windows 2000 Professional client implementation interact with other enterprise infrastructure functions?

What is the long-term goal of the project?

When you document your project scope, indicate the areas, functions, and environments that your Windows 2000 implementation will cover. The scope defines which features the team will deploy to meet your organization's business needs and project objectives. The project scope needs to be specific, realistically achievable, and include a time fRAMe for delivery.

The project scope is the document that will be your baseline for creating a functional specification, described later in this section.

Example Project Objectives

The following example describes business problems for a fictitious company and resulting project objectives.

Business Problems

The IT department is receiving increased pressure from the business units to account for and manage aggregated IT costs on an enterprisewide basis. In reviewing these costs, it is apparent that a lack of standardization is costing a lot of money. For example, help desk staffing has grown disproportionately large due to the variety of operating systems, applications, hardware configurations, and the resultant complex mixture of skills necessary to support such an environment.

Project Goals

The IT department is viewed as a business partner and facilitator. The IT department will drive technology enhancements that help the business change to be more profitable and responsive to requests from the business units to deploy new hardware and software. This will be accomplished without great expense and with high efficiency.

To reach this goal, the IT department views standardization of their desktop computing infrastructure environment as paRAMount. The IT department has a long-term goal of a desktop environment that will be as reliable as the telephone system. Additionally, when problems do arise with the desktop, they will be quick and easy to fix.

Example Project Scope

The IT department will deliver functionality and value incrementally, rather than try to do one or two very large projects that address all opportunity areas. The focus of the first version of the preferred desktop environment will be called the Enterprise Desktop project. The major focus areas will be as follows:

Identify two desktop hardware configurations and three portable computer hardware configurations that will become the standards. supplement existing purchasing processes so that any exceptions to these standards will require special approval.

Develop one or more standard baseline configurations that will be loaded on all new standard desktops and portable computers.

Develop an automated, hands-free tool set that enables it staff to quickly install baseline configurations on standard desktop and portable computers using Windows 2000 Professional system preparation tool and a disk imaging tool.

Develop and implement change control and release management mechanisms that will be used to deploy the new environment and upgrade it in a more manageable fashion over time. the first iteration of the standard desktop environment will be called version 1.0.

It is essential that this functionality be delivered rapidly, as there is great pressure to show value quickly. The Enterprise Desktop Version 1.0 project is targeted to begin rollout by end of June 2000. This date is firm. It might be that some desired functionality would need to be deferred so that Version 1.0 can be released by end of June.

Assembling Your Project Team

A small team of three to eight people with shared responsibilities is recommended. Each member needs to have a deep technical knowledge of Windows 2000 Professional and an understanding of the business. This will help reduce overhead that inhibits communications and give each member a direct role in defining the goals for the project.

Your project team needs to be a team of peers and include the areas of responsibility shown in Table 3.1. It is not necessary for these roles to be filled by separate team members.

Table 3.1 Project Team Roles and Responsibilities

It is also important that one or more team members have expertise in networking and line-of-business (LOB) applications.

Assessing and Documenting Your Current Computing Environment

Before you design your Windows 2000 Professional deployment, you need to understand your current computing environment. Documenting your existing computing environment will help you understand your organization's structure and how it supports your users, and it will help you design your deployment plan. diagrams are a useful way to deal with complex concepts such as network layout. Where appropriate, create these diagrams and include them in your project plan documentation.

Some of the areas to address include the following:

Business Organization and Geographical Requirements Describe the location and organization of your business units. Are large groups of employees located in widely separated geographic areas or are they all located in close proximity to each other? Are your business units closely related, or do they have significantly different needs and requirements?

Application Requirements Conduct a complete inventory of the applications that are used in your organization. Include all custom (in-house) applications. As you are documenting your computing environment, also note the different tasks for which employees use computers and note how the change to Windows 2000 Professional will affect their work. For example, if employees are using an old line-of-business application that is reliant upon certain Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver versions, the line-of-business application needs to be tested to ensure that it will work.

Technology Architecture When documenting your network architecture, be sure to include topology, size, type, and traffic patterns. Any significant changes you plan to make to your technology architecture, such as hardware, networking, and services, needs to be illustrated in high-level diagrams.

Interoperability Determine which users need access to various applications and data and how they currently obtain access to these. How will access change with Windows 2000 Professional?

Current and Future IT Standards Over time, the network and application standards in many organizations become fragmented or obsolete. This is common in organizations that have merged with or acquired other companies. Disparate systems, built over a wide time fRAMe, designed by different people, and often geographically separated, are a potential risk to a successful deployment. An audit of existing systems contributes to the success of the deployment team.

Establishing Standards and Guidelines

Many organizations find that establishing Windows 2000 Professional standards and guidelines can save time and money. This is because a standard environment reduces the potential for too many configuration combinations, making administrative and architectural workloads more efficient. Base these standards on how employees use their computers. For example, an employee doing computer-aided design has higher requirements than an employee using general office applications.

For best results, establish standard configurations for your client computers. Include guidelines for minimum and recommended values for CPU, RAM, and hard disks, as well as for accessories such as CD-ROM drives and uninterruptible power supplies.

Establish the standard software configurations that are used in your organization. Include guidelines for how you distribute, support, and restrict the use of this software.

Establish guidelines for the network operating systems and protocols that are used in your organization. Include standard configurations for all network components (such as routers, hubs, and repeaters). Establish guidelines for supporting and maintaining these configurations.

Identify requirements for meeting current operational standards or aligning with operational goals. For example, how will user data be backed up? How will troubleshooting be performed? How will new applications be deployed? Describe processes and solutions for satisfying current or future operational standards.

Creating a Testing Environment

Test your Windows 2000 Professional deployment design in a lab before you deploy. For enterprise deployments, you will need to also conduct a pilot before you deploy to your entire organization. See "Conducting a Pilot" later in this chapter.

In the early planning stages, you will need to select testing sites and assess hardware requirements. As soon as your lab is operational you can use the lab to better understand the product, prove concepts, and validate solutions. Expect the lab to evolve as the project progresses.

In general, provide as much detail as possible in your test plan documents so that your test and deployment teams have all the information they need to be successful. Describe the scope, objectives, methodology, schedule, and resources (hardware, software, personnel, training, and tools) in your test plan. Individual subteams need to create their own test plans for their areas of technical expertise and write test cases. Test cases describe how the testing is to be done. This makes it possible to replicate and compare test results.

You need to test applications for compatibility with Windows 2000 Professional. Start by testing features that are mission-critical to your organization and whose design choice would be expensive and time-consuming to change.

Include a plan to escalate any issues that arise to the person most able to resolve the situation. A clear escalation process helps the team focus on the solution and take immediate corrective action.

For more information about setting up a test lab, see "Building a Windows 2000 Test Lab" in the Deployment Planning Guide.

Creating a Master Project Plan

The master project plan includes three major documents:

Functional specification—the preferred client configuration and the deployment process for this configuration.

Project plan—the activities and deliverables necessary to deliver the design described in the functional specification.

Master project schedule—dates for when the preferred client solution will be developed, tested, and deployed.

The functional specification is the basis of your deployment design. Your Windows 2000 Professional client specification incorporates the prioritized set of user requirements, a proof of concept demonstration of the client configuration, and an implementation plan. It details the operating system features that you will implement, and how they will be configured and deployed. All of these elements need to align with the scope and objectives of the deployment project.

Describe the different types of users, the key tasks they perform, how these tasks are currently performed, and how performance can be improved in the new client environment. If yours is a large organization with multiple sites, or an international organization, you need to detail your geographical issues.

When these three documents are approved they form the baseline from which you begin to implement your deployment plan. In most cases the team will need to modify some initial assumptions and plans as the project moves forward. The team needs to be willing to move forward even though some unknowns exist, adding details as the project progresses.

The project manager owns the deployment plan and is responsible for updating its tasks, resources, and dates during implementation

It is recommended you also include the following documents in your master project plan:

Communications Strategy

A good communications strategy plays a very important but often overlooked role in the success of your project. An effective communications strategy identifies the needs of several types of audiences, such as executive management, project teams, IT organization, and users at all levels. Keeping people informed keeps them involved.

In addition to keeping interested parties informed, your communications strategy needs to include internal marketing that sells the Windows 2000 Professional client solution. Communicating what the new client change will do for the user, the department, and the company, especially when the new client configuration represents a big change, will greatly increase the likelihood of a successful deployment.

Education and Training Plan

Educate your users about Windows 2000 Professional features and functions before you begin deployment. You might also want to provide formal training and develop a feedback mechanism.

Your existing user environment will largely determine what training is needed. Project constraints (time, budget, and so on) will determine the vehicle that is used. Users familiar with Microsoft® Windows® 95, Microsoft® Windows® 98 or Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 will likely require very little training. New users or users transitioning from another operating system will require some training, even if it is nothing more than going through the Introducing Windows 2000 Professional wizard.

Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional offers computer Professionals training to deploy, administer, and support Windows 2000 Professional. For more information about MOC for Windows 2000, see the Microsoft Official Curriculum link
on the Web resources page at http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources.

Risk Assessment

When you plan to deploy an operating system, plan for the unexpected. Even the best deployment plans can be affected by changes in business needs, economics, user requirements, or disruptions such as power outages or storms.

A well thought-out and proactive risk management plan can help you:

Reduce the likelihood that a risk factor will actually occur. If only one person on your staff fully understands your security infrastructure, losing that person in the middle of the deployment could have serious repercussions. You can reduce the risk by training a backup for each key expert and keeping documentation up-to-date and accessible.

Reduce the magnitude of loss if a risk occurs. If you suspect that your Windows 2000 Professional deployment project has been under-budgeted, you might be able to identify several backup sources to cover unexpected expenses.

Change the consequences of a risk. A sudden reorganization, business acquisition, or divestiture in the middle of a deployment can seriously disrupt your plans. If you have established a process for making abrupt changes, you can meet the challenge with little or no impact to the project schedule.

Be prepared to mitigate risk during your deployment. When you mitigate risk you are asking the following questions regarding that risk:

How can this be resolved?

Are the mitigation factors suitable? will option 'A' or 'B' be acceptable?

Would it be too costly or time consuming?

Are we taking into account realistically what the chances are for this risk to become real?

For example, a company might identify as a risk that some MS-DOS applications might not work with Windows 2000 Professional. To mitigate that risk they will include in their schedule the task to identify critical MS-DOS applications and have them tested within a specified timefRAMe.

A risk management plan helps you identify potential risks before they occur and prepares you for a quick response if they do occur.

Test Plan

The test plan outlines the strategy the team will use to test the deployment design. It includes the specific types of tests, specific areas to be tested, test success criteria, and information about the resources (hardware, software, and people) required to test. When testing software and hardware be sure to start by assembling the resources available from Microsoft and any third-party vendors of the products you will be testing. For hardware testing, be sure to start with the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), located on the Web Resources page at http://windows.Microsoft.com/Windows2000/reskit/webresources. You also need to go to each application and hardware vendor to identify any issues or updates specific to Windows 2000 Professional. This step takes some diligence, but it will save significant amounts of testing and solution development time.

Pilot Plan

The pilot is the first opportunity to deploy your new client configuration in a production environment. In many cases, the success of the pilot will determine how quickly the rest of the deployment will proceed. The team needs to plan a full solution test if at all possible, including all deployment processes. The pilot will almost certainly uncover technical and process problems. Planning time after the pilot that allows the team to discover and resolve any problems that arise during the pilot will reduce many of the risks inherent in any infrastructure deployment project. It is advisable to plan to freeze the client solution specification after the pilot.

For additional information about the planning aspect of your deployment, see "Planning for Deployment" in the Deployment Planning Guide.