Site Server - Site Analysis Worksheet

  • Article

August 1999 

Introduction

This worksheet provides an outline of the information you need to gather and record when analyzing a site, designing a solution to the customer's business problem, implementing the solution, and recording the lessons learned during the process.

Analyzing a Site

A site analysis should examine the following:

  • The business problem 

  • The project 

  • Functional requirements 

  • System requirements 

  • Performance 

The Business Problem

Describe the business problem the customer is attempting to solve with the new solution, including the following information:

Component

Describe…

Existing solution

· The customer's method of conducting business before deploying the current solution.
· The business problem the customer was trying to solve with the current solution.
· How the current solution changed or impacted the customer's business.
· Any problems the customer is having with the current solution.

Goals for a new system

· The business problem the customer is hoping to solve with a new solution.
· The customer's performance goals for a new solution.
· The customer's return on investment goals for the new solution.

The Project

What is the customer trying to accomplish? This section lists the information needed to understand the scope of the customer's project.

Component

Describe…

Vision

· The customer's vision for the project.

Scope

· The goals and scope of each phase of the project. (The business problem might indicate follow-on projects after this particular deployment.)
· The systems with which the new solution has to be integrated.
· The technical issues that must be addressed for each phase of the project.

Timeline

· A proposed schedule for each phase.

Resources

· Project resources needed to implement the new solution on the proposed schedule (for example, two people working full-time for three months).

Organizational processes

· New or changed organizational processes required by the new solution (for example, additional staff required to develop or run the system; training; additional or changed processes in areas related to the new solution, such as inventory or purchasing).
· Create process diagrams to contrast the old and new processes.

Functional Requirements

Describe the functions the site needs to perform.

System Requirements

Describe the system requirements for the new solution. This should include the following:

  • An event sequence chart of the current implementation. 

  • A typical profile of visitors to the site. 

  • A set of success criteria in terms of page latency minimums and necessary throughput to survive at peaks or stress levels. 

  • Hardware limitations or customer preferences for network and servers. 

Performance

Describe how you plan to measure the system and monitor performance.

Component

Describe…

Monitoring

· The ways in which the customer plans to monitor systems (including usage/load, concurrency, redundancy, and so forth).
· The resources the customer needs to monitor systems.

Measurement, estimating

· Performance measurement or estimation tools the customer is using.
· The resources the customer uses to measure or estimate performance.
· How frequently the customer measures performance.

Use of data

· How the customer is using data to fine-tune application, system, processes, and so forth.

Proposed Solution

When you have gathered sufficient information to design a solution, outline each component of your design.

Component

Describe…

Strategy

· Hardware specifications.
· Software and services, and why they were chosen.
· Any third-party technologies and services to be used, and why they were chosen.
· Any Microsoft® Solution Providers to be used, and their role and contribution to the solution.
· Anything else critical to the strategy employed to design this solution.

Architecture

· The system architecture (logical, physical, network architecture, and so forth). Include a diagram.
· The application architecture (event sequence charts, user authentication, and other details). Include a diagram.
· The data architecture (data models, database schemas, and so forth). Include a diagram, if possible.

Optimal system settings

· Optimal hardware, software, services, or system settings for the new solution, if known.

Security

· Network security (ways in which users connect, such as SSL, IPC_SEC; how and who can access resources; and so forth). Include a diagram, if possible.
· Application security (security on software and services, user authentication and authorization processes, membership and other directory schemas, and so forth). Include a diagram, if possible.
· Data security (database security, file/share security, authorization and authentication, data integrity, and so forth). Include a diagram, if possible.
· Specific Microsoft Site Server, Microsoft® Windows NT®, and Microsoft® SQL Server™ features to be used.

Data access

· How data is to be stored.
· Processes used to transfer, update, and validate data.
· Processes for accessing data, and who (system, users) has access to data.

Integration with existing systems

· Systems with which the solution must be integrated.
· How connectivity and accessibility is to be provided to those system(s) (such as components, third-party software, services, and so forth).

Recommendations for future enhancements

· Recommendations for related functionality that is not included in this implementation (if any).

Implementation

Following implementation, record the following information about the process:

Component

Describe…

Solution providers

· Any Microsoft Solution Providers who assisted with the implementation (who they were, what their contribution was, and what services they performed).
· Why you used a particular solution provider (if any).

Tools and technologies

· Tools and technologies used to implement the solution, why they were chosen.

Code components

· Any critical code components utilized by the system (ASP, COM components, Stored Procedures, OPP, CIP, and other custom APIs), and how they work in your application.
· Third-party components used in the application (if any).

Configuration

· Configuration details for the hardware, services, and software.
· Server configuration (Microsoft SQL Server, Site Server, IIS, Windows NT, or others).
· Security configurations for the server, software, services, and system.

Operational processes

· New operational processes and systems (for example, new systems or processes put in place to manage the proposed system).

User interface components

· User interface components created to help operate the system (if any).

Lessons Learned

Record the following information about the lessons learned during the site analysis and implementation:

Component

Describe…

Technical challenges

· Any technical challenges in the design or implementation of the solution.
· How you addressed those issues.

Performance

· Learning experiences in regards to measuring, monitoring, or estimating performance.

Tips and tricks

· Any tips and tricks learned during this implementation.

Recommendations

· Any recommendations based on this implementation.

Appendices

Add appendices that might be relevant to the implementation, such as the following:

  • Code samples 

  • Sample queries 

  • List of resources 

  • Other items of interest