Overview

Article
12/19/2007

The Planning Guide shows how to start, carry out, and complete a Microsoft Deployment Solution Accelerator project. Microsoft Deployment is the next version of Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007. The guide gives information on assembling the project team, then details defining the vision, goals, scope, and project plans. After the planning is completed, the guide goes on to developing, testing, and deploying. The Planning Guide employs the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) to ensure the project can be deployed with less risk, on budget, and on time.

This guide takes up where the Microsoft Deployment Quick Start Guide leaves off. The Planning Guide , along with the Release Management Guide , points to the rest of the documentation in Microsoft Deployment. Use these three guides as a map showing the way to create and deliver Microsoft Deployment in your organization.

Note In this document, Windows applies to the Windows Vista®, Windows® XP Professional, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Server® 2008, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems unless otherwise noted.

Project Overview

Microsoft Deployment uses two project frameworks—MOF and MSF—to guide the deployment process from change initiation to release deployment. Figure 1 shows how MOF and MSF relate during the phases involved in the deployment process. MOF provides a broader scope, including change initiation and release deployment. MSF focuses primarily on development and deployment.

Figure 1. The relationship between MOF and MSF

This guide describes the scope of the project in the context of both MOF and MSF, starting with the MOF Change Initiation Process, following the five MSF phases that the other feature team guides use, and finishing with the MOF Closing the Project Process. All other Microsoft Deployment feature team guides exist entirely in the context of MSF.

Microsoft Operations Framework

The MOF provides operational guidance that enables organizations to achieve mission-critical system reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability of Microsoft products and technologies. With MOF guidance, teams can assess their current information technology (IT) service management maturity, prioritize their processes of greatest concern, and apply proven principles and best practices to optimize their management of the Windows Server platform.

A Microsoft Deployment project occurs entirely in the MOF Changing Quadrant. When a change is approved and the MSF team begins the planning and development processes, Release Management starts planning the deployment process. Using these processes ensures requirements are met through proper staffing, tools, actions, and resources. Table 1 lists the Release Management Processes. More information on this is detailed in the Release Management Guide.

Table 1. MOF Release Management Processes

Release Management processes	Description
Change initiation	Initiate a request to start the project in motion; culminates with the change initiation review.
Release planning	Plan required activities and resources for successful deployment.
Release building	Develop processes and tools required for the deployment; ends with the pilot readiness review.
Release preparation	Test, pilot test, and prepare the production environment for deployment. The release readiness review determines whether deployment can proceed.
Release deployment	Perform the deployment.
Closing the project	Perform the post-implementation review.

After deployed computers are released to IT Operations for ongoing support, the project enters the MOF Operating Quadrant and eventually the Supporting and Optimizing Quadrants. For detailed information about MOF, visit Microsoft Operations Framework at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/mo/mof.

Microsoft Solutions Framework

The MSF is an adaptable framework for technology projects, proven to successfully deliver high-quality solutions quickly, with minimal risk, and within budget. The framework allows organizations to plan, build, and deploy business-driven solutions of any size or complexity.

MSF contains a set of foundational principles, essential disciplines, and core models that together contribute to project success by focusing on the interaction of people, processes, and technology.

MSF Foundational Principles

The eight MSF foundational principles are core values and standards for all areas of MSF:

Foster open communication. Open and inclusive communications are essential to project success. Team members are encouraged to interact with members of the various roles in the MSF team model, users, and stakeholders. This information sharing decreases uncertainty and risk while engaging stakeholders.
Work toward a shared vision. A clear, concise vision statement aligns the MSF Team and Process Models and lays the foundation for setting and achieving the project goals and milestones.
Empower team members. MSF employs a bottom-up approach in which team members are empowered to meet their own deliverables while holding one another accountable. Members commit to a schedule and communicate delays as soon as they are known.
Establish clear accountability and shared responsibility. MSF has a two-tiered approach to accountability and responsibility. Team roles are accountable to each of the team roles and to stakeholders for their role’s deliverables and goals. Meanwhile, all team roles share responsibility because the project could fail if any team member, representing a team role, does not meet the member’s commitments.
Focus on delivering business value. For a project to be successful, it must return benefit to the organization. Focusing on the project’s value to the business develops understanding among users and stakeholders while defining how project success will be measured.
Stay agile , expect change. Projects continuously evolve as a variety of factors—from changing business needs to personnel changes and technological advances—exert pressure on them. If the MSF teams expect change, they are in a better position to absorb change and move on.
Invest in quality. Everyone on the MSF teams is responsible for quality. However, the MSF Test role is responsible for testing. The Test role must continually encourage the team to make the necessary investments in quality to ensure that the project meets expectations. Test cases, key milestones, and test reviews all help create quality. Assigning team members with the proper training and skill sets also increases overall quality.
Learn from all experiences. MSF encourages frequent reviews of how the project is progressing, risk analysis, and readiness analysis to allow adjustment as required. Also key to this principle is documenting all aspects of the project and revisiting the project after completion to document what was learned while memories are fresh.

Disciplines

The three MSF Disciplines are Project Management, Risk Management, and Readiness Management. They are practice areas in which specific methods, terms, and approaches are employed to ensure optimal team effectiveness.

The MSF Project Management Discipline. This practice is modeled after broadly accepted project management organizations. MSF distinguishes itself from the traditional single project manager by having a Project Management team role and by having each member of the MSF team responsible for his or her goal and deliverable timelines.
The MSF Risk Management Discipline. MSF uses a proactive approach to risk and risk analysis as a tool to create success. The six-step risk management process is described in greater detail in the “Envisioning” section of this guide.
The MSF Readiness Management Discipline. The Readiness Management Discipline in MSF is a measure of the knowledge, skills, and abilities of a project team. When a project team determines what knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed for project success and determines which ones are lacking, the team can then acquire those assets through training and personnel changes.

MSF Models

The MSF employs both a people model and a process model. These models are the embodiment of the foundational principles and the core disciplines described in a visual manner and are the basis for the material presented in this manual.

Team Model

The MSF Team Model is a group of peers working on a project toward a common goal. Each team role brings a set of knowledge and skills to the project. These skills and abilities combine to increase the quality and functionality of the MSF team. Each team role is discussed further in the “Envisioning” section of this guide.

Process Model

The MSF Process Model is the life cycle of the project. It contains the order required for effective completion of the project and sets key milestones to ensure all areas are on target before venturing into the next phase. This manual is designed around the MSF Process Model, with each section named for sections of the model, beginning with Envisioning and ending with Deploying. Table 2 shows the MSF phases.

Table 2. MSF Phases

Development phases	Definition	Milestone
Envisioning	Assemble the team; analyze the inventory; prepare the vision, goals, and scope documents; build the lab.	Vision/Scope Approved
Planning	Create the functional specification, work plans, timelines, designs, and risk analysis.	Project Plans Approved
Developing	Develop images, applications, scripts, and test cases.	Scope Complete
Stabilizing	Test, track, and resolve bugs; conduct pilot tests.	Release Readiness Approved
Deploying	Roll out the deployment, resolve problems, make the transition to IT Operations and support.	Post-Implementation Review

Scenario, Job Aids, and Guides

The sections that follow describe the sample deployment scenario, the feature team guides, and the job aids included with Microsoft Deployment.

Woodgrove Sample IT Scenario

To assist in the Microsoft Deployment process, example documents based on a fictional company called Woodgrove Bank are included. These documents are a starting point for the planning team. Of course, organizations can choose which, if any, of these documents to use in their deployments.

The fictional Woodgrove Bank is a leading global investment bank that serves institutional, corporate, government, and individual clients in its role as a financial intermediary. Its business includes securities underwriting, sales and trading, financial advisory services, investment research, venture capital, and brokerage services for financial institutions.

Woodgrove Bank employs more than 15,000 people in 60 offices worldwide. Woodgrove’s enterprise headquarters is in New York. The company has division headquarters in London and Tokyo. In addition, it has 57 offices across the globe. Of those 57 offices, 13 are considered regional hubs and have server infrastructure and at least one full-time IT administrator on location. Ten locations are considered autonomous branch offices and include server infrastructure on location but no full-time IT staff. The remaining 34 branch offices are micro-branches and do not have any server infrastructure or IT staff on location.

Job Aids

Job aids are sample documents that teams can use as templates for creating deliverables required during the different phases of the deployment project. Table 3 lists the job aids included with Microsoft Deployment.

Table 3. Job Aids

Job aid title	Description
Application Knowledge Sheet	Document template for collecting information about an application, including the version number, compatibility issues, and packaging details
Assessment Template	Spreadsheet used to record assessment data for the environment at each phase of the project
Client Build Requirements	Outlines the requirements and deliverables for creating computer platforms, including hardware configurations that will be tested and software configuration settings
Communications Plan	Document template for creating a development and deployment communications plan
Current State Assessment Template	Document template for describing the current state of the network and infrastructure
Deployment Plan	Document template for creating a deployment plan
Functional Specification	Document template for creating the project’s functional specification; describes the project’s requirements, its conceptual, logical, and physical design, and so forth
Inventory Template	Spreadsheet for recording inventory data, including hardware, operating systems, and applications
Milestone Exit Criteria	This job aid will be available with the R2 release of Microsoft Deployment.
Network and Workstation Hardware Upgrades List	Spreadsheet to record the network and hardware updates (RAM, disks, and so on) required
Pilot Plan	Template checklist for determining the readiness of the pilot deliverables
Request for Change	Document template for creating the deployment plan, including phased migration, the tool set, and other elements
Risk Template Tool	Spreadsheet for recording, prioritizing, and evaluating project risks
Security Summary	Summarizes destination computer security settings
Server Build Requirements	This job aid will be available with the R2 release of Microsoft Deployment.
Site Deployment Project Plan	Master project schedule created using Microsoft Office Project
Support and Escalation	This job aid will be available with the R2 release of Microsoft Deployment.
Test Cases Workbook	Outlines the various scenarios that the Test feature team will validate
Test Plan	Describes the strategy and approach used to plan, organize, and manage the project’s testing activities
Test Specification	Describe how the Test feature team conducts testing, the test cases used in various scenarios, what the Test feature team expects, and what can be expected of the Test feature team
Training Plan	Identifies the training required for the project team members to make the Microsoft Deployment project successful
Vision Scope	Document template for describing the project’s business goals and scope
Woodgrove Business Case	Examples of business justification (document and presentation) for Woodgrove Bank

Feature Team Guides

These guides show how to accomplish specific areas of the deployment project. The feature team guides listed in Table 4 are mentioned in this guide.

Table 4. Feature Team Guides

Process guide	Description
Deployment Feature Team Guide	Describes the deployment process, including release planning, release building, acceptance testing, release preparation, and release deployment
Test Feature Team Guide	Describes testing methodologies for validating the process during development and during acceptance testing
Application Management Feature Team Guide	Provides guidance for creating and prioritizing an application inventory and for repackaging applications and automating installations
Image Engineering Feature Team Guide	Describes how to create reference images using Microsoft Deployment; includes best practices and issues to consider for peripherals, image maintenance, and image versioning.
Infrastructure Remediation Feature Team Guide	Describes how to prepare the hardware and software infrastructure for deployment
Migration Feature Team Guide	Describes key decisions and concepts about migrating client computer and server configurations to a new platform
Security Feature Team Guide	Provides guidance for planning the security of deployed operating systems as well as protecting the deployment infrastructure itself
Operations Readiness Feature Team Guide	Describes how to prepare support and operations tools and guidance

Planning References

This section provides references that teams may find useful throughout their deployment project.

Web References

The following Web sites provide useful references during deployment projects:

Microsoft Operations Framework at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/mo/mof/default.mspx

Microsoft Solutions Framework at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/msf/default.mspx

Windows Deployment Services at https://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/b279dfef-892e-4b12-bb6b-c250cf8c95f41033.mspx?mfr=true

Windows Vista Technical Library at https://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/90a564b9-34af-4a6b-937f-324e1862244b1033.mspx

Windows XP Technical Library at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/bb395206.aspx

Windows Server 2003 Technical Library at https://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/e3d396dd-c141-432b-9e69-50f597061e471033.mspx

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library at https://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/bab0f1a1-54aa-4cef-9164-139e8bcc44751033.mspx

Windows Vista Events and Webcasts at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905054.aspx

Windows Server 2003 R2 Webcasts at https://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/r2webcasts.mspx

Windows Server 2008 Webcasts and Chats at https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/webcasts.mspx

Introducing System Center at https://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter

Communities

Newsgroups: Desktop Deployment at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/topics/desktopdeployment.mspx

Windows Vista Deployment and Imaging (forum) at https://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=721&SiteID=17

Setup & Deployment: Discussion on setting up and deploying Windows Server 2008 at https://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=579&SiteID=17

TechNet Forums: System Center Configuration Manager at https://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=488&SiteID=17

Systems Management Server Community at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/en-us/smserver/default.mspx

Print Media

The following books provide useful technical references for deployment projects:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit , Second Edition , at https://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/6795.aspx

Windows Vista Resource Kit at https://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9536.aspx

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit: Special Promotional Edition , at https://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/5555.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP) at https://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/11160.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Security Resource Kit at https://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/11841.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Resource Kit at https://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9552.aspx