Step 1 Understand the Methodology and the Risks

Successful implementation of SMS requires detailed planning. It is important that you understand the planning process. A planning methodology is described in this chapter and is used throughout this book. With a properly prepared project plan, your SMS deployment can be as simple as carrying out your plan. For this reason, appropriate resources must be allocated to the planning phase. You must thoroughly research, document, and test your project plan before deploying SMS.

Proper planning can help ensure the greatest return on your investment. Implementation of management solutions, such as SMS 2003, must not be rushed. The pressure to deliver quick results can make the temptation to run Setup.exe irresistible. This approach might be acceptable in a limited number of organizations, such as small, single-site environments with few users and a need only to report inventory. However, as your systems population grows larger, the quick deployment is risky and becomes difficult to manage. Administrators are then forced to patch their management solutions, and possibly spend large amounts of time re-engineering.

Implementation without planning can cause inherent design problems, which can lead to costly downtime and user perception issues regarding the reliability of the system. Also, without proper planning, the inventory results that your organization uses for budgetary and financial decisions might not be valid. See the "Risk Management" section later in this chapter for a list of avoidable risks such as this one.

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