Step 3 Analyze Your Needs

A clear understanding of how you want to install and modify SMS to suit your business and technical needs is an integral part of the pre-planning process.

This knowledge allows you to define the business and technical objectives to include in your project plan. For example, reducing the cost of software upgrades and simplifying hardware asset tracking are common objectives. A technical objective might be migrating from a Windows NT domain structure to a Windows 2000 domain structure, or implementing Active Directory in your network environment.

It is important to understand what you need, want, and expect from SMS. A core requirement often stated is to distribute software, but what exactly does this mean? What software, how often is it to be distributed, and to how many users? What size are the application files, where are the destination computers located, and are there any language-related issues? Will software package installations be optional, mandatory, or a combination of both?

The answers to these questions can have a significant impact on your design.

For More Information

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.