Chapter 13 -- Product Stabilization

Chapter 13

About This Chapter

In this chapter, we will discuss the Stabilizing Phase of the MSF Development Process, and how the team must move from the earlier phases of product creation to the final stages of shipping the product.

The final stages of shipping a product can often be summarized by Charles Dickens' comment, "These are the times that try men's souls." We will discuss the evolutionary cycle the team will progress through to move from the Developing Phase's Scope Complete Milestone to the Stabilizing Phase's Release Milestone. We summarize this phase's effort as four primary steps: fix the bugs, synchronize all product deliverables, ship the release, and extensively test the release. Leading up to the Release Milestone, we identify several key interim milestones that are reached by the continual iteration of these steps.

This chapter also covers some guidelines for the deployment of an application after the product is released. From the preplanning phases though pilot testing, support, and troubleshooting, we explore efficient ways to get the application to users with as little negative impact as possible on them, their systems, and networks.

The principles and guidelines provided in this chapter are based on our own experiences with creating application architectures and implementing enterprise applications, as well as on the following resources:

• Microsoft Solutions Framework
• Microsoft Windows 98 Resource Kit
• Microsoft white paper Technical Overview: Clustering and Windows NT Load Balancing Services (WLBS)
• Microsoft Official Courseware Administering Systems Management Server 2.0, course #827a

Upon completion, you will be able to:

• Understand each team role's responsibilities in shipping the final release.
• Identify the steps in the process of stabilizing an application.
• Understand the incremental process of shipping the right product.
• Identify the deliverables for a Final Product release.
• Understand methods for deploying a product.
• List some of the tools that facilitate the deployment process.