14.1. Conducting a Needs Analysis

Conducting a needs analysis is the first step in accurately determining a customer's requirements. Proper planning helps to avoid potential costly mistakes up front and lays the groundwork for an effective upgrade path in the future.

A needs analysis starts with an interview. During the interview, ask the customer questions to help determine the problems he is facing, if he has ideas about how to solve the problems, and what his future plans are. Understanding customer needs is crucial to developing a positive long-term relationship.

If the customer has experience with server technology, ask questions about intended solutions. If not, you may need to determine the answers to these questions yourself. Consider asking questions in the following categories:

Future plans

• What are the business goals?

• What is the projected role of the server?

• What is the projected operating system?

• Will RAID be implemented?

• Will the server be connected to more than one network?

Current environment

• How much storage currently is used?

• Have storage needs grown over the last 12 months?

Business requirements

• What is the expected availability of the server?

• Is server price or functionality more important?

• Is a rack or tower configuration preferred?

• Will backups be performed?

• Is power protection needed?

• What kinds of system management tools are needed?

• Does the server need to be set up from the component level, or is it ready to be installed right out of the box?

• What level of maintenance and support is desired?

Obstacles

• What is the biggest IT problem facing the business today?

• What does the customer feel are possible solutions?

• What are the barriers to the solution?

Resources

• Is the customer willing to commit resources to achieving these goals?

• Is the customer willing to let technical professionals help guide the way?

Based on answers to these questions, you can make recommendations about which server components are required and which are optional. For example, if file and print is the projected role of the server, storage capacity and transfer rate are important selection factors. On the other hand, if the server is intended to be a database server, processor speed and memory must be considered.