Determining Whether a Prototype Phase Is Required

The issue of whether a more complete prototype phase is needed or if a more limited application compatibility testing phase is sufficient has come up several times in this chapter. The essential difference between the two is that the prototype phase duplicates as exactly as possible the actual end-state of the upgrade, from server hardware to peripherals and software, so that the entire upgrade process can be tested to reduce the chance of surprises during the production upgrade. The application testing phase can be less extensive, involve a single server, and be designed to verify that the applications required will work reliably on the Windows Server 2003 configuration. Compatibility testing can take as little time as a weekfrom goal definition, to research, to actual testing. A prototype phase takes considerably longer because of the additional steps required.

The following is a checklist that will help your organization make the decision:

• Is sufficient budget available for a subset of the actual hardware that will be used in the upgrade?

• Is sufficient time available for the configuration of the prototype lab and testing of the software?

• Are the internal resources available for a period of time long enough to finish the prototype testing? Is the budget available to pay for external consulting resources to complete the work?

• Is the Windows networking environment mission-critical to the business' capability to go about its daily activities and generate revenues, and will interruption of Windows services cost the company an unacceptable amount of money?

• Does the actual migration process need to be tested and documented to ensure the success of the upgrade?

• Do resources need to be trained on the upgrade process (building the servers, configuring the network operating system and related applications)?

If you find that the answer to more than half of these questions is yes, it's likely that a prototype phase will be required.