Take it in Stages

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To keep yourself and the deployment team from feeling that they are working in a maze, not knowing which direction they are headed-The deployment stage? The planning stage? Where does the check list fit in? What about technology? What comes first? What comes last?-you need a plan, and that plan should structure the WLAN project so that there are definable stages. Each of the stages should have clear-cut steps that need to be taken, such as defining security issues, performing an incremental survey, determining return on investment (ROI), and so forth. Here's an outline.

Stage One-the planning. This normally consists not only of performing a WLAN assessment and users' needs analysis, but also a site survey (which is covered in detail in Chapter 8), and any necessary IT staff training. Now is also the time to consider whether bringing on board an outside project manager may be necessary. One of the keys to a successful enterprise WLAN strategy is a project manager who pays equal attention to technology, process, and employee issues.

Many times Stage One will provide all the information necessary to determine whether or not a wireless LAN is in your organization's best interest. But often more will be needed before a final decision can be made. This takes us to Stage Two.

Stage Two-the pilot project. While some organizations will chose to skip this stage, others will insist on a pilot project to learn more about wireless networking to assess how it will affect the corporate culture, and to obtain real numbers for a required ROI assessment before they move on to Stage Three. And for others, the pilot project is part of the deployment stage since they will deploy their WLAN via a series of pilot projects.

Stage Three-the technology. Once the decision is made to adopt a wireless network, the next stage is to use the site survey results to determine which wireless standard (or standards, if opting for a dual-mode network) the network will be built around. Some technology testing may have taken place during the site survey, but there will be much more that must be considered. During this stage, the determination is made as to whether the gear chosen suits the organization's culture, the needs of the wireless network, the overall networking environment, and the budget allocated to the wireless project.

Stage Four-deployment. This is where the actual installation of the equipment and software, testing, and planning for operational support takes place. This is also the stage where user-training takes place.

Stage Five-ensuring service availability. Once deployment is completed, the wireless network is considered to be in production mode, fully capable of supporting user applications. People are utilizing the network's services. At this stage, mechanisms either should be in place, or being tested so that network service availability is assured. After the network is deemed operational, the network manager must constantly be aware of and monitor factors that could influence a decision to make a change to the existing infrastructure.

When done right, any organization that deploys a WLAN eventually will see a ROI-primarily because of productivity gain due to the employees' ability to obtain convenient access to critical information from any location, which, in turn, enables faster and better decision-making.

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