Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 15. Going Production > Creating a Plan for Going Production |
Creating a Plan for Going ProductionA good production plan covers a lot of ground. Unless the scope and audience for your directory service are extremely small, you should develop a detailed, written plan before going production. Everyone who will be involved in or directly affected by the rollout should participate in the creation and review of the plan. A good plan for going production includes five major parts :
These five parts of the overall plan are discussed in greater detail in the sections that follow. List the Resources Needed for Your RolloutOne key to a successful rollout is to make sure all the necessary pieces are in place before you bring up any services. Some of the resources you need to line up include:
Depending on the specifics of your own environment and the goals for your deployment, you may need additional resources. Create a checklist of all the required resources, and assign a responsible person to ensure that each is obtained before you expect the rollout to begin. Create a List of Prerequisite TasksThere are several important things you should do before you start installing servers and rolling out your service. These prerequisite tasks include the following:
Again, depending on your environment and your directory design, there may be additional things you need to do before beginning your production rollout. Create a checklist of everything that needs to be done and include a person responsible for each item. Consider dependencies among the tasks and make sure you prioritize your efforts accordingly . Create a Detailed Service Rollout PlanYou should create a detailed service rollout plan that indicates what needs to be done, the order in which you will do it, and who will be responsible for completing each task. This plan should include the following information:
Depending on the scope of your service, there may be either very few or a large number of people involved in the production rollout. In either case, make sure each person is involved in creating the detailed rollout plan and understands his or her role. Develop Criteria for SuccessWhile you are lining up all the resources you need, tackling prerequisite tasks, and developing your detailed rollout plan, you also should create a document that lists certain criteria you can use to measure the success of your directory service rollout. If you already have goals for your directory service (as discussed in Chapter 5, "Defining Your Directory Needs" ), use them to formulate criteria by which you can objectively evaluate the success of your production service. Don't be overly ambitious; it is probably sufficient to just jot down a few things you hope to accomplish. Here are some simple examples of production goals:
It is best to keep your success criteria simple. Share the criteria with the other members of your deployment team so that everyone is aware of the big picture. Make sure all the criteria are measurable; it is important to know if you are meeting or failing to meet your targets. Create a Publicity and Marketing PlanBefore you begin your production rollout, you should develop a publicity and marketing plan for your new directory service. Your two major goals in this area should be to make people aware of the new service and encourage them to use it. Publicity can take many forms. A few well-crafted articles for the company newsletter or postings to appropriate discussion groups may be all you need. On the other hand, you might want to make a bigger splash by hosting a directory service party. If your organization holds brown-bag meetings or any other type of training sessions on computing topics, you should sign up to lead a session or two to promote your new service and educate people about it. Some of the topics you may want to cover when spreading the word about your directory service include
It is important to tailor your publicity and marketing efforts to meet the needs of the intended audience. In practice, this means that you may need to develop separate materials for the end users, directory application developers, system administrators, executives, and so on. If possible, enlist the marketing people who work for your organization to help draft your publicity plan and create appropriate materials. You should also consider whether you are willing to serve as a reference customer for any of your directory software suppliers. By doing so, you may be able to generate some external publicity about your organization and foster a better relationship with the supplier. In summary, the deployment of a production-quality LDAP directory service is a major milestone for your organization. Make sure people know about it. There is nothing wrong with congratulating yourself and your team on a job well done while simultaneously raising awareness about your new service!
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Index terms contained in this sectionapplicationsdeployment production planning backups production planning data production planning publishing rights production planning deployment application production planning directories production planning 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th software production planning disaster recovery plans production planning documentation user production planning help production planning marketing production planning 2nd 3rd 4th monitoring directories procuction planning needs production planning 2nd planning production rollouts 2nd 3rd 4th 5th prerequisite tasks 2nd 3rd 4th 5th publicity and marketing 2nd 3rd 4th resource needs 2nd success criteria 2nd 3rd production directories planning detailed rollout plans 2nd 3rd 4th prerequisite tasks 2nd 3rd 4th 5th publicity and marketing 2nd 3rd 4th resource needs 2nd success criteria 2nd 3rd publicity production planning 2nd 3rd 4th publishing data rights production planning resources production planning 2nd rollouts detailed plans 2nd 3rd 4th software directory production planning success criteria production planning 2nd 3rd testbeds production planning training production planning users documentation for production planning |
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