1. Directory Services Overview

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 15. Going Production > Executing Your Plan

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Executing Your Plan

The final step is to roll out your production service. This involves executing each of the five pieces of your production plan:

1. Gather needed resources.

2. Perform prerequisite tasks .

3. Roll out the service.

4. Check your progress against your success criteria.

5. Publicize your new service.

You may want to have extra resources at your disposal during the early stages of your rollout. Access to spare people and machines will help you recover more quickly if someone or something fails unexpectedly. In general, be prepared to react quickly if anything goes seriously wrong.

You should also make sure you know where to turn for outside help. Create a list of contact information for hardware vendors, directory software vendors , suppliers of other software you are using, and anyone else whom you may need to ask for help if you encounter a problem or need help configuring your service. During the most critical phases of your rollout (e.g., when your first important directory-enabled application comes online and begins using your directory), we suggest that you put on alert the people you may need to turn to for help.

Hopefully your rollout will go smoothly, but it is possible that it will not. You may, for example, encounter a critical bug that did not show up during your pilot. Or you may find that some part of your design just won't work with the software you have or in the environment in which the service needs to run. If this happens, do not despair. Regroup and consider whether you need to revisit your design or conduct another pilot before proceeding with your production rollout. It is important to know what kind of problems would lead you to halt the rollout and which ones could be dealt with while the rollout proceeds.

Finally, remember to keep everyone informed about your progress. Communicate openly with your management, colleagues, developers, and end users about how the production rollout is proceeding. Try not to promise more than you can deliver. After you have met all or most of your success criteria, let everyone know that you consider the directory service to be in production. And don't forget to thank everyone for their hard work and help in reaching this major milestone!

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing

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Index terms contained in this section

directories
         production
                    executing 2nd 3rd
planning
         production rollouts
                    executing your plans 2nd 3rd
production directories
          executing 2nd 3rd

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.