Summary and Lessons Learned

Now let's step back and take a critical look at the HugeCo directory design and deployment process. HugeCo made a large investment to ensure that its directory service would be a success ”and it is. As always, we can learn from the company's experience, successes, and failures.

Although HugeCo's directory design team clearly did its homework, it still occasionally found problems with the design. In some cases a redesign was required before deployment of the production service. Some problems are yet to be resolved, and more redesign and redeployment activities are on the horizon. Interesting design problems that HugeCo's team encountered include the following:

• The original namespace design proved too cumbersome and had to be redesigned during the directory pilot.

• Setting up and managing many replication agreements was burdensome, and alternative designs are being examined to reduce the number of agreements required.

• Individual employees made their voices heard in asking for more control over who can access their personal information.

• Several data quality problems must be investigated and remedied.

• The initial plan for monitoring the directory service did not include any indirect probing. This facet of monitoring was added only after an embarrassing directory configuration error was unearthed when a vice president complained about poor e-mail service.

As more applications are integrated with the directory service, new challenges will no doubt surface.

Overall, HugeCo's directory design and deployment process was well conceived and well executed. By conducting a serious pilot, the team members discovered some critical problems before they deployed the entire service. They were not afraid to revisit design decisions to improve the service. And although deploying a directory service for their large organization was a big task, the service is now being leveraged in some interesting and unexpected ways.