Chapter 4. Upgrading Strategies and Project Management

SOME OF THE MAIN TOPICS IN THIS CHAPTER ARE

Where Do You Start?

Determining When an Upgrade Is Necessary ”The Evaluation Process

What Resources Are Needed for the Upgrade?

Planning an Upgrade

Testing the Plan

Deployment

User Training

Closing the Book ”Documenting What Has Changed and Why

Other Considerations for Upgrading

This chapter discusses some things you should consider when deciding whether an upgrade is needed for the network, and some of the steps necessary to accomplish the task. It is not a simple task to undertake a major network upgrade. It is not a simple task to undertake an upgrade of even a single departmental network, depending on the applications, servers, network bandwidth required, and other factors. Any sort of upgrade contemplated in this book should be done so in an orderly fashion, and the appropriate documentation (before and after) needs to be created. Documentation does not mean that you have an absolute set of directions that must be followed. Instead, it is a set of documents you can create before the upgrade, and then modify as circumstances reveal new problems or opportunities that may arise during the upgrading process.