Assembling the Update Team

Identifying individuals with the right mix of technical and project management skills for deploying updates is one of the first decisions that you and your company's management will make. Even before staffing can begin, however, you need to identify the team roles, or areas of expertise, required for update management. Microsoft suggests using the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) team model, which is based on six interdependent, multidisciplinary roles: product management, program management, development, testing, user experience, and release management. This model applies equally well to both Microsoft and non-Microsoft software.

• Program management The program management team's goal is to deliver updates within project constraints. Program management is responsible for managing the update schedule and budget, reporting status, managing project-related risk factors (such as staff illnesses), and managing the design of the update process.
• Development The development team builds the update infrastructure according to specification. The team's responsibilities include specifying the features of the update infrastructure, estimating the time and effort required to deploy the update infrastructure, and preparing the infrastructure for deployment.
• Testing The testing team ensures that updates are released into the production environment only after all quality issues are identified and resolved. The team's responsibilities include developing the testing strategy, designing and building the update lab, developing the test plan, and conducting tests.
• User experience The user experience team ensures that the update process meets the users' needs. The team gathers, analyzes, and prioritizes user requirements and complaints.
• Release management The release management team is responsible for deploying the updates. In large environments, the release management team also designs and manages a pilot deployment of an update to ensure that the update is sufficiently stable for deployment into the production environment.

The MSF team roles are flexible; they can be adapted to your organization's own processes and management philosophy. In a small organization or a limited deployment, one individual might play multiple roles. In larger organizations, a team might be required to perform all of the tasks assigned to each role.

More Info For more information about the MSF team model, visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c54114a3-7cc6-4fa7-ab09-2083c768e9ab.