Planning High-Volume Deployment

MDT 2008 and earlier versions included detailed planning guidance and job aids that helped you set up project teams, synchronize their work, and manage milestones. However, Microsoft condensed the documentation in MDT 2008 Update 1 and MDT 2010 to eliminate much of the planning guidance. This move helped reduce an overwhelming amount of documentation, making it easier for people who just want technical guidance to use it.

Microsoft still provides excellent planning and management guidance for high-volume deployment projects, however. In fact, it's better: The Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) 4.0, available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx, provides project management guidance and job aids based on the original Planning Guide in MDT 2008. In MOF 4.0, the Deliver phase uses familiar terminology, such as envisioning, planning, building, stabilizing, and deploying. [These were phases in previous MDT documentation but are Service Management Functions (SMFs) in MOF 4.0 guidance.] This guidance maps out a workflow, including inputs, responsibilities, activities, deliverables, and reviews for each step.

This guidance helps you to do the following:

• Capture the business needs and requirements prior to planning a solution
• Prepare a functional specification and solution design
• Develop work plans, cost estimates, and schedules for the deliverables
• Build the solution to the customer's specification so that all features are complete and the solution is ready for external testing and stabilization
• Release the highest-quality solution by performing thorough testing and releasecandidate piloting
• Deploy a stable solution to the production environment and stabilize the solution in production
• Prepare the operations and support teams to manage and provide customer service for the solution

Note MDT 2010 no longer includes job aids for writing vision documents, functional specifications, and so on. MOF 4.0 now includes these job aids. You can download the job aids from the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=116390.

The following sections describe each MOF 4.0 Deliver SMF. Because MOF 4.0 is generic, they relate each SMF specifically to performing a high-volume deployment by using MDT 2010.