IPv6 Mandates: Choosing a Transition Strategy, Preparing Transition Plans, and Executing the Migration of a Network to IPv6

Chapter 5. Creating Your Transition Plans

	A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
	--George S. Patton

When entering into any new endeavor, your satisfaction with the outcome will be greatly influenced by the expectations you had at the start. If you expect everything to come up roses, any minor disappointment can appear like a catastrophe and be overly disheartening. Similarly, if you expect the worst, problems that are surmountable may cause you to quit prematurely. With that in mind, let's set your primary expectation for creating your IPv6 transition plan: No matter what you do, you will never have perfect information for planning. There will always be unknowns. Therefore, your plan will never be perfect and you will inevitably have to make corrections during the plan's execution. If you accept this, you will be much happier during the transition. That said, there is no reason that you can't account for the unforeseen by creating a plan that is comprehensive (allowing you to get as many of the unknowns addressed ASAP) and flexible (allowing you to roll with the changes). Those two attributes are common to all good plans.

What You'll Learn

A whole book can be devoted to project planning alone, and many have been. In this chapter, you will find enough of an introduction to project planning concepts and what has to be taken into account when creating a plan to allow you to create your IPv6 transition plan. For seasoned project managers, some of this may seem like ...