Professional Team Foundation Server

1.3. Compiling Your Project Data

There is key data you should compile to plan a deployment. Otherwise, you may be unprepared for the installation and it may be unnecessarily complicated. Here are some of the data points you should collect:

• Hardware infrastructure—This includes a full audit of all the target systems that will be used alongside Team System. This audit should be undertaken in consultation with your operations team. Equipment usually takes time to order, therefore you may want to consider dates—a nontrivial requirement because they will affect the dates in which you can start the deployment. Part of the hardware infrastructure review includes writing a maintenance plan, which includes backup/recovery, a maintenance task list for administrators to perform regularly, and so forth. Your operations team should be deeply involved in this process.

• Software infrastructure—List all the software required for the deployment, and the software currently in place in your environment. The software check may reveal systems with incompatible software, in which case the operations team must upgrade the target systems before starting the deployment process. A close consultation with your operations team is key to obtaining a solid understanding of the target environment. Another element that can't be understated is licensing. Do you have all the necessary licenses for Team System? A good place to start is look at the 1:1 correspondence between the software you need and licenses you ...