Home > Articles > Operating Systems, Server > Microsoft Servers

Purpose, Objectives, and Scope

Take a minute and define why you are doing the migration (purpose), what you expect to accomplish (objectives), and the limitations of the project (scope). It's a good idea to establish these parameters to keep the project focused. You certainly can update these sections of the action plan, but they need to be well defined. Of course, the key to keeping any project on track is establishing a timeline, which is also discussed in this section.

Defining the Purpose and Objectives

This section of the action plan should define why the company should undertake the migration. Include the advantages of Windows 2000 over the existing structure to show how the company would benefit in specific problem areas and how you can use Windows 2000 features to the company's advantage; also list expected achievements in these areas. Spend some time here, and be thorough. A good analysis of the benefits of Windows 2000 and how they apply to the enterprise will be invaluable later when calculating ROI, selling the project to management, and evaluating success and failure.

Don't forget to play devil's advocate and look for negatives—identify features of Windows 2000 that might have an adverse effect on the computing environment. For instance, one nice feature of Windows 2000 is the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC), which automatically checks topology and allows replication to work more efficiently. One company in Europe, however, determined this to be a negative feature because that company has slow 32K links between most sites and wants full manual control over every bit of data that traverses the wire. Recognizing this at the start, the company turned off the KCC for intersite replication and built its topology by hand for greater control.

Poking holes in your own proposal gives at least the appearance of objectivity and at the same time exposes flaws that must be addressed during implementation. This allows you to avoid pitfalls up front.

The designer who has done his homework and is familiar with the limitations and problems in the current computing environment (and who has been trained and has performed a study of relevant white papers on the advantages of new Windows 2000 features) should be able to develop this part of the plan. Chapter 1, "Developing a Business Justification for Migrating to Windows 2000," enumerates many of the differences and advantages that Windows 2000 holds over Windows NT 4.0.

Scope of the Project

With the purpose and objectives clearly spelled out, the scope of the project can be defined. The design team should develop this cooperatively. The important point here is to identify obvious areas of success for Windows 2000 and then focus on those areas for initial migration. In one case, although the design team all wanted to migrate to Windows 2000, the individual responsible for the corporate servers had a glaring problem. He managed UNIX, NetWare, and Windows NT servers with many users accessing resources in all three environments. He felt that the single sign-on feature in Windows 2000, allowing a single logon to the Windows 2000 and UNIX machines, not only would make his job easier, but also would result in an immediate positive impact for the users.

That company decided to confine the initial scope of the migration to the corporate domain controllers, build the infrastructure, and then migrate first the file/print/application servers and then the users. The company realized an immediate benefit in time savings (and thus cost saving) with single sign-on. Team members then could point to this success to sell management on supporting later stages of the project.

In some cases, a single area of cost savings could justify the entire project. The section "Scalability," in Chapter 1, notes that Compaq reduced the number of servers needed for Windows 2000 by several hundred. The actual savings came in reduced administration, support, maintenance, and spare parts. This savings significantly helped justify the total migration.

You see many references throughout this book to the value of a phased approach. Defining the scope is the place to identify those phases. Migrate in small, prioritized, well-conceived steps.

Development of a Project Timeline

With the tasks of the migration defined, it is important to build a timeline for the completion of individual tasks and the project as a whole. This timeline should establish deadlines for achieving milestones in the project and ensuring that objectives are met along the way.

Figure 3.1 shows a sample timeline for the entire project. This simply shows the order in which major components should be addressed (a lot of overlap between tasks is likely), and should not be interpreted as defining how long these tasks take. You will need to create your own milestones and timeline based on available resources, organizational and political constraints, and factors such as hardware availability. Create a detailed, realistic timeline with specific milestones and a "critical path," and keep it current. This is the responsibility of the project manager. A number of methods and techniques can help do this, such as Gantt charts. Select the method that suits your company, and use it.

Figure 3.1
Sample Windows 2000 migration timeline.

The remainder of the action plan components are described in detail in the remaining chapters of this book. Turn your attention to an important and difficult aspect of the migration: that of developing a cost justification plan, usually referred to as return on investment. Companies are increasingly interested in determining the total cost of ownership (TCO) as well. The next section deals with these topics.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020