Process
PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM YOUR KEYBOARD.
Deploying an NMS solution requires a bit of forethought and planning. A couple of hours spent thinking through what you want to accomplish, the challenges you want to address, and then creating a plan on how you will get from A to Z will pay off dividends in faster deployments, more stable implementations, and improved reliability. You are also more likely to reach the end-goal you desire, as opposed to falling short.
Like most software implementations, deploying an NMS solution is best done in 5-steps:
- Research - Understand both what your challenges are, as well as what the solution(s) you have licensed can do for you.
- Plan - Architect your solution, determine initial configuration/setup, create processes for deployment and rollback.
- Implement - Execute your plan, test, and validate the deployment.
- Observe - Monitor the system for performance, operation, and results.
- Adjust - use your observations as inputs to adjust your Plan
Change Management
Please note, this process addresses the planning needs for successfuly deploying the software. It does NOT address the change management requirements. The deployment of a new NMS solution will mean changes to processes - how are devices added/updated/retired; what are the steps/clicks to discovering information or reporting outages, etc. All of these will entail some adjustments to the physical processes users take from what they click, to what presentations they view. Which means change management MUST be included.