Performing Pre-Design Activities; Perform A Business Assessment; Section 2.1, "Perform A Business Assessment - Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - SYSTEM PLANNING-DEPLOYMENT-BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10.3 30-03-2010 System Planning Manual

Performing Pre-Design Activities

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A firm understanding of the organization's business and technical requirements and the existing
infrastructure components that will take part in the Novell
Management system is the first step in developing a solid design that meets the organization's
immediate and future needs.
IMPORTANT: Throughout this document, we refer to the need for proper documentation.
Documentation is of the utmost importance. Documentation is a complete and accurate reference to
the system you have designed and built, but most importantly, it is a reference for the future. As
individuals transition in and out of the IT organization, the design documents become a reference as
new employees learn the infrastructure they support, including techniques, policies, and design
decisions. Documentation is also a good reference for others inside the organization who might not
be involved in the day-to-day management of the ZENworks Configuration Management
environment, but are involved in the management of other projects that might have an impact on the
ZENworks Configuration Management environment, including dependencies.
The following activities should be performed during the pre-design phase of implementing
ZENworks Configuration Management:
Section 2.1, "Perform a Business Assessment," on page 15
Section 2.2, "Perform a Technical Assessment," on page 16
Section 2.3, "Gather Other Critical Information," on page 17
Section 2.4, "Develop High-Level Design," on page 18
Section 2.5, "Develop Documentation," on page 18
Section 2.6, "Outputs from Pre-Design Activities," on page 19

2.1 Perform a Business Assessment

Your first need is a detailed business assessment. If you do not have a solid understanding of what
the overall business (or individual business units) needs or desires, you cannot design a solution to
meet business needs.
Systems management software affects the entire business, so the various departments should
provide input and influence on what the system should look like. This does not mean that
departments outside of IT need to understand the technical complexities of the infrastructure and
how it is designed; they simply need to provide business requirements to the IT organization so that
their needs are met.
The best way to handle this is through a set of informal workshops, which include high-level
introduction to the technology, what it does, how the departments and end users benefit, and
possibly a short demonstration of the product. The three main reasons you hold these workshops are
to inform departments of what you are doing, get their buy-in, and get their feedback in the form of
technical requirements. The meetings should sufficiently inform department members so they begin
to give you feedback as to how they will leverage the system.
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ZENworks Configuration
Performing Pre-Design Activities
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