Readiness

1. Readiness Overview

Now that we have built the system, we are ready to move to the readiness phase. In this phase, you will verify that your implementation meets the objectives of the project vision and a start to prepare the environment for the new MetaFrame Farm. This is accomplished through the following:

       Testing your new MetaFrame farm

       Pilot Implementation

       Rollout any remaining MetaFrame servers

       Implement Change Management policies and procedures

2. Testing your New MetaFrame Environment

You will now need to test your new MetaFrame environment to identify and correct any issues with the MetaFrame XP architecture and implementation prior to the production rollout. You will be tasked to test the functionality and stability of the new farm.

Keeping with the scope of this document you will not be required to perform full regression testing. Instead, you will need to test all of the components / features to verify they meet the requirements set forth in achieving the vision of the project as well as allow room for growth.

This is done by testing all the features of MetaFrame from a variety of clients that you will be supporting. You will also want to clean up any error messages that might appear in the Event Viewer of a MetaFrame Server.

In the following sections, you will find a pilot / test user that I feel is a great starting point for testing your farm. If you pass all the questions and have completed any additional testing that may be required, you will be ready to move on to a pilot rollout. A pilot will is important in that it provides a real world test environment.

If you will be required to do more regression and scalability testing then you can leverage the Citrix Server Test Kit to your advantage. The Citrix Server Test Kit is an automated tool that allows you to run various user load tests. The CSTK allows the Citrix administrator to simulate various user loads by using application simulation scripts. The scripts simulate various usages of typical software applications and run without any user interaction.

For more information and to download please visit: http://apps.citrix.com/cdn/SDK/cstk_sdk.asp

If anyone out there has any expertise with the CSTK and would like to contribute a how to for this document then please email dbrown@dabcc.com.

3. Pilot Implementation

Now we are ready to present the new MetaFrame farm to a select group of end-users in the form of a Pilot rollout. A pilot implementation will help further the process of testing and at the same time, be a proving ground for the MetaFrame implementation. The pilot consists of an actual production environment with live users. The pilot provides the baseline environment on which additional enhancements can be tested.

Throughout the Pilot, you will want to verify and document the following:

      User experience.

      Business functionality.

       Overall usability

This is accomplished by putting real end-users to work and the polling them on the above topics. You will need to work with your customer to develop a list of appropriate end-users needed to test the environment. This means that you will not want only the most savvy users testing the farm, but some middle of the road users as well as a few of the most remedial. This will give your polling data a well-rounded edge and more accurate results.

End-user polling results can be derived through a multitude of ways. The following are just a few:

      Provide the end-users with a evaluation sheet that asks them their perception of their new environment

      Go out, talk to the end-user base face-to-face, and get their true opinions.

Once you have completed the pilot testing, you will be ready to compile the results and present them to the customer in a formal move on to the rollout phase.

3. 1.        Test Schema for pilot user / test user

The following tables are a good starting point to verify the stability and functionality of your new MetaFrame farm.