Appendix B      Portal Deployment Worksheets

This appendix provides worksheets to help with the portal deployment process.

This appendix contains the following sections:

• Portal Assessment Worksheets
• Portal Key Design Task List

Portal Assessment Worksheets

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Use these worksheets to learn more about your organization's business needs and potential areas of concern around deploying portals.

Table B-1    General Questions

Identify the business reasons why you want a portal (check and elaborate on all that apply): Reducing procurement cost Reducing the cost of sharing information with customers, suppliers, or partners Eliminating the cost of maintaining many point solutions Expanding the reach of the customer base for your services Reducing the time to deploy new business services Securing the access to your data and services Making it easier for your customers to do business with you over the Internet Reducing the cost and time for integrating business services with suppliers and partners To comply with governmental regulations Personalizing the user experience Needing to gather business intelligence on the usage of services

How many portals does your organization already have?

What types are they (business-to-employee, business-to-consumer, business-to-business, ISP)?

If you have more than one, do you have a need to reduce the number? Integrate? Federate?

Do you have departmental portals?

What is the extent of your Web presence? How many web sites do you have?

List the top ten application services of value to you, that you would like to expose by using Portal Server to your partners? Suppliers? Customers? Employees?

Who is the target community for your portal?

Table B-2    Organizational Questions

Who are the stakeholders of this portal?

Who are the business owners (department, organization, or an individual) within your organization who would expose the content or application service that they own by using the portal?

Would an application service exposed by using the portal be made up of smaller business applications managed by an inter-departmental business process?

Who would "own" this portal (the infrastructure)?

Who would own the content?

How do you plan to recruit additional business owners within your organization to contribute their content or applications for your portal?

What project management, architect, and technical implementation resources do you have available to help develop this portal?

Who sets the policies for web site look and feel, presentation, and so on?

Table B-3    Business Service-level Expectations Questions  

Are your development projects consistent? Do you manage their risk?

How does your development team work with your test, deployment, and operations groups?

How many different platforms does your organization currently support?

How secure is your information? How consistent is the security?

Are these challenges getting better, or getting worse?

How do you plan to recruit additional business owners within your organization to contribute their content or applications for your portal?

What project management, architect, and technical implementation resources do you have available to help develop this portal?

Who sets the policies for web site look and feel, presentation, and so on?

Table B-4    Content Management Questions  

Do you have a content or document management system?

Do you have any defined workflow to manage the development and publication of content?

Do you have a taxonomy defined?

How well is your information tagged and categorized?

How is your enterprise content developed, managed, tracked, and published?

Do you have a need for syndicated content on your portal? If so, what?

What proportion of your content is dynamic versus static?

Table B-5    User Management and Security Questions  

How would you segment, categorize, and relate (hierarchically) your user community?

What are your current and future security policies?

Do various departments own or maintain their private view of the customer?

Do you have an enterprise directory?

Table B-6    Business Intelligence Questions  

Do you have a need to gather, store, analyze, and provide information for enterprise decision-making?

Do you already employ any data analysis or OLAP tools? At what level(s) do you need to collect business intelligence (enterprise-wide, division, department, project, onetime event, and so on)?

Table B-7    Architecture Questions  

Do you already have an existing architecture strategy? Do you have the capabilities to implement a new architecture solution? What technologies do you currently use? Do you have the staff to implement a new architecture solution?

Are there organizational issues that are hindering a successful implementation of a new IT architecture?

For the top ten services that you would like deployed by using a portal, what platform and architecture do you need to support?

How do these services authenticate users and manage access control?

How do you programmatically gain access to these services?

What is your current and future messaging (email) and collaboration architecture?

What is your current and future enterprise directory architecture?

What technologies are used for application integration?

What is the size of the target user community?

How many concurrent users?

What is the range of portal usage?

What is the geographical distribution of your user base?

Do you currently have or have a future need for non-Web access (Wireless, Voice/IVR, and so on)

Would your customer base require internationalization of content and services?

What server platform technologies do you use?

What development environments, tools do you use? What development methodologies do you employ?

Portal Key Design Task List

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Table B-8 lists the major portal deployment phases and key design tasks. Use this task list in conjunction with Chapter 6 "Understanding the Portal Deployment Process," to help develop your portal project plan.

Though these tasks will vary depending on your organization and the scale of each deployment, the worksheet represents the most common phases and tasks encountered.

This table consists of two columns. The first column presents the major tasks. The second column presents the subtasks for each major task.

Table B-8    Key Design Task List (1 of 7)

Major Phases and Tasks	Subtasks
1. Project Start and Coordination
Project Planning	Perform general project management
Project Plan Review	Review pre-implementation Review business requirements Review technical requirements Review architectural documents Review hardware and infrastructure
Coordinate Resources	Identify skills required Identify resources Schedule resources Assemble project team members Review work plan with project team members
Define Requirements	Collect business requirements Summarize requirements Confirm functional requirements Collect technical requirements Summarize technical requirements Confirm technical requirements Prepare combined requirements document Deliver requirements
2. Design
Develop Solution Architecture	Design software architecture Design server topology Document architecture
Develop Portal Integration	Understand system integration approach Define container and channel layout Define content aggregation Define SSO approach Develop custom Netlet and authentication modules
User Interface Design	Prepare or modify user interface design Develop or update screen specifications Review and approve user interface model
Directory Design	Design organizations, suborganizations, roles, and users Define privileges Review shared data requirements Establish data transfer protocols Create temporary or intermediate tables Test temporary or intermediate tables Document design approach Deliver design document Obtain appropriate stakeholder and organizational consensus
3. Develop and Integrate
Install Software for Testing and Development Environments	Install Portal Server and optionally Secure Remote Access (this should also install Sun ONE Directory Server) Install application server, if needed Install other software Configure server software Test server software components Document test findings
Install Server Software for Development Environment	Install Portal Server and optionally Secure Remote Access (this should also install Sun ONE Directory Server) Install application server, if needed Install other software Test server software components Document test findings
Software Configuration	Apply specific software configuration requirements Create product configuration matrix
Portal Server, Application Server, and Other Software Modifications	Review your organization's requirements and expectations Establish modifications for software Establish methods for software modifications Create software modification plan Design software modifications Establish software modification teams Create modifications Test modifications Obtain appropriate stakeholder and organizational review and approval of modifications
LDAP Directory Setup	Confer with stakeholders to establish proper schema Establish modifications for software Establish methods for software modifications Create software modification plan Design software modifications Establish software modification teams Create schema Set up LDAP Receive and verify data Modify mapping as required for LDAP Establish data update methods Test directory Create client user documentation for update methods
Legacy Software Integration (PeopleSoft, SAP, and so on)	Perform integration Prepare package integration test plan Perform integration test Produce package integration test results
Reporting	Establish reporting requirements for organization Create reporting plan Establish reporting team Design reports Create reports Test reports Review reports with customer Provide information and training on report tool
Test	Establish test plan
Plan User Acceptance Test	Identify user acceptance test manager Develop user acceptance test strategy and procedures Review strategy and procedures with customer Obtain approval for strategy and procedures Develop user acceptance test roles and responsibilities Obtain integration test scenarios Review test conditions and acceptance criteria and revise Develop user acceptance test schedule Prepare acceptance test log and update with scenario test assignments
Conduct User Acceptance Test	Execute user acceptance test Identify and document user acceptance test discrepancies Resolve user acceptance test discrepancies Re-execute user acceptance tests and track user acceptance test progress Catalog and prioritize known limitations and process improvement opportunities identified during testing Review test results with quality assurance advisors, summarize and communicate results to stakeholders Obtain acceptance test approval from stakeholders
Conduct Integration and System Test	Ensure establishment of integration test environment Identify test team and assign test scenario ownership Train team on integration test procedures, roles, and responsibilities Review and revise integration test execution schedule, as required Execute integration test Identify and document integration test discrepancies Resolve integration test discrepancies and document Identify required modifications (configuration enhancements, interfaces, reports, and so on) Re-execute integration tests Update as required Track test progress Obtain test approval Summarize and communicate results to stakeholders
4. Deployment Production
Confirm Approach	Review with stakeholders and establish implementation locations and configurations Develop implementation approach Repeat appropriate tasks from development hardware and software installation
Review and Update Deployment	Review existing documentation of results of tests Validate scope, objectives, and critical success factors Update deployment approach Review and approve deployment
Implement Deployment	Review and reconcile system operations Review organization and system procedures Promote to production Update current operations Revise system release and deployment materials Provide transition support
Training	Confirm organization commitment and expectations Establish training requirements for all personnel Establish training schedules Establish training staff Prepare materials for training Train administrators Train maintenance providers Capture training feedback Incorporate feedback for training improvement
Document Portal	Create "run book" for system administrators