Build and installation Schedule

[LuckyWinner]

Hi, everyone.

I've recently joined an ad agency where we finally are upgrading about 40 Mac Yosemite users and a few Windows users (but using SCCM; not Casper) from Adobe CS6 to Creative Cloud, using CCP for packaging and Casper for deployment.

This is my first time deploying software with Casper, and I'll be trained in a few weeks. I'm reading up in advance. All your insights have been very helpful in schooling me on future potential pitfalls and their workarounds, and I'm grateful for this strong community.

In the meantime, I'm wondering what your experiences have been with the logistics: how much time you allow (or are limited to in busy, rushed environments) for image builds, installation, user testing with pilot groups, revising builds based on user feedback, and redeploying. Any loose schedule time ranges are helpful because I'm under pressure to plan the rollout.

The installs are enterprise versions, including most applications except for video-editing software. Acrobat will be packaged separately.

Each build will have a companion build for another language (Italian) given some of our workers collaborate with an Italian partner; it's completed).

I'm considering these timeframes for installing during the night over a gigabyte network, anticipating some slowdowns with my own build issues or user preparedness compliance like forgetting to turn off CS6 app launch-at-start-up apps, forgetting to shut down, forgetting to quit CS6 software, etc

2 weeks for builds (since I'm a first-timer)
1 week for deployment as cached packages waiting for installation 1 week for testing with selected savvy users
1 week for revising packages after addressing user feedback about needing global adjustments to preferences, etc), and redeploying and installing
1 week for await green light from testing by users to install globally across entire office. (This is a desired stage I imagine my bosses might want to skip to speed things up) 1 week for final installations
1 day for on-call "new software" user support and co-facilitating with a power user the differences between the old and new software.

Many thanks in advance!

[pat_best · Accepted solution]

I am reading an expected 7 weeks from start to supporting the final product. I think this is a comfortable amount of time for 40 computers. Things I would make sure to include:
1. 2 weeks for the builds. This is okay depending on how many new applications you are packaging. For example I am building a new version of Eclipse Android DK. With all of the plugins it is about 15GB in size. I have made two mistakes in the build process and I am into my second day on this one package due to the time it takes to rebuild, upload, and redeploy for testing.
2. make sure you have time scheduled in there for any preference management (ie dock customization, wireless settings, general cosmetics, etc.) This can really suck time quickly if your users/bosses want a lot of customization. I would give myself 2 to 3 days (possibly while building packages) to work this stuff out.
3. 1 day for on-call might be a little light unless you have "group leaders" in various areas that know the basics and can teach their peers. I think it would be tough to bring a group like that up to speed quickly, but it sounds like your business is a little spread out so I think you would gain quite a bit by having a few people to frontline for you if you don't have a helpdesk. Hope this helps!

[LuckyWinner]

Pat, you are the best, as you name implies. Thanks for your insights.

I made sure to keep about 2 weeks for the initial builds to set up global user preferences that we would like all the users to have, and so on, as well as making mistakes and figuring it all out since I am new. Your example build is about as big as the Adobe Creative Cloud build.

I think I meant to say that it would be a week for post-installation user support. You are totally right that it is not possible to catch all the users or issues in a single day, especially since discovery of difficulties or new features users need assistance with won't be immediate. I plan to set up a brief cheat sheet detailing what's different between CS6 and CC, but that will not replace hands-on guidance.

Thanks again for your help. ;-)