SOF Plan and Deliver Updates for Meeting Migration Service and Regionally Hosted Meetings

[Matt Wade]

We recently released an update to the Skype Operations Framework (SOF) in December 2016, with a new set of changes to the Plan and Deliver phases.

In this post, we would like to talk specifically about the SOF updates for the Meeting Migration Service (MMS) and Regionally Hosted Meetings (RHM). 

For SOF training about MMS and RHM, review the following resource: here

For technical training on MMS, please check out the following resources. RHM technical trainings will be released once we are closer to General Availability of the feature.

MMS

• Training: https://aka.ms/sa-mms
• Blog: https://aka.ms/sa-mms-blog

What was updated for MMS?

The following Stages, that are part of the Plan and Deliver phases, were updated for SOF.

Plan – Envision

We added content in the Envision stage, to help start the conversation around Scheduled Meeting Migrations. The key outcome, is simply to introduce the workshop audience to the available options for Scheduled Meeting Migrations.

Asset Updated

• Envisioning Architecture Workshop

Plan – Design

For the Design stage, we modified two architecture workshops, with additional content to cover the key concepts of MMS. We will start by re-introducing MMS, as the audience may be different than the Envisioning Architecture workshop.  Then, we discuss Service Prerequisites and Limitations before moving on to Impact Planning and User Experience.  We end the conversation, with a few MMS best practices, and talk briefly about the Meeting Migration Tool (MMT) and manually scheduling meetings. 

The key outcomes for the architecture workshop include:

1. Are you not able to use MMS and why?
2. Does your migration strategy require the use of MMT?
3. Do you need to disable MMS?

Assets Updated

• Cloud PBX Architecture Workshop
• Cloud PBX Architectural Document
• Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Workshop
• Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Design Document

Also, included in the Design stage, the Client Migration workshop has a minor update to the Scheduled Meeting Migration topic reminding the audience what steps are necessary if using MMT or MMS.

Asset Updated

• Client Migration Workshop
• Client Migration Design Template

Deliver – Deploy

For the Deploy stage, we updated the following assets, to capture and prepare for the pending deployment, based upon the key outcomes from the Design stage.

Assets Updated

• Deployment Guidance Checklist: New task for Cloud PSTN Conferencing to prepare for meeting migration.
• Testing Matrix: Update to hybrid testing to verify successful meeting migration.
• Site Rollout and Migration Planning Playbook: Update to user enablement for user based tasks.

What was updated for RHM?

The Stage updates were updated for RHM to be implemented during the Plan and Deliver phases.

Plan – Envision

In the Envision stage, the Discovery Questionnaire is updated to capture several key indications for RHM (based on user distribution across the globe) and the readiness of the network infrastructure to support an RHM implementation. There is also a question whether the organization that you are working with intends to implement RHM. These indicators are captured early to better prepare you  for delivering workshops in the subsequent stages and phases of the engagement. The result is, you can receive an early indication that RHM is not applicable to the engagement, and therefore allows you to skip the RHM conversation entirely in the subsequent stages and phases.

To support RHM-related discussions in the Envisioning Architecture and Execution Planning workshops, we updated the decks and documentation templates to incorporate RHM where applicable. This helps you guide the organization that you are working with, to best decide how RHM will be implemented and to determine the timeline of the project, based on the level of changes required in the network infrastructure to support RHM.

Assets Updated

• Discovery Questionnaire
• Envisioning Architecture Workshop
• Execution Planning Workshop
• Envisioning Workshop Wrap up
• Vision and Scope

Plan – Design

For the Design stage, like MMS, the two architecture workshops were modified with new slides to cover the key concepts of RHM. We’ll start by re-introducing RHM as the audience may be different than the Envisioning Architecture workshop.  We then move into discussions on Prerequisites for RHM implementation such as network configurations, tenant-level configuration to enable support for RHM, available data locations (ADLs), and preferred data locations (PDLs).

A new asset is introduced here to support detailed planning for RHM, the Regionally Hosted Meetings playbook. The playbook is intended to  capture site-level details of user distribution and plan the PDLs to be assigned throughout the organization. The RHM playbook serves as reference document when you complete the Site Rollout and Site Questionnaire document, and provides you with the complete view of data locations that must be associated with the organization (in form of list of ADLs to be used when enabling the tenant to support RHM).

Aside from updating the workshop decks for, the we also updated the document templates to include RHM sections.

Assets Updated/Added

• Cloud PBX Architecture Workshop
• Cloud PBX Architectural Document
• Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Workshop
• Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Design Document
• Regionally Hosted Meetings Playbook (new)

Deliver – Deploy

For the Deploy stage, we made some minor updates to the following assets to capture and prepare the deployment regarding the decisions made during the Design stage for RHM implementations.

Assets Updated

• Deployment Guidance Checklist: New task for the enablement of RHM support at the tenant level.
• Site Rollout – Site Questionnaire: Additional columns to include PDL information of the site and PDL assignment per user.
• Site Rollout and Migration Planning Playbook: Add the task to verify tenant level configuration to support RHM has been performed, and verify that the user enablement script input file has been created to include the correct PDL data.
• Site Rollout Tracking: Minor update to reflect PDL of a site.

Deliver – Enable

In this update, we incorporate RHM enablement in the Enable-SkypeBusinessVoiceUsers.ps1 script that you can use to bulk-enable or migrate users to Skype for Business Online. The update to the enablement script will take advantage of the updated CSV file generated by the Site Rollout – Site Questionnaire workbook that includes the assigned PDL for each user.

The script’s documentation was also updated, to provide some additional guidance for the enablement script.

Assets Updated

• Enable-SkypeforBusinessVoiceUsers.ps1
• User Enablement Scripts Documentation