Planning for a New Installer? Be ready with these Parameters..

Installer is NOT a last minute Surprise!

When you start with an all new Product or creating an ancillary kit or application for the existing product line, we may have to create a new installer for the deployment. With the Agile Methodology for development, at the end of each iteration, the product should be in a shippable state. Hence designing and developing the installer in parallel along with the product development would help us not only to have the product ready in a shippable state at the end of the iteration but also helps the QA to verify quickly.

·         Application Name

·         Application Description

·         Application Version Number

·         Company Name

·         Support Information to be displayed in ARP Panel

     a.   Publisher Name, URL

     b.   Contact Name, URL

     c.   Support Phone Number

     d.   Read Me File, if any

     e.   Product Update URL

      f.   Comments, if any

·         License Agreement, if any

·         Hardware Requirements

·         Default Installation directory

·         Installation condition like

       a.    Supported Operating System

       b.    Supported Platform - 32-bit / 64-bit

       c.    Admin privilege required?

·         Add / Remove programs entry required?

·         Icon & Images

                    a.    Product specific icon for ARP entry and installer output file?
                    b.  Custom Images for Installer dialog and installer startup splash screen 

        c.   Billboard (images run in background during installation) required?

·         List the Pre-Requisite software checks  (example .Net Framework 4.0 etc.,)
·         Do you need to ship any Pre-Requisite software along with the installer? If yes, list them

·         Silent installation required?

·         Globalization / Localization support? If yes, list the supported languages

·         Shortcuts? If yes, provide the name and physical path (relative to the installation directory) for all the proposed shortcuts

·         Do you bundle any merge module?

·         Answer these questions for succeeding release of the product

a.    Detect previous version?

b.    Do we need to support co-existence with the previous versions of should we upgrade?

c.    Upgrade should me a Patch or Minor upgrade or Major Upgrade.

[Note: It’s a good practice to plan the release artifacts in advance.]

·         Feature Details

o   Feature List with name and description

o   Feature / Component / File association

o   Optional or Mandatory feature

·         UI sequence for installation

o   Custom dialog, if any for user input

·         Post installation configuration like..

o   Create a Service

o   Create a Website / Virtual directory / App Pool

o   Restart IIS

o   Update config files

o   Register a  DLL

o   Create a database / Run a query / attacha a database

·         UI sequence for maintenance mode (remove, repair or modify)

o   Custom dialog, if any for user input  - modify option

·         Pre or Post uninstallation configuration like..

o   Delete a Service

o   Delete Website / Virtual directory / App Pool

o   Restart IIS

o   Update config files

o   unregister the  DLL

o   Remove the database / detach a database

·         Mode of deployment

o   Large scale deployment through SMS or Active Directory or Citrix Server

o   Web Deployment

o   Click Once Deployment

o   Stand Alone Server / Client

With these inputs, Agile Team can define the scope of the installer and estimate all the associated tasks for Installer development as well as testing.

·         Reboot required at the end of installation / uninstallation       

·         Windows Logo Guide lines Validation for the installer - Mandatory / Optional?