Step 7 - Evaluate the User Experience

Duration: 1-2 days, depending on the number and complexity of your Use Cases, the number of users participating in the tests, and the amount of iterative optimization and retesting performed.

In this step you'll evaluate the pilot VDI deployment you've prepared with your Starter Kit.  The intent is not to stress-test the system or focus on boundary cases, but rather to assess how well VDI can support the usual work activities of your users and to look for areas where the configuration or supporting infrastructure might not be optimal.

Note on the Evaluation process: It is important that users assisting in the evaluation understand that this may be an iterative process, as you'll potentially need to optimize DVM configurations (or server and storage settings) and then retest specific Use Case areas where performance issues were found.

I.  Evaluate Use Cases

For each Use Case you defined in Step 1, users should run through a set of steps that replicate a typical workflow while recording any timings or subjective observations that might indicate a performance or user experience issue. 

If you haven't already prepared a VDI Test Plan or Use Cases, the two sample documents below may help you capture an objective, repeatable assessment of the user experience using realistic workflows:

   Sample VDI Test Plan (in RTF format)

   Sample VDI Use Case (in RTF format)

The Use Cases should be run with data that is representative of  the user's typical work, but which is ideally standardized so that different users and DVMs can repeat the same test with as close to the same inputs as possible. It may be beneficial to prepare same data files (for Word, Excel, etc.) and supply users with a number of standard web and multimedia locations for browsing and viewing.

Because human perception is often fallible in subjectively comparing performance or display quality, you may want to have users repeat and record the timing and user experience for exactly the same Use Case steps on their current Windows desktop PCs. This will provide an objective basis for comparison.

At the end of each Use Case run, it is helpful to review the results with the testers while it is still fresh in their minds to assure they can provide enough detail to suggest possible steps to resolve any identified issues. This is critical because it is often possible to resolve initial performance issues by optimizing DVM and system settings (e.g. allocating more RAM or adjusting storage configurations).

II.  Optimizing DVM and Server Configurations to Resolve Issues

After completing an initial pass through the Use Cases, the next step is to correct any performance issues by optimizing the DVM and infrastructure configurations.

For instance, users who work with very large data sets in Excel may notice that the DVM performance slows down as they load the data set.  This indicates a potential configuration problem such as too little memory allocated to the DVM causing excessive paging on a too slow storage system.  Corrective actions might be to either allocate more RAM to the DVM or move it to a higher performance storage system to speed page file activity. 

After making potential optimizations to the DVM or storage configuration, repeat the specific Use Case to see if the issue is corrected.  Because VDI performance can be impacted by a number of interdependent factors, you may need to try several optimizations, retesting after each one.

At the end of this step you should have identified performance issues and optimized both the DVM configurations and the server, storage, and network infrastructure to deliver the best possible VDI performance.  Understanding what level of optimized performance can be delivered by your current or planned infrastructure for a realistic set of Use Cases is critical to building a workable business case for VDI in the next step.


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