So you’ve just gotten word from your project manager that you’ve got three weeks to plan for and implement SharePoint 2010 for your customer. They’ve got a perfectly good and working SharePoint 2007 implementation that’s hosting their data and fulfilling some of their needs, but they have plans for something new and brilliant, or at least from a functional perspective they see the benefits of SharePoint 2010 and want to use them as soon as possible.
Sure, the requirements aren’t completely filtered out and sure the hardware hasn’t been ordered, but when’s that stopped you before? 
Breath in a few times through the mask and prep yourself for a wild ride…
But wait, Microsoft recently released the SharePoint Server 2010 Planning Guide – ~600 pages of planning goodness.
So while three weeks will be cutting it close to plan and implement, heck, who am I kidding, you’re going to need those three weeks to read through the document and begin planning your detailed plan of attack… remember to give yourself some space while you analyze the functional needs of your client to figure out exactly what authentication method will provide for the functionality of your clients technical needs. And also remember that unless you’re going To The Cloud! through a fantastic service like RackSpace Cloud Hosting services, you’re going to have wait a few weeks for hardware to show up from your favorite vendor.
To quote Airplane, “I just want to tell you both good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
Enjoy the doc and remember happy planning!
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 