In developing installation work products the Implementer has to consider how the product is to be packaged, customized and installed.

A typical set of installation work products includes:

• Installation scripts
• Setup files
• Installation instructions

Installation work products should be developed with the same rigor and process followed to develop any other work product. Typically there is a requirement for a separate set of installation work products for each platform onto which the product is to be installed.

The simplest installation scenario is where the individual user installs the software on a single personal computer (node). However, in larger development shops it is typically the responsibility of a single role (network administrator) for overall enterprise-level software management tasks. In this case, there is great benefit from being able to install and update software on all the workstations quickly and easily from one location. The price for this convenience is paid in the complexity of installation software required to distribute software and customize workstations from a single server or across the enterprise. 

The developer may want to use some commercially available packages that provide templates and pre-built interface objects to make it easy to package the software for installation. These packages can be tailored to display product images and corporate logos.