Explanation
Before making any recommendations, a network technician should first capture a network baseline, which is a snapshot of the current performance of the network. This will give the technician a baseline to compare against after any changes are made. According to the CompTIA Network+ Study Manual, the technician should
"capture the state of the network before making any changes and then compare the performance after the changes have been made. This will provide an accurate baseline to compare the performance of the network before and after the changes have been made."