A million words about OSS

Whilst setting up for another new initiative this week I became aware that the PAOSS blog has just ticked past 1 million words.  And that’s not including all the other pages or downloads available on the PAOSS website. I knew I loved talking about OSS (which was the whole reason for starting this blog), and […]

Applying Elon Musk’s “Idiot Index” to OSS

I’ve just finished reading the book, “Elon Musk,” by Walter Isaacson. It’s a fascinating study of a fascinating, and highly polarising engineer. Polarising, but also inspiring (inspiring what to avoid as much as inspiring what one could/should/can do). Musk’s biography cites example after example of his ability to think big, but also think very small […]

The best OSS I built was shut down after 2 years

My “best” OSS build was my first. Unfortunately the client shut it down after just over 2 years. Why? We’ll get to that. What did I learn? We’ll get to that too. I shouldn’t say “my” OSS or “I built” because it was a massive effort from a very special team and I’m not trying […]

When it comes to OSS, are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

I was listening to a group of telco experts on a podcast the other day. As they were talking, I kept picturing the image of Eeyore – you know, the donkey from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories with an overly pessimistic outlook on life. Sources: https://getwallpapers.com The podcast was just soooo gloomy. Channeling Eeyore, I’ll paraphrase: […]

An OSS paradox: The split personality of being an OSS architect and writer

An interesting paradox struck me just recently. Having written nearly 2,750 articles here on this blog, I can probably lay claim to being a writer. Having done well over 50 OSS-related projects since the first one in 2000, I can probably also claim to be an OSS architect and consultant (although impostor syndrome does make […]

The Olympians of OSS: Unveiling the key attributes of our most elite OSSletes

Athletes from around the globe will soon be descending on Paris to compete for Olympic medals in a multitude of events. Olympic champions will be determined through a variety of performance attributes – skill, strength, endurance, speed and much more – with different attributes required for any given event. That made me wonder – What […]

From Telco to HellCo to HellNoCo

Late last week we published an article, “From Telco to HellCo: I’m the CEO of a large telco. I want to destroy it as fast as I can.” Based on all the feedback, you could say that it seemed to resonate! Using Charlie Munger’s Inversion Technique, we suggested 21 ways to kill off a large […]

How to plan the resources and budget needed for an OSS transformation project

OSS Transformation Resourcing Questions Have you ever had to wrestle with the conundrum of organisational change when embarking on a major OSS transformation? How many people will I need? What tasks will they do? What skills will they require? Who are the best people to get involved in the transformation? How much budget needs to […]

Our limitations as OSS match-makers

Are you looking for a role in OSS? Or are you looking for someone with skills in OSS to help fill an OSS role or on an upcoming project? At Passionate About OSS, we get asked about both sides of this equation on a regular basis. We regularly find ourselves trying to help as match-makers, […]

Monthly OSS / Telco In-Person Meetup

Passionate about OSS and Telco – Locals Lunch Held at Noon on the Second Friday of Each Month. Held at the Golden Hills Brewery – 25 Station St, Diamond Creek VIC  (see map below) The doors open at noon. Join us for an informal meetup called “Passionate about OSS and Telco – Locals Lunch,” held at […]

Steve Jobs Said 1 Habit Separates the Doers From the Dreamers

This article by Jeff Haden in Inc Magazine, “30 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Said 1 Habit Separates the Doers From the Dreamers,” has made me re-think the way I work, but also reconsider the way the OSS / telco industry works. “One of my least favorite things to do is ask for help. Not only […]

What types of training does the OSS / telco industry need? What do you need?

I’d love to get your perspective on something. In recent times, quite a few people have reached out to suggest that PAOSS should create a comprehensive OSS/BSS training programme because there’s nothing really suited to their needs available on the market today. A couple of these people have suggested that the TM Forum courses are […]

Network Operations Ninja Academy (NONA) of the Future

We were honoured to be guests on the Zero-Touch Telecom (ZTT) show last week. The discussion mainly revolved around a highly problematic skills gap that’s likely to widen between network masters and apprentices once we introduce significant automation via tools such as AIOps and the like. In response, Michael P. asked a great question, “With the […]

Sharing a chat from the Zero-Touch Telecom show

Are you as fascinated with automation, AIOps, zero-touch networking, autonomous networking and the like? If so, you might like to listen in on a chat I had with Geoff Hollingworth of Rakuten Symphony on the “Zero-Touch Telecom Show” In it, we talked about some of the concepts from recent content here on PAOSS including: The […]

12 dilemmas that we face on the journey to zero-touch operations

There’s a common misnomer that AIOps and Network Automation solutions are just stood up and a bunch of people are stood down. That is, as soon as the tools become operational, the network operator can start reducing head-count. Project sponsors pray for it (to justify their business cases), network operations staff fear it (for the […]

The OSS Golf Analogy

Over the years, I’ve often referred to The Corkscrew Analogy or Momentum Spiral to describe a mindset of incremental improvement that’s needed to keep an OSS project moving forward. Rather than trying to jump straight from scratch (blue dot) to perfection / completion (yellow dot), it’s far more helpful to make many smaller steps and […]