OSS Transformation is all about managing change – organisationally, functionally and operationally during in-flight projects. This is the most commonly overlooked factor when planning OSS projects
I often talk about OSS being an afterthought for network teams. I find that they’ll often design the network before thinking about how they’ll operationalise it with an OSS solution. That’s both in terms of network products (eg developing a new device and only thinking about building the EMS later), or building networks themselves. It […]
Let me ask you a question – when you’ve expanded your bag of tricks that help you to manage your OSS, where have they typically originated? By reading? By doing? By asking? Through mentoring? Via training courses? Relating to technical? People? Process? Product? Operations? Network? Hardware? Software? Design? Procure? Implement / delivery? Test? Deploy? By […]
One of the biggest challenges of big bang OSS project implementations is that all of the business value (ie the OSS and its data, workflows, integrations, etc) gets delivered at once, normally at the end of a lengthy exercise. Ok, ok, so the delivery of value is not a challenge, it’s the implications of a […]
There’s a concept in sales called “risk reversal” that takes all of the customers’ likely issues with a product and provides answers to alleviate customer concerns. I believe we can apply the same concept to OSS, not just to sell them, but to design them. To borrow from a risk register page here on PAOSS, the […]
“One business customer, for example, may require ultra-reliable services, whereas other business customers may need ultra-high-bandwidth communication or extremely low latency. The 5G network needs to be designed to be able to offer a different mix of capabilities to meet all these diverse requirements at the same time. From a functional point of view, the […]
A recent blog from Seth Godin brought back some memories from a past project. “Two ways to solve a problem and provide a service. With drama. Make sure the customer knows just how hard you’re working, what extent you’re going to in order to serve. Make a big deal out of the special order, the […]
A recent post discussed the challenge of getting a timeslice of operations people to help build the OSS. That post surmised, “as the old saying goes, you get back what you put in. In the case of OSS I’ve seen it time and again that operations need to contribute significantly to the implementation to ensure […]
How many OSS business cases have you seen that are built around cost reduction? Most of them?? Now let me ask the same question, but with one extra word included and see whether it completely inverts your answer. How many OSS business cases have you seen that are built on capital cost reduction? None of […]
Yesterday’s post talked about using customer contacts as a real-time proxy metric for friction in the business, which could also be a directional indicator for customer experience. That got me wondering what other proxy metrics might be used by to provide predictive indicators of what’s happening in your network, OSS and/or BSS. Apparently, “Colt aims […]
OSS are there to do just that – support operations. So as OSS implementers we have to do just that too. But as the old saying goes, you get back what you put in. In the case of OSS I’ve seen it time and again that operations need to contribute significantly to the implementation to […]
OSS tend to be very good at presenting a current moment in time – the current configuration of the network, the health of the network, the activities underway. Some (but not all) tend to struggle to cope with other moments in time – past and future. Most have tools that project into the future for […]
Can you guess what automated OSS testing and OSS new starters have in common? Both are best front-loaded. As a consultant, I’ve been a new starter on many occasions, as well as being assigned new starters on probably even more occasions. From both sides of that fence, it’s far more effective to front-load the new […]
“To paraphrase the great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, resisting change is like trying to hold your breath – even if you’re successful, it won’t end well.” Michael McQueen here. OSS is an interesting dichotomy. At one end of the scale, you have the breath holders – those who want the status quo to remain so […]
“Very often, what is meant to be a stepping stone turns out to be a slab of wet cement that will harden around your foot if you do not take the next step soon enough.” Richelle E. Goodrich. Not sure about your parts of the world, but I’ve noticed the terms “tactical” (ie stepping stone […]
On Friday, we talked about how making compromises on OSS can actually be a method for reducing risk. We used the OSS vendor selection process to discuss the point, where many stakeholders contribute to the list of requirements that help to select the best-fit product for the organisation. To continue with this same theme, I’d […]
“When you’ve got multiple powerful parties involved in a decision, compromise is unavoidable. The point is not that compromise is a necessary evil. Rather, compromise can be valuable in itself, because it demonstrates that you’ve made use of diverse opinions, which is a way of limiting risk.” Chip and Dan Heath in their book, Decisive. […]
There’s a particular carrier that I know quite well that appears to despise a particular OSS vendor… but keeps coming back to them… and keeps getting let down by them… but keeps coming back to them. And I’m not just talking about support of their existing OSS, but whole new tools. It never made sense […]
As an implementer of OSS, what’s the single factor that makes it challenging for us to deliver on any of the three constraints of project delivery? Complexity. Or put another way, variants. The more variants, the less chance we have of delivering on time, cost or functionality. So let me ask you, is our next […]
You all know I’m a fan of training operators in OSS sandpits (and as apprenticeships during the build phase) rather than a week or two of classroom training at the end of a project. To reduce the re-work in building a sandpit environment, which will probably be a dev/test environment rather than a production environment, […]
Have you noticed that OSS projects need to go through extensive review to get funding of business cases? That makes sense. They tend to be a big investment after all. Many OSS projects fail, so we want to make sure this one doesn’t and we perform thorough planing / due-diligence. But I do find it […]
