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
“The details are not the details. They make the design.” Charles Eames. Gaining consensus on an OSS document across multiple stakeholders can be a painful exercise. As we all know, each reviewer will have their own biases, agenda, preferences, etc. This is great when the reviews are picking up vital points, but can be detrimental […]
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Henry Adams. Here on PAOSS, we’ve spoken before about the challenges of training (and retaining) a broadly talented, adaptable OSS workforce. Getting a resource up to productive speed on any given OSS requires an apprenticeship, not just a 2 day training course. But this […]
Today’s blog is all about you (actually they all have you in mind collectively, but this one encourages you to voice your specific obstacles to progress). In the world of OSS (or perhaps even beyond), what value can I add that goes beyond the generalities of a blog and will help you get what you […]
“Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.” John Wesley. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s OSS were much more sexy than they are today. As such, they were easier to find funding for than they are today. Perhaps one reason for this is the imperceptible benefits that […]
“I demolish my bridges behind me – then there is no choice but forward.” Fridtjof Nansen. OSS are full of dilemmas aren’t they? We’ve spoken about many of them in the past haven’t we? Today we look at an interesting one in terms of product upgrades. For a vendor, their ideal situation is to have […]
“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.” Stephen Covey. OSS projects have been some of the most challenging projects I’ve worked on – with challenges of multiple layers coming at you from different attack angles. […]
“The second question to ask is: can existing assets be reused or recycled? In other words, can the investment be deferred? One of the most common claims used to support an investment case is that the investment is necessary because the network is congested. This is often correct; capacity upgrades are a fact of life […]
“Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities.” Ralph Marston. In previous blogs such as, “The marriage analogy” and “If people like you,” I’ve spoken about the perils of vendor lock-in. But today, I’ve decided to play out the polar opposite perspective for the purpose of curiosity. Please take a […]
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” Mike Tyson. The great thing about Engineers is the solution is always black and white. It has to be perfect or it’s not complete. Well, I’m a qualified Engineer, but I’m not qualified to be an Engineer by these generalisations. You’re probably sick of […]
“A core component of Lean Startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. The first step is figuring out the problem that needs to be solved and then developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as quickly as possible. Once the MVP is established, a startup can work on tuning the […]
“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” Sydney J. Harris. There are many dilemmas facing the organisation that is attempting to select a new OSS vendor, including: The need to change vs the difficulties […]
“You don’t need to be better. You need to be different.” Chase Jarvis. PassionateAboutOSS.com and my book came into existence due to a distinct gap in the OSS market that I’d noticed again and again whilst on customer assignments. As represented in the diagram below, there was a major disconnect between the Technology Context and […]
“Ideally, analytics-driven telcos must have predictive analytics embedded in all their business processes, thereby moving away from decisions based on gut feeling or intuition. [The Figure below] illustrates the four phases of a telco customer life cycle – Acquisition, Relationship, Retention and Win-back. Each phase can have several embedded analytical models, which can enhance operations considerably and provide a […]
“Consider as a marker the speed of travel. It improved dramatically through the late 19th and early 20th centuries with major innovations such as trains, automobiles, airplanes, jet engines and rockets. But the big advances came to an end in the 1970s. Movement by car now is no faster than it was then – indeed […]
“But do you want to get better? It seems like a stupid question. Of course we want our organization, our work and our health to improve. But often, we don’t. Better means change and change means risk and risk means fear… There are countless ways to listen, to engage with users, to learn and to […]
“Today, the FBAR service [Facebook Auto-Remediation] is developed and maintained by two full time engineers, but according to the most recent metrics, it’s doing the work of approximately 200 full time system administrators. FBAR now manages more than 50% of the Facebook infrastructure and we’ve found that services have dramatic increases in reliability when they […]
“Technology provides no benefits of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces ROI.” Robert McDowell. Let’s have a look at the quote above in the context of CSP service offerings, technology delivery methods and customer experiences. Let’s start with POTS – Plain Old Telephony Service. The customer experience (ie […]
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” Henry Ford. I have an interesting question to pose to you today dear readers, one that I don’t think has a perfectly right or wrong answer, but one you’re bound to have an opinion on. Let me put the contrasting views to you. Let’s […]
“It turns out that all Netflix streaming peak on Saturday night can fit inside a single fiber optic, which is the size of one human hair.” Reed Hastings. Whilst futurists talk about advances in wireless technology being the death of fibre, higher volumes of wireless traffic equals a larger number of fibre backhaul points… for […]
“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” Leonardo da Vinci. Readers of this blog will notice how often I’m looking into the future of what OSS might look like into the future. Today I […]
