Minimise the tentacles on the OctopOSS. Keep it simple
After a major outage, we conduct PIRs (Post Incident Reviews). If we find something, we usually add controls. But when you think about it, that’s a bit like bandages on an infected wound – more layers, more failure points and potentially even a wider blast radius. The durable fix is more clinical: identify and remove […]
When you’re planning your next-generation OSS/BSS roadmap, what’s guiding your decisions? Are you looking for and/or researching features that have never been seen before? Are you finding new problems to solve? That’s our (my) typical mindset isn’t it? What if I instead pointed you to a little-known framework that looks deep into the past to […]
According to Russ Hill, IBM had 27 top priorities in the 1990s, and only 3 of them aligned. Telcos today aren’t far off. The cost? Misaligned missions and fragmented customer outcomes. When Lou Gerstner took over IBM in 1993, he found a company with no shortage of smart people or strategies or good intentions. But […]
You’re in the business of OSS sales (we’re all in the business of OSS sales if we want to work on an OSS project). Your OSS sales assets are full of facts, features and benefits. That fits perfectly for every buyer who thinks and says their procurement decisions are logical and calculated. Just one problem: […]
This is a story about a scene from The Matrix. It starts like the telco industry. Fearful of change. Locked into systems they can’t seem to escape. But then there’s a twist. Bang! The woman in the red dress doesn’t just walk past me. She hits me right between the eyes. This is the […]
If asked to think about telco’s most valuable assets, most people think spectrum, networks and customers. But if we think a bit more laterally, telcos have other compounding growth engines that are never discussed, to the point of being invisible. In fact, the assets that have the potential to compound fastest probably don’t even appear […]
When we’re passionate about OSS and we discuss OSS/BSS transformation, the context is almost always centred around the technology. But if technology was the real barrier, most telcos would already be running the sleek digital operations of their dreams by now. As we found in the previous article about telco world views, the real drag […]
Network downtime can cost millions per hour, so service and network assurance have never been more critical. But here’s the interesting thing – have you also noticed that many organisations still rely on reactive firefighting supplemented with a few rules-based automations, heavy use of CLIs, alarm lists and human-centric “tick and flick” incident management? When […]
Many OSS UI (User Interface) design principles have barely changed in decades. These principles have served us well. But the iterative dialogue model presented by today’s generative AI tools provides a totally new framework for OSS UI reimagination. Today we’ll explore 18 Agentic Experience (AX) principles that we’ve picked out of a letter shared by […]
Everyone’s watching. You’re on the first tee at the golf course, adrenaline surging. The fairway stretches out in front of you, full of promise, but hesitation creeps in. Your grip tightens. Not because you don’t want to play, or because the drive itself terrifies you. It’s because you’re unsure what might happen if you miss the […]
OSS tools have always been built by engineers for engineers. Engineers who love to show off their brilliant minds via layers of depth and complexity. But the new generation of users has no patience for this. Nor do their team-leaders. This article explores what we can learn from OSS/BSS user interfaces (UI) that are more […]
The Iceberg of Ignorance, (shown in the diagram below) is a widely revered model of imperfect communication between the coalface and the boardroom in large organisations. However, in telecommunications, it bears a striking resemblance to our own OSS/BSS information collection frameworks, revealing a design flaw that impacts situational awareness. And the only way to melt […]
There are two prevailing schools of thought when it comes to OSS transformation: Some believe that choosing an off-the-shelf OSS platform means the deployment will follow a predictable path. After all, the software is proven, the vendor provides reference architectures, they’ve implemented their solution numerous times before and the manuals promise standard processes Others are […]
Telcos have tolerated lengthy OSS/BSS rollouts as a necessary evil for years, but what if those same systems are the chains holding the telco world back. Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Is it OSS/BSS and/or the market that needs a radical reboot? Which must be rebooted first? OSS and BSS are […]
You’ve already got your dragon slayers. Your team is filled with seasoned OSS professionals who’ve faced complex, high-stakes problems and lived to tell the tale. They’re reliable, sharp, and tested. But if you’re the King / Queen, the one responsible for building the team, then you need more than just experience. You need adaptability. Perspective. […]
This article provides a summary of our Buyer-Seller Chasm series of articles, where we start with the guiding principle that: The buyers (carriers) desperately need better tools to transform their operations. The sellers (vendors) already have better tools, which they desperately want to sell. The problem worth solving lies in the extraordinary amount of time, […]
Everyone’s chasing a better OSS, which for most means planning the next OSS platform migration. Yet we rarely ask the key questions that guarantees long-term success: “When was the last time someone in your team really challenged the way things are done?” “Does everyone on your team feel empowered / safe to pose radical new […]
Forget what’s trending in telecom. The future of telecom isn’t about what changes. It’s about what never will. It’s not about desperately trying to keep up with all the fads or buzzwords. It’s about delivering the things your customers will never stop expecting. Why Jeff Bezos Designs Platforms for Stability, Not Speed Jeff Bezos famously […]
Most OSS programs stall before they even start, waiting on the longest pole in the tent – production infrastructure – to become available for the first OSS software builds. This invariably involves waiting on solution designs, procurement, approvals, integrations and more. But what if there were a faster way? There’s one step that we use […]
Making your OSS easy to use isn’t about adding more “easyness” – it’s about subtracting what sucks. “To make your stuff “easier to use” you don’t make it “easier.” You look at all the things that make it hard, then remove them one by one. Easy isn’t something you add. It’s what’s left over after […]
