Minimise the tentacles on the OctopOSS. Keep it simple
I was due to speak at TM Forum Live today but wasn’t able to make it across to France this year. However, the talk will still continue on, so if you’re in Nice please drop in to listen to Amrit Singh and Crispin Blackall talk about how Infosys and Telstra are using microservices to deliver […]
Last week we compared OSS to Theseus’ ship, how it was constantly being rebuilt mid-voyage, then posing the question whether it was still actually the same ship. OSS transformation is increasingly becoming a Theseus’ ship model. In the past, we may’ve had the chance to do big-bang cutovers, where we simply migrated users from one […]
“When you evaluate the market, you’re looking to understand where people are today. You empathize. Then you move into storytelling. You tell the story of how you can make their lives better. That’s the “after” state. All marketing ever does is articulate that shift. You have to have the best product, and you’ve got to […]
The concept of digital transformation can be massive… or it can stem from something much smaller. In digital transformation, there’s a mantra of simplify then transform. That makes perfect sense, in alignment with, “The chess-board analogy,” but often overlooked. But there’s another simplification perspective to take. Let’s take the 6 blind men and the elephant […]
There are a lot of OSS experts out there. There are a lot of people who know an extraordinary level of detail about certain aspects of OSS. I sure do admire those people. But do you know what? The people who I admire even more are the ones who understand the big picture. Knowing the […]
In an earlier post entitled, “Looking Forward to Jeopardy and Fall-outs,” I described a method for projecting forward to the likelihood of a design falling into a failure state and using that data to drive continual improvement. Not only that, but to drive the future of self-service telco designs, as I’ll describe today! The diagram […]
Many of you will have heard of Kafka. Some may not. In a similar dichotomy, today I’ll take two tangents on Kafka. The binding comes from Jay Kreps, the founder of Kafka the distributed streaming messaging system, who also happened to enjoy Franz Kafka’s writings and named his open-source project after the writer. I’d become […]
The handshake analogy compares: The number of people at a gathering to the number of handshakes required to greet them all; with The number of systems in an environment to the number of interfaces required to inter-link them (and associated complexity)). 1 person (system) = 0 handshakes (ie nobody else to shake hands with => 0 […]
. Did you notice that I was channeling Bonnie Tyler in the title there? No? No matter… The concept in the diagram above is courtesy of Roger Gibson (yes, I made you [more] famous Roger). Obviously, it is showing that business models and technology are increasingly overlapping. This simple diagram also shows why the business/technology […]
“Some pilots are proving quite interesting in enhancing Network Operations. Especially when AI / ML is used in the form of Natural language processing – NOC operators are talking to a ML system in natural language and asking questions in context to an alarm about deep topics ( BGP, 4G eUTRAN, etc). Do more with […]
Have you ever worked in a big telco (or any large organisation for that matter)? Have you ever noticed the disconnection in knowledge / information? On a recent project, I was brought in as an external consultant to find potential improvements to one business unit’s specific key performance indicator (KPI). As a consultant, my role […]
I’ve been seeing a lot of references to continual development methodologies lately (ie references to agile, DevOps, CI/CD, etc). Quotes like focus on projects rather than the mission statement, focus on products rather than projects, etc. The core principle is in chunking workload down into modular pieces that can be implemented to give flexibility and […]
“In writing or in life, people who are successful focus on the input (putting in). Those who aren’t successful focus on the output (taking out).” Paraphrasing Tucker Max during a podcast with James Altucher. In the post that follows, you’ll notice that I’m putting a completely different context on Tucker’s quote above, which is a […]
Here’s a tip for you to try on your next OSS project: Instead of building a behemoth OSS with a million contributors (and a million opinions), stand up something simple (but meaningful) quickly and let word of mouth draw others in. It’s a technique I’ve helped implement in some very “democratic” decision-making environments, environments where […]
“It might be the ultimate entrepreneurialc superpower – the ability to shift perspective and understand the viewpoint of another person… whether it’s a client, prospect, or team member. If you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, it’s the shortest path to influence, collaboration, communication, and connection.” Jeff Walker. Can OSS (or at least their […]
The most stunning sunrise inspired my journey into the office on the train this morning. The train was packed with dozens (hundreds?) of people, all with their heads down on looking at their phones, books, tablets, music players, etc. Looking around the carriage, only one other person even seemed to have noticed the stunning panorama […]
“Don’t be involved in 50 or 100 things. That’s a Noah’s Ark way of investing – you end up with a zoo that way. Put meaningful amounts of money in a few things you know well.” Warren Buffett. There are a lot of OSS products on the market. From that list, you can probably name […]
If you’re using an OSS/BSS and/or IVR in your role with a service provider, are you able to tell what’s causing customer contacts and why? For example, do you know which customer-facing products are leading to the highest proportion of calls into your contact centre? If so, are you able to determine why (eg recharge, […]
“Sometimes designing is very tempting; sometimes not designing is the answer. Often silence is required instead of shouting.” Karres en Brands. It’s said that when presenting a lecture, the softly spoken have more chance of reaching an audience than the classical loud extrovert. The theory goes that if a voice is barely audible, the listener […]
“The design not only determines uses, it’s also determined by users.” Karres en Brands. Designing an OSS, or updating the design of an existing one, can be challenging for the reason that user experience is so subjective. You think your design is practical, intuitive, elegant and simple, but others may have a vastly different opinion. […]
