Improvements to Service Provisioning Platform Deployment Process Master’s Thesis – Matti Jylhä Supervisor: Professor Jorma Jormakka

Agenda Research background Research problem Service provisioning Findings Recommendations

Background Thesis was done for a Finnish software products and services company Target customer segment is communications network operators and service providers Company product portfolio includes several “modified-off-the-shelf” software product families The focus of this thesis is on improving the case company’s product deployment process

Product Deployment Projects Deploying each of the company’s products requires a separate deployment project including –Customer specific system configurations (extensive) –Customer specific add-on modules development –System testing –Support during production ramp-up –Customer training

Product Deployment Projects cont.... Before –Product deployment projects were rather straightforward –Only small to medium size configurations to products’ functionality were required Recent changes –Increased competition –Significant leaps in offered product functionality complexity (and product complexity) –Medium to very large size configurations to products’ functionality is required  Product deployment projects have become significantly more complex and time-taking Deployment project length has grown from 1-3 months to 3-18 months depending on customer requirements

Research Problem Thesis takes a case example: It analyses and suggests improvements to the deployment process of an individual product family in the company’s product portfolio Research question: “How can the process for deploying a highly configurable service provisioning platform be improved?” The aim was to conduct a research, not to produce a reviewed process manual

Service Provisioning 1.Receiving service orders from an operations and business support system. 2.Processing orders according to defined rules 3.Sending service provisioning commands to network elements and processing command responses. 4.Delivering service order responses back to the operations and business support system.

Detailed Areas for Research Assessment of contracting practices Improvement of effort estimation practices (regarding provisioning logic) Improvement of deployment project practices

Findings on Existing Deployment Practices: Sales and Contracting Insufficient understanding of product capabilities Technical discussions inadequate at the contracting phase for determining the sufficient scope

Findings on Existing Deployment Practices: Effort Estimation Lack of formal measurement and estimation processes Strong customer influence on effort estimations Overly optimistic effort estimations

Findings on Existing Deployment Practices: Deployment Project Full specification of all customizations is attempted to complete at project initiation. Customization of very large entities developed during a single phase. Lack of formal deployment project practices and methods for true follow-up. Vague change management. Significant changes in requirements and defect discoveries at the very end of the project. Extended working hours.

Contracting Phase Recommendations Increase the product know-how within the sales organization. Involve a technical domain/product expert in the contracting phase. Increase emphasis on the technical scope definition Get customer commitment to the project practices  Fruitful customer collaboration is essential to deployment project success.

Effort Estimation Recommendations Establishment of formal effort estimation process to –store completed project data –monitor projects customization documentation practices –continuously improve the used estimation methods –develop effort estimations for deployment projects Using two parallel methods for actually estimating the deployment effort –an algorithmic model –an expert judgment model

Effort Estimation Recommendations cont… Algorithmic method –Effort estimation method based on multiple linear regressions (Experience Function Point measurement) Expert judgment alternatives –Expert WBS –Wideband Delphi

Multiple Linear Regressions

Deployment Project Process Recommendations Company milestones Customer milestones

Iterative and Incremental Approach Process is designed based on agile SW development practices Process core (elaboration & construction) is built of multiple time-boxed iterations –Iteration length is 1-4 weeks depending on the project –Each iteration has a concrete goals that are easy to comprehend –Real project monitoring becomes straightforward No full requirements specification at the project initiation, but detailed requirements are develop during the process –Part of the requirements can be in a higher level format an the customization project can still go on –All defined requirements must be within the defined project scope Only the next iterations is planned in detail –Others only on higher level (e.g. with goals listed simply with bullets) –Ability to respond to unexpected changes Continuous feedback obtained from customer –Final deliverable is ensured to fulfill the real customer requirements Iterative and incremental development allows to put the system to production even with only part of the required functionality configured to the system

Project Definition Project scope defined and accepted Initial project effort estimation made Contract signed Initial project plan made Customer committed to the project and its working practices Customer training initiated Initial elaboration iterations planned in detail

Project Elaboration Iterations Third party (integrated) system specifications obtained Provisioning platform interface specifications accepted Requirements gathering and refinement ( for add-on development and platform customization) Entire system structural design defined Project environment established Initial construction iterations planned in detail

Project Construction Iterations Continuous requirements refinement Developing and configuring system components incrementally Continuous quality verification thru testing Continuous feedback Early production environment test run encouraged Process control Change management Solution documenting Planning the next iteration

Transition to Customer Test the project deliverables in the customer environment Finalize and deliver the end-user support material Support the production ramp-up customer is requested to give to concluding comments Final feedback session  Warranty period

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