Chapter 1: A Project is More Than its Technical Deliverables

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1.1 Provisioning ISDN

In 1996, I managed a provisioning project for a telephone service provider. The business driver was to push Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) circuits out into the residential and small business marketplace in anticipation of increased demand for reliable, high-performance Internet access. At the time, public interest in the Internet was practically nonexistent but expected to blossom, as it certainly did. Besides, the ISDN technology permitted two channels, so that the subscriber could simultaneously make a phone call and surf the Internet or use a fax machine on the same line. Our project scope was to develop a software system that would "automate" the ISDN provisioning process from end to end as illustrated in Exhibit 1.

Exhibit 1: Workflow for Automated ISDN Service Order and Provisioning

The system would:

• Be used by customer service representatives (CSR) fielding customer calls

• Validate credit of customers wishing to order ISDN

• Determine if ISDN is available at the customer site

• Issue (once the sale was closed) the necessary orders electronically to the workers who would physically upgrade telephone network components, and reprogram the huge central office switches that route voice and data packets around the public telephone network

• Have to create a billing record so that access and usage charges would appear on the customer's monthly statement

Exhibit 2 lists the proposed ISDN deliverables proposed by the team after months of analysis.

Exhibit 2: ISDN Provisioning Project Deliverables

• A client-server system that provides sales order entry, work order generation, and project tracking functions.

• A link to customer and central office databases to validate locations and billing information.

• A link to network asset inventory to check the availability of ISDN at any address.

• A set of tables correctly populated with the data required to set up any given circuit with a user-selected version of ISDN.

• A tariff for these services to be written, and submitted to the public utilities commissions in each of the states served by the telephone company to get approval to provide and bill for ISDN.

• Upgrades to the central office switch software to enable ISDN services.

• Upgrades to the central office switch ports to enable ISDN services.

• Upgrades to the work force management software to allow the dispatch of ISDN certified technicians to perform installations and maintenance.

• A handoff to the billing system to issue proper customer invoices.

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