Facilitating a Solution Mindset

We have spoken extensively of solutions and the mindset needed for their creation. Since solutions form such an important element of NMS products, it is important to describe how to facilitate such a mindset. To do this, we now delve a little more deeply into the way solution engineers operate :

• Engineers focus on products and not just projects.

• Ownership is taken of large functional product areas, such as reporting subsystems, provisioning, and security (i.e., one or more of the FCAPS areas).

• A strategic interest is adopted beyond the current software release cycle.

Modern NMS products provide much scope for solution engineering on account of their complexity. The great challenge for solution engineers lies in harnessing the power of software abstraction to provide a simple, flexible interface to possibly nonexpert end users. The labyrinthine complexity of emerging NEs can be hidden by such generic NMS software designs. This notion extends the philosophy and spirit of SNMP into the NMS architecture itself.

Engineers who focus on products rather than individual projects tend to take the time to master their chosen area. This can be any or all of the FCAPS areas, for example. A product is a freestanding body of software that exists as either a substantial element of a product or as a product in its own right. An example of such a product is an accounting subsystem that allows for billing of IP packet traffic, ATM cell traffic, and so on. Product engineers tend to adopt a broad perspective.

Project engineers tend to focus on many small, well-defined pieces of work, and they often play an extremely useful role in getting software releases successfully out to customers. Product engineers differ in enjoying the strategic context of several release cycles and use this to inform their implementation decisions. Product engineers generally produce the best solutions. An added bonus of product engineers is that they can also materially contribute to strategy groups.

Facilitating a solution engineer can consist of little more than interviewing them and asking them about their desired work area and preferred working method. We regard product and solution engineers as being essentially the same.