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Network services can be defined many ways. Some examples include deployment
of VoIP and video over IP services or business critical applications like SAP,
CRM, or Citrix, which depend on the network to function. The majority of
organizations today rely heavily on the network and network service delivery
capabilities to run their businesses. In most cases, there are usually technology
modifications or deployments required to enable those network capabilities and
services.

Business requirements drive technology initiatives. Therefore, understanding and

capturing the customer's most important business requirements and translating
those into technical requirements and technology solutions is a critical aspect of
successful network service delivery.

Gathering requirements is an intensive process. In general there are three key areas
of requirements that need to be addressed. The areas are:

1.p Business requirements

2.p Technology and technical requirements

3.p Integration requirements

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Business requirements focus on understanding where the customer is going in
terms of future expansion into new markets, deployment of new service
capabilities, funding and executive vision for the organization. In most
environments, it is a business decision that drives IT initiatives.

The IT department is responsible for network reach, support for mission critical
application delivery and uptime and performance of the network. Sometimes the IT
department communicates with the business units and vice versa, but at other
times, IT is in reactive mode.
It is recommended to define and capture business requirements up to three years
out to determine what network services will be needed to support the customer's
business.

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Technology and technical requirements are defined after business requirements and
are, in fact, driven by the business requirements. Technology requirements include
determinations of vendor alignment and standardization requirements. The
technical requirements are details of the design of the solutions that will be
deployed to support the business services. The business is enabled via applications
delivered over the network, so there are key technical requirements that must be
addressed, including:

1.p Architecture requirements: These provide input to decisions around major

network technology decisions in key areas such as LAN and WAN,
datacenter and operations. Examples include MPLS for WAN transport, data
center consolidation, and centralized versus distributed IT operations.

2.p Bandwidth and scalability requirements: These define where application

services need to be delivered and how much bandwidth is required. This
drives decisions around WAN reach and remote access as well as
infrastructure sizing.

3.p Integration requirements: These requirements drive technology decisions

such as vendor functionality and interoperability with the current systems.

4.p Management Requirements: These define how the network will be managed
from a fault, configuration and performance aspect.

5.p Security requirements: These define how application services will be

secured. With new federal and state regulations, requirements for restricting
access, authenticating users and encrypting data in transit and at rest all need
to be defined.

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Integration requirements define the deployment process, timeline, tasks and
resource allocations necessary for the customer. Some key questions to ask related
to integration include:
 ‰p åoes the customer require project management for deploying new network
services?

‰p šas the customer defined all of the tasks that are necessary to deploy new
network services?

‰p šas the customer identified the timelines for deploying the new network
services?

‰p åoes the customer have the internal resources necessary to deploy new
network services?

‰p šas the customer developed a detailed project plan to drive the execution of
the project?

Each and every one of the requirements above must be defined and understood.
These requirements drive actual decisions or activities related to deploying new
network services and can go a long way in facilitating success.

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Project plans are one of the tried and true mechanisms for managing service
delivery and complex integrations with many moving parts. Many methods have
been used for tracking project status and completion, including Excel spreadsheets
and Microsoft Project. This article is not intended to discuss specific tools, but
instead outline an approach to developing a project plan that can be used
effectively to drive projects to completion.

Project plans by their very nature are inflexible in most cases. Project plans are
defined by sequences of events that can occur in parallel or in sequence with
interdependencies and predecessors sprinkled throughout the project. A perfect
example of this is deployment of network gear being dependent on the ordering
and procurement of the equipment. The deployment task cannot commence until
the ordering and procurement task is complete. This being said, reality is that not
all projects go according to plan, and there needs to be a degree of flexibility in the
plan.

A good project plan begins with defining all of the touch points for the project. In a
typical network services deployment project that includes the configuration and
installation of new gear or the reconfiguration of existing gear, the following
groups are commonly used to support the deployment:

‰p Architecture and engineering team

‰p Site contacts

‰p Site readiness team

‰p Provisioning team

‰p Staging team

‰p †ield integration team

‰p †ield testing team

‰p Network operations

‰p Corporate communications

‰p Project management

Each of these groups represents different areas of the organization, and input from
all is required to develop the overall project plan. Best practices require that a
representative from each of these groups participates in the planning process.
Gathering all of the representatives in a room and defining goals, objectives and
timelines up front allows all parties to know their responsibilities. Once these are
defined, a discussion on interdependencies and constraints should be considered.
This allows all parties to understand that contingencies must be defined.

Communication between these groups is critical to flexibility. If all groups

understand the roles, responsibilities, constraints and interdependencies, then a
contingency plan can be developed that allows for flexibility in moving milestones
up or down within the project timeline. The flexibility to move site conversions up
or down based on contingency planning is the critical component to being flexible
with the project plan and execution of the project.

A perfect example of this is a contingency plan for a MPLS WAN migration.

These migrations have hundreds of thousands of moving parts and the scheduling
of all the tasks, timelines and resources is a major challenge. In most migrations,
delays do and will occur, creating the need for flexibility in scheduling of site
migrations. A proven approach is to categorize sites as high, medium and low risk.
The low risk sites are added to the project plan with the understanding that these
sites may move up or down within the schedule to maintain the timelines in the
event of delays. This provides a tremendous level of flexibility for the project and
minimizes the risk of falling significantly behind schedule.

In summary, flexibility is enabled in a project plan through proper planning,

communication between groups and a well developed contingency plan.
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Painless implementations start with proper up front planning. No matter how

beneficial a customer's new network services will be, implementation problems can
erode financial benefits and create doubt regarding the true capabilities of the new
services. Implementations usually require installation and configuration of new
equipment. Without proper planning, this can be a disaster, both from a timeline
perspective and an actual integration perspective. åelays and adverse impact to the
network should be avoided at all cost.

åeployment planning should focus on the following areas:

1.p Robust architecture

2.p Standardized configurations and detailed design
3.p Procurement
4.p Site readiness
5.p Scheduling and resourcing
6.p Change management
7.p Site turn-up
8.p Site testing
9.p Operational handover

Each of these areas in itself can contribute to implementation missteps and

problems, so clearly understanding the essential areas of focus in each is important.

Ô

 

A robust architecture is one that defines all aspects of the architecture including the
desired features, functionality and capabilities as well as integration into the
current network and visibility from a management perspective. If the new network
services are enabled via a new technology with which the organization has no prior
experience, it is highly recommended that proof-of-concept lab testing or piloting
of the solution take place prior to deployment.

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If possible, standard configurations should be created for the network elements
delivering the network services. Many installation efforts fail due to
inconsistencies in the configuration of the gear during deployment and difficulty in
troubleshooting within a non-standard environment.

A detailed design should be developed that outlines the configuration specifics for
each site. This should be done prior to deployment so that equipment-specific or
site-specific information can be tied directly to the design details of the sites
including port mappings, interface naming, host naming, IP addressing, VLAN
addressing, dial plans and other numerous site-specific configuration parameters.
In all cases, providing specific site configuration details and standard configuration
templates up front reduces errors during deployment.



There is nothing like botching an installation due to the equipment not arriving on
time, receiving the wrong equipment or having equipment dead on arrival. The
procurement process must include contingencies for all of the above and robust
communication channels to notify of delays prior to the implementation window.

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No matter how well the architecture has been defined and the configuration details
sorted out, if the site where the changes are being made is not ready for the change,
none of the other implementation plans matter. Site readiness should consider
space, power and šVAC requirements, port availability, and demark extensions at
a minimum. There is nothing more frustrating than failing to turn up a site because
no one at least eyeballed the equipment room to ensure there is space for the
equipment.

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Getting the right resources to the right place at the right time doing the right tasks
is essential to any successful deployment. Implementations are resource dependent
and do not happen on their own. Poor planning in this area is a recipe for failure.


Most organizations require that some form of change management process take
place to review, schedule and communicate changes within the environment.
Change management can be process intensive and in some cases constrained to
certain windows of time. šowever, not adhering to the process can bring the
scheduled installation to a screeching halt.

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Site turn-ups require resources to install and configure the network elements to
deliver new network services. šaving a well documented installation and
configuration script (list of tasks) is essential to guiding the turn-up resources
through the installation in a predefined manner. †eedback on improvements and
nuances learned through the turn-ups can provide a mechanism for defining the
optimal sequence of tasks.

D  

Site testing is most often overlooked as a part of the installation. Testing of the
network functionality is a given, but in addition, application services should be
tested. šaving a typical user workstation execute normal day-to-day tasks can
provide a level of reassurance that the network is working as designed.

  

There should be a standardized process for turning over the network to the
operations team post implementation. This allows for day-two management to
commence and for any issues to be addressed by the operations team rather than
the deployment team. šaving the deployment resources also support the day-two
management can stretch resources thin and impact the deployment significantly. In
addition to defining the process for handover, the operational team should be
trained on the technology prior to deployment.

All of the above areas, if not addressed up front, can severely impact a successful
deployment. It all comes back to proper planning and execution of the plan.