This sets high requirements for networks for instance on terms of speed, latency, and flexibility. Iterative and incremental network evolution will become one of the key success factors to support this new paradigm. As the pace of development rises, it becomes imperative for operators to re-consider its ways of working to maximize; speed, flexibility, and quality while keeping TCO under control.
With 5G being more evolutionary and use-case driven than the earlier ‘Gs’, Ericsson Digital Services in North & Central Europe is taking giant steps forward in providing agile collaboration and deliveries to our customers.
We see the agile network evolution having impact on three angles: technology, ways of working, and automation. In this blog we address the two latter angles as business enablers.
Operator benefits
To leverage on the new emerging use cases, the operators will evolve their networks at a pace that the industry has not seen before. This requires company-level agility that brings number of benefits. Few of the key operator benefits include:
- Incremental development for improved time-to-market (TTM) and fast feedback
- Transparency and visualization
- Dynamic prioritization
- Continuous improvement culture
With agile mindset and methods, operators create the possibility for incremental network development. This means breaking the work into smaller items and considering which of those are needed for the launch and which can be developed after. This not only improves time-to-market but also speeds up the feedback loops, both needed for the operator to build competitive advantage. Another element for increased speed is the practices built into agile methods, such as sprints, daily sync meetings, and immediate attention to technical and progress impediments that might occur during.
The network is typically developed together with the vendor. Hence, the partnership between the two shall also evolve. One key requirement is increased visualization and transparency. This improves trust and collaboration as well as forms a basis for shared situational awareness.
In the 5G era, we will see new use cases emerging after the networks are established. These new use cases will be very dynamic business opportunities, requiring fast response which the classical project models may not be able to provide. The new way of working brings backlog to the center of steering the work and includes new tools for dynamic prioritization of the implementation roadmap.
When implemented correctly, the new way of working supports continuous improvement culture. It is not only about doing transformation once, but instead being curious on daily basis how we all can work smarter and create more value while having mindset of continuous learning.
Agile collaboration in practice
The agile collaboration between the operator and the vendor can have different flavors. Too often this is seen as ‘all or nothing’ selection, whereas already small steps towards agile can bring major benefits. In its simplest form, the collaboration can be about applying some of the practices such as a short daily sync or mid-project retrospective meetings. As an example, already these two will increase alignment and transparency as well as give tools for continuous improvement.
On the more advanced level, the collaboration will be formed around backlog and sprints. Creating a backlog that can be organized in a dynamic way increasing flexibility significantly. Sprints give the delivery heartbeat and frequent reviews of progress. It is to be noted that bringing backlogs and sprints require a mindset shift at both parties.
The highest level of agility is when the scoping of work becomes more flexible. In this kind of collaboration model, or shall we say agile partnership, the focus is on building agile teams that can tackle any new business enabler requirement raising from the operator’s business units towards the CTO team. This type of collaboration requires changes at both parties. It touches both processes and organization, however, more importantly it shapes mindset and culture. It also requires a new type of commercial model between the parties. We have seen high mutual benefits of this type of truly agile partnership. This creates the possibility for a long-term collaboration where joint decisions can be made swiftly to address operator’s dynamic business needs in an environment where everyone has a shared goal.
Quality via Test Automation and CI/CD
You may wonder what role quality plays in lean-agile. The answer is that quality is an essential building block for a successful transformation. Agile emphasizes rapid deployments with short cycles. It also emphasizes possibility for incremental and iterative development. At the same time, the latest 5G Core, Orchestration, and BSS software will be released more frequently than any of the earlier mobile network generations, setting high the expectation for frequent updates and upgrades.
The new paradigm requires new methods and mindset for quality assurance. It is not about running manual test and being happy to see the test cases passing. Instead, it is about enabling modern test automation and CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) pipelines. With that, the focus turns to continuous regression testing and securing the quality in pre-production before taking the changes to the live network. In the future, we will see more and more automation and AI coming into the picture. The overall evolution will take telco industry closer to DevOps.
Next step in the operator’s journey
It is an effort to change the ways of working and even bigger effort to address the mindset and culture. We have good news for you. It can also start with small steps that bring clear benefits and increase the appetite to advance further in the journey.
Earlier most of the operators have implemented agile methods in their IT organizations. Now with the dynamic 5G business landscape, it becomes more and more relevant to the CTO and Network teams. As the starting point, the operator shall analyze the needs and expectations for modernized way of working in the digitized fast-paced 5G landscape. It is recommended to reach out to the IT department to hear about their experiences in case they have already been using agile methods for a while. There is also plenty of material available online for curious leaders and engineers.
We also encourage to reach out to the Ericsson team, to ask more and to openly brainstorm together how our collaboration could look like. At Ericsson, we have been on this journey for more than ten years. It all started in our product development, where we did a massive change to the team-centric agile way of working supported by a modern CI and automation tool chain. We know what it means to make the way of working transformation in telecom business. In North & Central Europe we are now expanding this large-scale agile transformation by introducing the methods in Digital Services portfolio to our customer deliveries with the operators who are interested to move towards agile partnership. We have learned a lot in our own journey, and we are here to support our partnership to reach the next level.
Want to deep-dive further?
Reach out to your Ericsson Project Managers or Account Managers to discuss how agile can benefit our collaboration. Also, have a look at CI/CD in telecom context here.
