Question

List the main phases of a typical network management life cycle and provide examples of tasks that occur at each level and at what level switching services and network traffic for the purpose of an upgrade belong.

Answer 1

The NLC (Network Management Life Cycle) defines a range of needs that require a variety of methodologies and tools for network performance management through Monitoring, Measurement, Assessment and Diagnosis (MMAD). Each phase of the NLC has its own requirements that can typically be met with a judicious selection of tools and assessment solutions.

The major phases are:

• Business Case
• Requirements
• Request for Proposals
• Planning
• Staging
• Deployment
• Operation
• Review

Each phase of the typical Network Life Cycle requires some degree of attention to MMAD. In fact, the degree to which each phase is properly carried out defines the likelihood of success of subsequent phases.

To illustrate the importance of each phase of the Cycle, consider that some networks are constructed with little or no Staging phase -- the Deployment phase from one service to another is made "over the weekend" with fingers crossed. The success of the deployment is dependent on a particularly large expenditure in the Planning phase -- and the risk for lack of a thorough Staging effort is assumed by Deployment and even Operation. This may be reasonable since the cost of a Staging phase can be considerable, both in terms of money and time expended.

Let's look more closely at the details of each phase of the NLC to identify the tasks involved:

Business Case

• Identify needs
• Define advantage
• Define objectives
• Establish risk tolerance
• Assign budget

Requirements

• Define scope and bounds
• Create base of use-cases
• Establish technical criteria
• Detail high-level requirements
• Generate performance specifications

Request for Proposals

• Review technologies
• Design solution(s)
• Do risk analysis
• Generate proof-of-concept
• Select implementation target

Planning

• Define project
• Assign responsibilities/roles
• Define milestones/deliverables
• Assign resources
• Identify dependencies
• Deployment/cutover strategies
• Contingency planning

Staging

• Implement test network
• Perform simulation
• Perform stress tests
• Apply range-of-use applications
• Identify installation/configuration issues
• Identify maintenance issues

Deployment

• Pre-qualification in situ
• Stress testing final installation
• Base-lining
• Cut-over
• Reality check (next morning)
• Recovery/fallback (as required)

Operation

• Post-qualification
• Monitoring
• Troubleshooting/diagnosis/remediation
• Maintenance and upgrading
• On-going support

Review

• Compare performance to plan
• Review timeline of needs
• Projected needs/provisioning
• Proposed revisions against changed requirements
• Growth strategy