AMDOCS OSS

RELEASE 9.0

Delivery Engine
Resource Manager 9.0
Document Information

Release: 9.0
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Created: 11/17/2010 10:21:00 AM
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Last Edited: 02/15/2013 10:36:39 AM
File Name: Delivery Engine 9.0 Product Description.docx
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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
Key features and benefits .................................................................................................................... 1
Manages implementation of service delivery and network design ............................................ 1
Tailored to an operator’s organization and network structure ................................................... 2
Full visibility of Implementation Project progress ...................................................................... 2
Enables automated flow-through implementation ..................................................................... 2
Integrated OSS Suite ........................................................................................................................... 2
Amdocs Resource Manager ...................................................................................................... 3
Task Engine ............................................................................................................................... 3
Activation Engine ....................................................................................................................... 3
Custom adapters and integration .............................................................................................. 4

2 Features ............................................................................................................................. 5
Template driven Implementation Projects ........................................................................................... 5
Configurable implementation Jobs ...................................................................................................... 5
Merging design details: ........................................................................................................................ 6
Splitting design details: ........................................................................................................................ 6
Define Job dependencies: ................................................................................................................... 6
Generates the Implementation Project plan ........................................................................................ 6
Automatic scheduling of Jobs .............................................................................................................. 7
Management of Job completion ........................................................................................................... 7
XML Jobs for ease of integration ......................................................................................................... 7

3 User Interface Functions .................................................................................................. 9

Views .................................................................................................................................................... 9
Project Plan View ...................................................................................................................... 9
WebReports ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Project Job WebReport ............................................................................................................. 9
Owner Job WebReport .............................................................................................................. 9
Wizards .............................................................................................................................................. 10
Delivery Project Wizard ........................................................................................................... 10
Job Wizard ............................................................................................................................... 10
Process Job Wizard ................................................................................................................. 10
Job Planning Wizard ................................................................................................................ 10
Resource and Relations Browsers..................................................................................................... 10
Homepages ........................................................................................................................................ 10

Appendix A Glossary ......................................................................................................... 11

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1 Introduction
Service provisioning and network build activities generate activation and engineering
requirements that have an impact across many parts of the organization, often
spanning multiple vendors, technologies and network domains. Ultimately however,
the network is controlled by management systems that understand only the resources
within their control.
In Amdocs Resource Manager, every planned resource assignment or reconfiguration
action generates a Design Record that describes the details of the change. The relative
positioning of Delivery Engine in the Amdocs OSS is shown in Figure 1. Delivery
Engine accepts Design Records from any number of completed Amdocs Task Engine,
Amdocs Resource Manager or Amdocs Route Finder Design Projects and generates a
set of work-orders or Jobs that are meaningful to each external domain management
system, field engineering team, or other systems such as financial asset tracking,
purchasing and leased line ordering.
Delivery Engine’s Implementation Projects can be scheduled or issued manually,
printed off as work-orders, or activated electronically through adapters. With its own
workflow manager, Delivery Engine controls the implementation, issue, sequencing
of Job delivery and managing rollback. In summary, Delivery Engine:
 Separates design from implementation
 Translates planned design changes into implementation Jobs
 Provides project management of the Job implementation

Key features and benefits

Manages implementation of service delivery and network design
The ability to separate service and network design from implementation is essential
for managing the delivery of complex services and network designs. Even a leased
line service may require fifty or more different configuration tasks across a mix of
technologies and site engineering functions. Similarly, tasks such as 3G base station

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Delivery Engine -Resource Manager 9.0

rollout, VPN provisioning and DSL provisioning, require the coordination of

activation and engineering tasks across a mix of technologies, vendors and network
domains.
Delivery Engine generates the equipment, domain, vendor and department-specific
work-orders required to implement a vendor-neutral, cross-domain design.

Tailored to an operator’s organization and network structure

Whilst fulfillment and network build functions are common across many service
providers, the detail of each business process, organizational structure and network
structure varies significantly. Delivery Engine uses Templates to tailor how a design
needs to be structured in order that each system, person or department receives only
relevant and correctly sequenced information.

Full visibility of Implementation Project progress

The different tasks required to implement a planned design can vary significantly in
both complexity and timescales. Some tasks, such as activation tasks, can be carried
out instantaneously. Others, such as site engineering tasks, may take several days,
weeks or even months to schedule and complete. Maintaining visibility of progress,
failure and jeopardy events is essential.
Delivery Engine provides a set of reports, tools and event logging to allow an end
user to investigate the status of an issued Project at any given time.

Enables automated flow-through implementation

Service implementation is typically a manual, labor intensive task requiring highly
skilled individuals. Unfortunately, provisioning backlogs are commonplace, caused
by increasing volumes of services coupled with the rollout of new network capacity.
Scaling provisioning processes requires both automation (to achieve volume) and also
a reduction on the dependency of skilled staff.
Delivery Engine ensures that service orders and network capacity requests are
implemented correctly and consistently each time. Automating the implementation is
the final step, providing the capability to fulfill a high volume of provisioning
requests without growing staff numbers.

Integrated OSS Suite

Delivery Engine offers key functionality in achieving service and network change
fulfillment. As a result, Delivery Engine may be integrated with other Amdocs OSS
products, as shown in Figure 1, to offer fast and consistent fulfillment or even zero-
touch processes.

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 Chapter 1. Introduction

Figure 1 – Delivery Engine Product Positioning

Amdocs Resource Manager

Delivery Engine is integrated with Resource Manager in two ways: To initiate
Delivery Engine Projects and to enrich Job details.
While Delivery Engine is often used in a flow-through fulfillment process which
includes Task Engine it is also possible to process Design Records created by manual
design processes. This approach is particularly beneficial when the Delivery Engine
Project Template is designed to implement non-service specific implementation
processes. For example, a Delivery Engine Template that assigns Jobs to engineers
based on the region the modified equipment resides in.
Whether Delivery Engine is driven by Task Engine or Resource Manager users, Job
details are primarily created from the input Design Record details. In some cases a
Design Record may not contain all the information the external systems require. An
example would be an object status change: The Design Record will only provide
details of the object identifier and the status change, however this event may be what
drives an external system to deploy or configure the related network element. In such
cases Delivery Engine has the ability, through callouts, to query Resource Manager
for any additional information that may be needed, and add this information into the
Job details.

Task Engine
In a flow-through fulfillment process Task Engine is responsible for the design of
network change and, therefore, generation of Design Records. Task Engine is then
able to automatically create an appropriate Delivery Engine Project and pre-populate
it with all relevant Design Records. Ownership of the fulfillment process is then
passed to Delivery Engine for network change implementation control.

Activation Engine
For zero-touch fulfillment, Delivery Engine can be configured to integrate directly
with Activation Engine. Delivery Engine would be configured to ensure that Jobs
contain the relevant details required by the target network management system.
Activation Engine would then be responsible for taking these implementations details
and translating them in to technology specific configuration commands or scripts.

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Delivery Engine -Resource Manager 9.0

Custom adapters and integration

Consistent with Amdocs OSS open interfaces, Delivery Engine is designed to
integrate with external systems, using adapters where required. It provides extensive
support for data translation from the inventory representation of network change to
the external system’s representation of the change.

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2 Features
Delivery Engine offers a range of unique features specifically designed to simplify
network and service delivery. It uses the inventory modeling and management
features of the Resource Manager as an open platform network inventory, and adds a
set of important features specific to automating the process of turning a service design
into a delivery plan.

Template driven Implementation Projects

Delivery Engine allows the selection of any number of Design Records and translates
the design details into a single set of Jobs based on the selected Implementation
Project Template. Design Records can be selected from any number of Design
Projects. One, some or all Design Records from one or more Design Projects can be
selected. Different types of Implementation Projects can be selected, for example,
service specific Templates, or generic Templates that catch all design updates.

Configurable implementation Jobs

The generic operation of a Delivery Engine Implementation Project Template is
shown in Figure 2. The Template controls the merging, splitting and dependencies of
different Design Records in order to generate a set of real-world implementation
work-orders, called Jobs.

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Delivery Engine - Resource Manager 9.0

Figure 2 - Generating implementation Job streams

Merging design details:

Design Records and Jobs can be grouped to provide a single composite Job. For
example, a number of individual Jobs containing engineering actions to be carried out
at a location and at a specific time can be merged into a single Job. This can be done
manually by the user using the Job Wizards, or automatically, driven by a Delivery
Engine Implementation Template.

Splitting design details:

A single Design Record may give rise to zero, one or more Jobs. For example, a
Design Record describing the end to end routing for a new circuit would typically
need to be broken into several real-world Jobs, one for each network domain
management system and vendor.

Define Job dependencies:

Delivery Engine generates any dependencies between Jobs and allocates expected Job
durations. Delivery Engine then groups Jobs based on matching rules, for example:
 Merge Jobs that relate to the same piece of equipment.
 Merge engineering Jobs to be performed in the same location, for example, merge
all cross-connect and cabling operations for each different site.

Generates the Implementation Project plan

The final stage in generating an implementation plan is to define a Project start date,
end date or both. Based on the dependencies, and expected Job durations, the
Delivery Engine assigns planned start and completion dates to each Job, and displays
the results in a Gantt style chart view.

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 Chapter 2. Features

If the user changes the structure of an Implementation Project by changing its Job
dependencies or Job merging, the Implementation Project plan is updated. Similarly,
changing Job duration, changing Job, or Implementation Project provision status
values, or changing an Implementation Project name automatically updates the
Implementation Project plan.

Automatic scheduling of Jobs

Delivery Engine has a built-in scheduler to automatically issue Jobs for
implementation. The implementation may be controlled directly by Delivery Engine
with configuration and status update information being transferred via a network
implementation adapter. Alternatively, Delivery Engine can hand off Job
management to a workflow management system, updating Job status on receipt of
update messages.

Management of Job completion

Delivery Engine has its own workflow component for managing the life-cycle of
issued Jobs and the progression of the Implementation Project. Delivery Engine
manages the issuing of Jobs, Job completion, and rollback in the event of failure.
Once issued, the Job status may be in-progress, completed, aborted, or failed. Events
are raised against exception conditions. All Events are logged against each
Implementation Project and can be transmitted to an external system of person for
resolution, for example, by email.

XML Jobs for ease of integration

Delivery Engine Jobs are generated in XML format for ease of content configuration
and for ease of integration with external systems.

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3 User Interface Functions
The Delivery Engine is fully integrated into the Amdocs Resource Manager client and
consistent with other Amdocs OSS products. For example, Wizards guide the user
through the steps necessary to construct and issue an Implementation Project;
WebReports provide graphical and interactive summaries of Delivery Engine’s
Implementation Projects, and Delivery Engine components appear as extensions of
the standard Browser capability.

Views
Project Plan View
The Project Plan View provides a Gantt-style view of the Implementation Project
plan. It provides a mechanism to tailor the information displayed to show the critical
path and related Jobs and to filter by Job provisioning and issue status.

WebReports
Project Job WebReport
The Project Job WebReport lists all Jobs within a selected Implementation Project. It
provides details of each Job’s scheduled start and finish dates, whether or not the Job
has been issued, the Job’s provision status and which Design Records gave rise to the
Job.

Owner Job WebReport

The Owner Job WebReport lists all the Jobs assigned to a particular Cramer user. It
provides details of each Job’s scheduled start and finish dates, whether or not the Job
has been issued, the Job’s provision status and which change record gave rise to the
Job.

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Delivery Engine - Resource Manager 9.0

Wizards
Delivery Engine’s Wizards step the user through the creation of an Implementation
Project, subsequent editing of the plan, and the management of the Job and Project
life cycles.

Delivery Project Wizard

The Delivery Project Wizard creates the Implementation Project and generates Jobs
from a selection of Design Records belonging to one or more Design Projects held in
Resource Manager. A merge facility can then be used to combine Jobs within the
Project according to configurable rules. Finally, dependencies between Jobs are
calculated and a Project plan based on the expected duration of each Job is generated.

Job Wizard
The Job Wizard allows the manual editing of both the dependencies between Jobs and
the way the Jobs are grouped. It also allows Jobs to be manually created and added to
an Implementation Project.

Process Job Wizard

The Process Job Wizard allows a user to issue Jobs and to update the status of Jobs.
Jobs can be defined to be issued automatically or started automatically by Delivery
Engine.

Job Planning Wizard

The Job Planning Wizard allows a user to alter any parameter of a Job that may affect
the Implementation Project plan, for example, fixed time constraints on the Job, the
Owner of the Job or its expected duration.

Resource and Relations Browsers

Delivery Engine Project and Job details can be browsed from the Projects Tab in both
the Resource and Relations Browser. Jobs details and dependencies (successors,
predecessors, child Jobs and related Design Records) can be explored by drilling into
further levels of detail. Events relating to Delivery Engine Projects are also listed in
the Resource Browser.

Homepages
All Delivery Engine objects have a dynamically generated Home Page allowing
access to configuration information on the object, and links to other related objects.
Every Home Page has standard attributes for naming, audit trail and status
management purposes.

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Appendix A Glossary
Job Life-Cycle Management
Jobs may be operated on in many ways. They may be issued in advance of being
started, may be in-progress, complete, aborted, or failed. Once a Job has been issued,
the Delivery Engine may act as either the master or the slave of a specific Job’s state,
enabling it either to hand off the Job management to a workflow management system
or not.
The Delivery Engine has a built-in scheduler that allows it to automatically issue or
start Jobs without any user intervention at the appropriate time. Such Jobs are
referred to auto-issue or auto-start Jobs.
Design Records
A Design Record describes a change that has been made to the network model in
Resource Manager. For example, a change record is created when a user specifies a
new device. One or more Design Records are the source information for Delivery
Engine. Delivery Engine takes control of Design Records and through Template
matching, determines how Design Records are used to create implementation Jobs.
Jobs
Implementation Jobs are produced as a result of Design Record processing and
describe the real-world activities that must be carried out in order to achieve planned
configuration changes in the network.
Jobs can be processed, grouped and have dependencies with other Jobs. For example,
before a device can be installed it has to be ordered. These Jobs can be carried out at
different times and different Owners can be assigned. Delivery Engine combines
Jobs into merged Job Groups and create dependencies between Jobs so that the
installation of a card cannot be carried out until the node has been installed.
Events
Events capture specific actions occurring within the Delivery Engine. They are
usually caused by something not happening on time, or some other exceptional
circumstance, for instance, the failure of a Job. In such situations, the Job or

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Delivery Engine - Resource Manager 9.0

Implementation Project Owner needs to be aware of specific Events occurring within

the Delivery Engine.
Owners
An Owner is the role of an individual person, a group of persons or an external
system. Every Job and Implementation Project is assigned an Owner by relating it to
an Owner. Individual users may belong to many Owner Groups and Owner Groups
may themselves contain other Owner Groups.
They are defined in terms of working times, days etc in order that the Delivery
Engine may use the working time of an Owner to calculate the Implementation
Project plan taking into account non-working days.
Projects
In Resource Manager Projects provide a means of grouping Design Records which,
together, relate to some larger design or fulfillment activity.
Task Engine and Delivery Engine extend the use of Projects to also include work-
flow steps that either controls the creation of Design Records (in Task Engine’s case)
or work-flow steps that are driven by the Project’s assign Design Records (in
Delivery Engine’s case).
Templates
Templates generally refer to any definition of an object, collection of objects or
process that is defined once but reusable many times.
In the context of Delivery Engine a Template defines the behavior of a Project
instance. The Template configuration specifies how DesignRecords are interpreted,
and the work-flow (Jobs) that are created and assigned to implement the fulfillment
design.

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Document Release Information
Edited
Release Editor Comments Doc Version
Date
8.1 Segev Lev 06/02/11 Updated for version 8.1 1.1
8.2 P. Eksteen 30/01/12 Updated for version 8.2 1.2
9.0 P. Eksteen 14/02/13 Updated for version 9.0 2.0

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