Discussion Forum - 4

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Discussion Forum - 4

• Documentation in ETC

TSPT
E-mail tspt_at_telecom.net.et Web www.tspt.net.et
Sept. 16, 2003
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Objectives

• Developing culture of documentation
• Standard setting for documentation
• Determine who is going to set the standards

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What is documentation?

• A generic term for all media capable of
  conveying, coding and preserving knowledge of
  relevant information. It could be books,
  journals,electronic resources, reports, sound
  records, motion pictures, etc

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The need for documentation?

• To avoid dependency on individuals, vendors, etc
  
• To recognize available resources and determine
  future requirements
• For technical, business and personnel planning
• To create ease for research, operation and
  maintenance activities.
• To create conducive working environment
• To evaluate resource usage - personnel,
  equipment, etc
• To use it as a security tool
• Etc

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Documentation application areas

• Which areas of ETC need documentation?
• Every area of ETC needs documentation!
• Some of the areas that need documentation
• Technical Areas
• Business Areas
• Human Resource and Public Relation areas

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Documentation application areas

• I- Technical Areas
• Operation and maintenance activities
• Troubleshooting procedures or mechanisms
• Network topology
• Equipment history
• System architecture
• Installation activities
• Network administration activities

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Continued

• Routing plan
• Charging plan
• Numbering plan,
• Frequency plan
• IP addressing
• Bandwidth usage

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Continued

• II Business Areas
• Tariff
• Researches/Market research
• Project activities
• Quality of service
• Civil works
• Logistics
• Specifications

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Continued

• Purchasing
• Offers
• Proposals
• Works order
• Planning
• Statistical bulletin
• Customer segmentation

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Continued

• III Human resources and PR areas
• Personnel profile
• Company profile
• Telephone directory
• Trainings
• Turn over
• Duties and responsibilities
• Legal activities
• Promotional activities

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Formats of documentation

• Hard copyManuals, brochures, books, diagrams,
  etc
• Web-basedWebsites on Internet and Intranet
• Electronic CD, HD, FD
• Document formats could beWord document/PDF/HTML/e
  tc
• Recorded sounds, Motion pictures,
• etc

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Inappropriate Documentation

• Some of the problems are
• Dependency on individuals, vendors, etc
• Lack of knowledge on existing systems
• Lack of proper planning due to incomplete and/or
  non-existing information
• Monotonous and difficult operation and
  maintenance activities
• Time wastage
• Duplication of resources
• Emergency fault tracing difficulties

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contd

• Difficulty for new employees to take over
• Improper handling of customers
• Customer inconvenience
• Bad image for the corporation
• Etc.

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Access to the documentation

• Should be readily accessible to the relevant
  party
• Access rights should be defined
• Public
• Privileged
• Secured
• Etc

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Sample Documentation by TSPT

• In its need to study the existing ETC network and
  system, TSPT has faced lack of proper
  documentation. Consequently, the team has made an
  effort to prepare documentation on some of the
  studies.
• Visit http//172.22.3.174/resources.html on the
  Intranet or www.tspt.net.et on the Internet.

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Output of the Forum

• Creating a common understanding on this important
  issue
• Assign standard setting group/individual
• Divisions and functional units will be informed
  to start their own documentation

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• Now, go do it !!
• GOOD DOCUMENTATION IS WORTH THE EFFORT

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The END

• Thank you!!