A case study in assessing and improving capacity using an anatomy of good practice

Abstract

Capacity in telecommunication systems is highly related to operator revenue. As a vendor of such systems, Ericsson AB is continuously improving its processes for estimating, specifying, tuning, and testing the capacity of delivered systems. In order to systematize process improvements Ericsson AB and Linköping University joined forces to create an anatomy of Capacity Sub Processes (CSPs). The anatomy is the result of an interview series conducted to document good practices amongst organizations active in capacity improvement. In this paper we analyze four different development processes in terms of how far they have reached in their process maturity according to our anatomy and show possible improvement directions. Three of the processes are currently in use at Ericsson, and the fourth is the OpenUP/Basic process which we have used as a reference process in earlier research. We also include an analysis of the observed good practices. The result mainly confirms the order of CSPs in the anatomy, but we need to use our information of the maturity of products and the major life cycle in the organization in order to fully explain the role of the anatomy in planning of improvements.