Where do orders get stuck?
Flow Audit will find out.
Flow Audit is a tool that checks how an order moves from the moment a customer buys to the moment the service works. It will show where each order stops and what each failure costs.
It is for telecom operators and for the people who audit their sales and activation systems.
What problem does it solve?
An order passes through four systems. Each system sees only its own part.
Nobody sees the whole path
The sales system says the order is fine. The activation system says it never arrived. Nobody knows where it got lost.
Failures cost money
A duplicate order gets billed twice. An activation without an order wastes resources. A waiting order delays billing.
Flow Audit joins the pieces
It will read the four systems, join the data for each order and show where the path breaks.
What will it check?
These are the four systems an order goes through, in order.
What is sold
It will check that each offer has the technical data needed to activate it.
How the order is split
It will follow how an order splits into technical tasks. It will count retries and orders that need manual work.
Who does each step
It will find where the process waits and which tasks end up done by hand.
When the service works
It will count activation attempts, which ones fail and how long confirmation takes.
What will you get?
A report in one file
A page that opens in any browser, offline. It has a summary, the order path and the problems found.
Proof for each problem
Each problem names the order, the data that proves it and how its cost was calculated.
Repeatable results
With the same data, the audit always gives the same result.
Where is it now?
First we designed the report. Now we are building the engine that will fill it.
A made-up operator with 5,000 test orders. A server that delivers those orders the way a real system would. An example report.
A reader that takes orders from the test server without changing them.
Join the data for each order, find duplicate orders and generate the real report.
Questions
Can I use it now?
No. It is under construction. The analysis will come in the next versions.
Where will it run?
On the auditor's computer, from the command line. It will not need a server or a database.
Will customer data leave?
No. Data goes in, a folder with the report comes out. Nothing is sent to outside services.
Will it change the systems?
No. It only reads. It never creates, changes or deletes orders.
Glossary
BSS and OSS
An operator's systems. BSS handles sales and billing. OSS handles the network and activation.
TM Forum (TMF)
An industry association that publishes common formats so these systems can exchange data.
Test server
Our own program that imitates a real system with made-up data. It always states that the data is simulated.
Follow the project
The code and the progress are on GitHub. Open an issue to comment on the design.