I am bringing up an issue which propbably many may have experienced -- in a telco, how do you define the domains of engineering and IT?

This gives rise to the following additional questions.

Where does the IN belong?

Where does the switch, being based on a computer and software belong?

What are the guidelines in this regard in eTOM and TAM?

Experiences and solutions are solicited.

REgards

In my experience you can't; as the demarcation varies across organisations.  I know of some companies that no longer have an IT department but have merged it in with their engineering function.  Others still have seperate departments.

To some extent is actually doesn't matter.  The important thing is to understand who does what and who is responsible for what; this is where artefacts like the eTOM have their strength.  eTOM doesn't try to map processes to functions within an organisation but to provide the process map that enables you to clearly define where the processes sit within your own company.  By their nature processes span business boundaries wherever you decide to define them.  Similary with the TAM (for applications) and the SID for the associated process information.  It is clearer to consider roles in the organisation rather than the structure of the organisation itself.

I would even go as far as to say that trying to define the boundaries between IT and Engineering is dooomed to failure on two counts; 1) It ay be correct today but it be wrong tomorrow and 2) boundaries have a tendancy to devlop gaps and provide an excuse for not doing something!

Ian

 

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Ian@Eyelbe.com

That leaves the question... we do have Telecom Engineers ... and IT Specialists, and if lucky software engineers ... In my opinion we are all engineers ... except that the engineer word was coined when there was no software ... remember?

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E1, T1 Services

As someone who started life as an electronics engineer and later moved into software engineerting, this question is not new.  I firnly believe that we are all engineers with different areas of speciality.  The new chalenges that we face in the new comunications industry will need the skills of a wide range of engineers if we are to succeed.

The folowing is one defintion of engineer that sums it quite well for me:

An engineer is someone who is trained or professionally engaged in a branch of engineering.  Engineers use technology, mathematics, and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. .

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Ian@Eyelbe.com