The Art of Managing Things

This book is intended for people and organizations looking to manage collections of related things in a systematic manner, with a common foundation and with common patterns across areas such as catalog management, inventory management, identification and naming, ordering, configuration, lifecycle management, security, assurance, and billing. To be clear, this book provides a framework but does not provide a detailed account of each management area. However, many references are provided where the reader can find more detailed information. While based on the common terminology and framework presented in Sections 2 through 8, the various concepts and patterns in Sections 11 and 12 can be used separately. Thus, a green-field scenario is not necessary for those looking to make use of the concepts and patterns in the book. Further, it is quite possible to pick and choose several of the concepts and patterns while effectively making use of only those items in a given situation. The concept for this book has been in the author's head for at least a decade. The author's motivation for writing the book comes from years of participation in and contribution to various standardization efforts in the general area of telecommunications management. Each time a new set of management standards are started, the same process occurs, i.e., define some common concepts and patterns, and apply the ideas to a new area that needs to be managed. The problem is that many times the concepts and patterns are reinvented without taking a proper look at what has been done before (albeit for another area). This is the "not invented here" pattern. In this book, the author has taken up the task of recording the management concepts and patterns that he has learned from over some 30 years in the telecommunications industry while using one consistent terminology. Further, the concepts and patterns used for telecommunications management are quite generic and pretty much apply to any type of thing (there is even an example about a brick later in this book). That explains the usage of "thing" in the title. The following is a short-list of the industries where the concepts and patterns in this book can be applied: telecommunications, smart grid, smart cities, computer networks, fintech (financial technology), manufacturing, transportation, warehouse (inventory management in particular) and airline. Past efforts to collect management patterns have had mixed success. For example, the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) work on systems management were a good start but the work is focused on telecommunications, and further, the specifications have not been updated to reflect current trends. The author's view is that there needs to be a cross-industry effort to collect management concepts and patterns. The author's hope is that this book will serve as a basis (or at least a starting point) for such an effort.