Service availability is of key importance to operations and maintenance systems for mobile telephony networks. This paper describes some of the challenges in providing continuous service and the impact of upgrade related outages. Potential methods for low outage upgrades are discussed from an industrial perspective, including practical and logistic considerations.

Test organisations are now widely recognised as being central in the creation and successful arrival to market of complex systems. As such it is critical that they constantly evolve and mature. A mature test organisation will typically have evolved from testing quality into the product to concentrating largely on analysing and verifying system reliability. During this evolution, the organisation moves from being perceived as at best a necessary part of the process to being recognised by both customers and other internal organisations as being a highly effective and valued operation. This paper will describe the evolution of the system test organisations for Motorola's GSM Systems Division (GSD). It will show how Motorola's GSD test organisations are organised, the methodologies and processes employed, how these organisations have matured over the past nine years and how they will evolve to meet the challenges in the future.

This paper describes our methodology of tuning the testprocess of the Motorola Operations and MaintenanceCenter (OMC) product to systematically reduce fielddefects. The benefits include improved test cases, reduceddefects and the availability of up to date field data forfeature verification.

Test organisations are now widely recognised as beingcentral in the creation and successful arrival to market ofcomplex systems. As such it is critical that they constantlyevolve and mature. A mature test organisation willtypically have evolved from testing quality into theproduct to concentrating largely on analysing andverifying system reliability. During this evolution, theorganisation moves from being perceived as at best anecessary part of the process to being recognised by bothcustomers and other internal organisations as being ahighly effective and valued operation. This paper willdescribe the evolution of the system test organisations forMotorola's GSM Systems Division (GSD). It will showhow Motorola's GSD test organisations are organised, themethodologies and processes employed, how theseorganisations have matured over the past nine years andhow they will evolve to meet the challenges in the future.

As ICs get larger and increasingly more expensive to test, testing provision has to be made at the design stage. The authors discuss the development of a test-planning system based on economic considerations and using a parameterized economics model for cost predictions. The use of the economics model, as well as some of the factors that affect the cost effectiveness of design-for-test strategies are considered. Two levels of hierarchy in the cost modeling approach are discussed: the general model, which can be used to estimate costs from component design through to field test, and the component level, which addresses the modeling of component design, manufacture, and test costs.<>