That thing I do

My company issued a press release today, announcing a line of wireless and wireline softswitches that will be marketed in the US. Almost makes me well up with pride and burst into the official company song.

Anyway, I mention it not because I get a commission on each item sold (though maybe I'll drop that little idea in the suggestion box), but because friends, relatives, and coworkers (go figure!) sometimes ask me what I do at work. Well, here it is: I help figure out how to make these things work here in the states.

You see, telecom gear talks different languages (or at least dialects) depending on where you are in the world. There's a whole maze of regional standards to navigate. Then there are the regulatory considerations. Each country tells us how to do things like 911 and wiretapping a bit differently. Finally, we need to iron out various stuff with the customers themselves. For example, our equipment needs to generate billing records just so, so it can be easily fed into their accounting systems and you get your bill at the end of the month.

We're a little informal about job titles around here, but this would generally fall into the category of "systems engineer" or maybe even "systems analyst." I figure out what the thing's supposed to do (requirements analysis) and then tell the engineers (requirements specification). Then, the engineers ignore me (design and implementation) and, lastly, I beat them with a stick until it works (quality assurance).

So that's it in a nutshell. Not so complicated after all, huh?

Oh ... and did you notice the title of the article? "Samsung unveils plans." It sounds kinda ominous, doesn't it? As in, "Samsung unveils plans ... to rule the WORLD!! muahahaha!!!"

Hmmm ... another idea for the suggestion box.