To bring business value from automation the IP Networks Automation should be considered together with Cloud Automation.
Following are the realistic targets of such E2E Automation that consider both domains with a E2E view through Service and E2E Service Orchestration

Targets for Real Automation

Below should be some real targets to achieve the Automation aspiration for a a carrier

1. Use case Automation (Specially target new revenue Streams)
2. Process automation
3. CI/CD in a Telco Environment all the way from Lab,PoC,Staging,Pre-Prod and Production
4. API exposure to 3rd party

Based on experience below are some key steps to achieve this goal

Steps for Real Automation

To covert targets to reality following are some real steps in sequence and in iterative manner

1. Align automation tools and approaches to ETSI ZSM architecture and enhance ML/AI use cases through ENI (Enhanced Network Intelligence frameworks)
2. Every real Telco is a brownfield so integration with existing OSS/BSS is a key
3. Business process must be automated e.g Jira , ServiceNow, #RedHat FUse ,AMQ
4. Each client need to define its standard architecture and tool framework , a level of standardization is necessary on OpenSource Tools

Project Phases to Achieve True Automation

Overall there are three phases to deliver such projects
Phase1:Warmup
Deliver the SBI I.M (Information models) including tools for automation like #Ansible and #Python etc

Phase2: Build Phase
Orchestration and Policy enforcement is necessary to bring holistic view from both #Cloud and #Networking to build E2E Automation

Phase3: Extend
Build the control loops

Orchestration