Personas Overview

The management and operation of a network require different people to be involved at various stages of the process, and to perform tasks related to their area of expertise. This might mean that different departments handle different tasks, with handoffs between departments taking place. For example, one person might install a device, but a different person might then monitor the device onboarding process.

Paragon Automation is designed around a structured planning process that makes the life-cycle of the device and network efficient. By using structured planning, you can streamline the device onboarding and monitoring activities.

Paragon Automation uses personas to delineate the device life-cycle management (LCM) process. These personas provide a way for operators to map the different activities in the device LCM process to Paragon Automation.

Note:

Personas are different from predefined roles that exist in the Paragon Automation GUI. Roles define which access permissions are available to users who are assigned to a role. However, a persona is simply a logical construct to make it easier to understand the structured planning approach for device LCM in Paragon Automation. For details about roles, see Predefined User Roles Overview.

Table 1 lists the different personas in Paragon Automation and the tasks that the persona performs.

Table 1: Personas in Paragon Automation
Persona	Description
Network Architect or Designer	A Network Architect typically performs the Day -2 activities in the device LCM process. These activities include: Deciding the types of devices to be used in the network, and the configuration of the device types. Identifying the types of interfaces to be used on different devices. Determining what protocols need to run on the different types of devices. In addition, a Network Architect usually performs advanced troubleshooting tasks. In Paragon Automation, these tasks include creating resource pools, device profiles, interface profiles, and so on.
Network Planner (also known as Deployment Planner)	A Network Planner typically performs the Day -1 activities in the device LCM process. These activities include: Defining the devices to be used and configuring the interfaces on the devices. Defining how devices are connected and the topology to be used. In Paragon Automation, the Network Planner performs these tasks by creating a network implementation plan.
Field Technician	A field technician typically performs the Day 0 activities in the device LCM process, These activities include: Physical installation of the device. Connecting the cables. Inserting pluggables Triggering the device onboarding. In Paragon Automation, the field technician uses a web-based GUI accessible on a handheld device or a laptop to perform the Day 0 activities.
NOC Engineer	A Network Operations Center (NOC) engineer oversees the Day 0 activities, and performs Day 1 activities and performs Day 2 activities. These activities include: (Day 0 and Day 1) Monitoring the Day 0 activities of the field technician. Applying additional device configurations, and testing and certifying the device for production. (Day 2 and beyond) Monitoring and troubleshooting devices, and so on.
IT or System Administrator	An IT or a System Administrator is involved only in the tasks related to the administration of Paragon Automation. This persona typically does not perform device LCM activities.
Life-cycle Manager	A life-cycle manager is an owner for a set a devices that plans software upgrades, handles device EOL, and works in tight collaboration with the Network Architect.
SOC (Service Operation Center) Engineer	A SOC manager monitors one or more services in the network and take action to troubleshoot and remediate problems for specific customers.
Delivery Engineering	A team that executes or supervises the deliveries of new services to customers
Service Manager	Service Manager acts as counterpart to a specific customer (usually large) to report defects, SLAs, and so on.
First Line Support	The team that provides first level of support to customers and usually has restricted access to dedicated troubleshooting tools.
Second Line Support	The team that provides second level of support to customers and provides advanced support for devices.
Third Line Support	The team that provides third level of support to customers. This team works along with the Life-cycle Manager and the Network Architect.
Service Architect	Service Architect decides how devices should be configured to deliver a specific service to a customer. The service architect also does advanced troubleshooting for the customer's services.
Security Engineering	The team that owns all security aspects in the network.

For more information about the device LCM process, see Device Life-Cycle Management Overview.