Process Modeling in the telco industry

Over the last years the telecommunications industry has shifted from technology driven and incumbent operators to business driven service providers. There is a need for mature, consistent and complete business process models that are able to describe the strategic, planning and operational processes areas of an operator. This need is addressed by the NGOSS program of the TM Forum, which as emerged as the de facto industry standard. This article addresses some lessons learned for successful realization of the NGOSS concepts in IT implementation projects. 1 Industry Standards and Modeling Concepts 1.1 Evolution of telecommunication industry process standards The telecommunications industry has developed industry standards from its early days. As the value propositions have shifted from technology to business service providers, the traditionally technology oriented standards had to be supplemented by business and process oriented models. This evolution becomes evident when looking at the key important standards that have emerged over the last decade and the focus within these standards. The first notable standard that was introducing the notion of a business view was the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN). It started in 1985 and is a protocol model defined by ITU-T [ITU-T] for managing open systems in a communications network.. The first TMN recommendation [TMN-1] was published in 1988, it was developed further until 1996 [TMN-2]. The TMN model consists of four layers. Business Management. It performs functions related to business aspects, analyzes trends and quality issues (e.g., Finance, HR). Service Management. It performs functions for the handling of services in the network like definition, administration and charging of services (e.g., Order Handling, SLA). Network Management. It performs functions for distribution of network resources: configuration, control and supervision of the network. (e.g., Planning, Maintenance, Statistics, Error recovery). Element Management. It contains functions for the handling of individual network elements. This includes alarm management, handling of information, backup, logging, and maintenance of hardware and software. From a top down approach, each layer imposes requirements on the layer below while from a bottom up approach, each layer provides capabilities to the layer above. The next step in evolution of telco process models was the Telecommunications Operations Map, called TOM. The main development happened between 1995 and 1998 by the Telemanagement Forum [TMF]. By 1999 TOM was considered to be stable. TOM was using the TMN model as a foundation and added operations support and management for any communications service. The key enhancement towards TMN was the introduction of the customer perspective. Instead of only looking at the internal management aspects of networks, the acknowledgement of customer needs was introduced into the modeling context. The TOM process framework is independent of organization, services and technology. It provides the framework for modeling end to end business processes from a top down, and customer oriented standpoint. The evolution continued in the year 2000 with the introduction of the enhanced enhanced Telecom Operation Map, called eTOM [eTOM]. The eTOM is a broader framework and more complex than the TOM. It integrates e-business and internet opportunities while maintaining the top orientation of business processes. The eTOM further strengthens the customer driver approach since e-business has shifted markets from a supply orientation to a demand orientation or push versus pull. Most importantly might be the introduction of the Strategy, Infrastructure and Planning process domain (SIP). In this domain the required processes for managing product life cycles over the layers from market to technology are defined. Today eTOM is the most widely used and accepted standard for business processes in the telecommunications industry. The eTOM model describes the full scope of business processes required by a service provider and defines key elements and how they interact. The eTOM Business Process Framework serves as the blueprint for process direction and the starting point for development and integration of Business and Operations Support System (BSS and OSS respectively) and helps to drive TM Forum members work to develop NGOSS solutions. NGOSS is an industry-agreed, business/systems solution framework and aims to coordinate the elements involved in developing and delivering OSS solution in an integrated structure [NGOSS]. eTOM maps the NGOSS Business View TOM processes are captured in “FAB” area of eTOM Operations Operations Enterprise Management Strategy, Infrastructure & Product Customer TMN Layers correspond with TOM horizontals Sy st em V ie w Im plem en ttion V ew NGOSS Knowledge Base Need M od el V adate