related work-tmforum etom.md

TM Forum Business Process Framework (eTOM)

The TM Forum eTOM standard provides common definitions to describe business activities to be performed by service providers including basic information required to perform each process element within a business activity. eTOM has been widely adopted by the Telecommunication industry with many versions published. Version 14 was published May 2014.

The Business Process Framework model consists of processes at 5 levels and these levels form a hierarchy, with each level encapsulating a group of processes at the next level of detail. The graphic representation of an Business Process Framework (eTOM) model consists of rows and columns, the intersections of which denote specific business processes (see Level0 eTOM processes, below). In this manner the Business Process Framework map covers the whole value chain.

The three basic process areas are:

• The Operations Process Area includes all operations processes that support the customer (and network) operations and management, as well as those that enable direct customer operations with the customer.
• The Strategy, Infrastructure & Product Process Area includes processes that develop strategies and commitment to them within the enterprise; that plan, develop and manage the delivery and enhancement of infrastructures and products; and that develop and manage the Supply Chain.
• The Enterprise Management Process Area focus on both the setting and achieving of strategic corporate goals and objectives, as well as providing those support services that are required throughout an Enterprise. These processes are sometimes considered to be the corporate functions and/or processes. e.g., Financial Management, Human Resources Management processes, etc…

The four functional process blocks are:

• The Market and sales domain , Product and Customer include processes dealing with sales and channel management, marketing management,
• The Service processes include those dealing with service development and delivery of service capability, service configuration, service problem management, quality analysis, and rating.
• The Resource processes include those dealing with development and delivery of resource (network and IT) infrastructure, and its operational management including aspects such as provisioning, trouble management and performance management. Resource infrastructure supports products and services, as well as supporting the enterprise itself.
• The Supplier/Partner processes include those dealing with the enterprise’s interaction with its suppliers and partners. This involves both processes that develop and manage the Supply Chain that underpins product and infrastructure, as well as those that support the operational interface with its suppliers and partners.

From the different Level 1 eTOM framework processes, the SIP (The Strategy and Commit, Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Product Lifecycle Management) processes group is highlighted, which is comprised by the following vertical processes:

• Strategy & Commit processes that are responsible for the generation of strategies in support of the Infrastructure and Product Lifecycle processes
• Infrastructure Lifecycle Management processes are responsible for the definition, planning and implementation of all necessary infrastructures (application, computing and network), as well as all other support infrastructures and business capabilities (operations centers, architectures, etc.).
• Product Lifecycle Management: this process grouping is responsible for the definition, planning, design and implementation of all products in the enterprise’s portfolio.

In addition, SIP processes group are comprised by four horizontal functional process groupings (see picture below):

• Marketing & Sales Management processes focus on the knowledge of running and developing the core business for a service provider. It includes functionalities necessary for defining market and sales strategies, and implementing marketing and sales strategies especially suitable for information and communications products and services.
• Service Development & Management processes focus on planning, developing and delivering services. It includes processes necessary for defining the strategies for service creation and design, managing existing services, and ensuring that capabilities are in place to meet future service demand.
• Resource Development & Management processes focus on planning, developing and delivering the resources needed to support services and products, including the development of the network and other physical and non-physical resources, introduction of new technologies and interworking with existing ones, managing existing resources and ensuring that capabilities are in place to meet future service needs.
• Supply Chain Development & Management processes focus on the interactions required by the enterprise with suppliers and partners, who are involved in maintaining the supply chain. The supply chain is a complex network of relationships that a service provider manages to source and deliver products.

More detailed Level2 and Level3 will highly depend on very specific Service Provider business requirements. Figure ?, depicts one example on how Level2 processes can be applied to a "Concept-to-Market" scenario. It is comprised by a sub-set of Level 2 processes in “Strategy, Infrastructure and Product” domain and some support & readiness processes from “Operations” domain.

In this example, two mains actors are involved: the product manager, being responsible for the business concerns of the product and the project manager, being responsible for the delivery of the product and all required infrastructure and capabilities. In picture, below a Level 3 ServiceRequirement-to-ServiceCapability workflow dealing with providing service capabilities based on service requirements, is depicted. As a first step a sourcing capability (ability to source the service capability from external parties) has to be provided, based on the sourcing demand. At this stage the level of vertical integration must be determined – depending on that level, the phases for providing a service are performed internally within the Service Development & Maintenance processes of the enterprise, or by the external partner. However, in case of external sourcing the required capabilities sourced from external parties need to be on-boarded to be operationally available for the enterprise.

The ResourceDemand-to-ResourceCapability process (see picture below) is triggered by this process flow since the delivery of new service capabilities will most likely lead to a need for new resource capabilities.

The eTOM Framework is a very comprehensive and abstract model of service provider business processes and most of them are not in reTHINK scope. The following Level 4 processes should be further analysed as candidates to be adopted and adapted for reTHINK Governance purposes (this list should be shortened according to the potential of process automation):

• Manage Service Inventory
• Enable Service Configuration & Activation
• Enable Service Quality Management
• Service Configuration & Activation
• Design Solution
• Allocate Specific Service Parameters to Services
• Track & Manage Service Provisioning
• Implement, Configure & Activate Service
• Test Service End-to-End
• Report Service Provisioning

Product Management is out of scope of reTHINK?

• Product & Offer Capability Delivery

• Define Product Capability Requirements

• Approve Product Business Case

• Deliver Product Capability

• Product & Offer Development & Retirement

• Develop Service Partnership Requirements

• Service Capability Delivery

• Map & Analyze Service Requirements

• Capture Service Capability Shortfalls

• Design Service Capabilities

• Manage Service Capability Delivery

• Service Development & Retirement

• Gather & Analyze New Service Ideas

• Develop New Service Business Proposal

• Develop Detailed Service Specifications

• Manage Service Development

• Manage Service Deployment

• Manage Service Exit

• Gather & Analyze Resource Information

• Develop Resource Partnership Requirements

• Resource Capability Delivery

• Map & Analyze Resource Requirements

• Capture Resource Capability Shortfalls

• Design Resource Capabilities

• Manage Resource Capability Delivery

• Resource Development & Retirement

• Gather & Analyze New Resource Ideas

• Develop New Resource Business Proposal

• Develop Detailed Resource Specifications

• Manage Resource Development

• Manage Resource Deployment

• Manage Resource Exit

• Party Offering Development & Retirement

• On-board Party Capability

• Off-Board Party Offering & Specification

References

• Business Process Framework, Concepts and Principles, GB921CP, Release 14.5.0, December 2014
• TM Forum Portfolio and Product Management Quick Start Pack: Concept-to-Market (C2M), August 2013, TM Forum Approved Version 0.4
• Business Process Framework GB921 Addendum D, L3 Process Decompositions and Descriptions, Release 14.5.0, February 2015
• Business Process Framework GB921 Addendum D, L4 Extended Process Decompositions and Descriptions, Release 14.5.0, February 2015