Itu-T: Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) - Representative Process Flows
Itu-T: Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) - Representative Process Flows
Itu-T: Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) - Representative Process Flows
ITU-T M.3050.3
TELECOMMUNICATION (06/2004)
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
OF ITU
Summary
ITU-T Recs M.3050.x series contains a reference framework for categorizing the business activities
that a service provider will use. The Enhanced Telecom Operations Map® (or eTOM for short),
which has been developed by the TeleManagement Forum, describes the enterprise processes
required by a service provider and analyses them to different levels of detail according to their
significance and priority for the business. This business process approach has built on the concepts
of Management Services and Functions in order to develop a framework for categorizing all the
business activities.
This Recommendation contains representative process flows.
Source
ITU-T Recommendation M.3050.3 was approved on 29 June 2004 by ITU-T Study Group 4
(2001-2004) under the ITU-T Recommendation A.8 procedure.
TMF retains ownership of the underlying intellectual property rights expressed in this ITU
Recommendation, including copyrights. Appropriate licences are granted for use in an ITU
Recommendation.
NOTE
In this Recommendation, the expression "Administration" is used for conciseness to indicate both a
telecommunication administration and a recognized operating agency.
Compliance with this Recommendation is voluntary. However, the Recommendation may contain certain
mandatory provisions (to ensure e.g. interoperability or applicability) and compliance with the
Recommendation is achieved when all of these mandatory provisions are met. The words "shall" or some
other obligatory language such as "must" and the negative equivalents are used to express requirements. The
use of such words does not suggest that compliance with the Recommendation is required of any party.
ITU 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any means whatsoever, without the
prior written permission of ITU.
1 Scope
The Enhanced Telecom Operations Map® (eTOM) [GB921] has been developed by the
TeleManagement Forum as a reference framework for categorizing all the business activities that a
service provider will use. It should be noted that the TMF retains ownership of the eTOM and
copyright of the underlying IPR. The ITU-T will own the copyright on the M.3050.x series ITU-T
Recommendations themselves.
This Recommendation is a part of a series of ITU-T texts dealing with eTOM, and which have the
following structure:
– M.3050.0: eTOM – Introduction.
– M.3050.1: eTOM – The business process framework. (TMF GB921 v4.0.)
– M.3050.2: eTOM – Process decompositions and descriptions. (TMF GB921 v4.0
Addendum D.)
– M.3050.3: eTOM – Representative process flows. (TMF GB921 v4.0 Addendum F.)
– M.3050 4: eTOM – B2B integration: using B2B inter-enterprise integration with the
eTOM. (TMF GB921 v4.0 Addendum B.)
– M.3050 Supplement 1: eTOM – ITIL application note. (TMF GB921 v4.0 Addendum L.)
– M.3050 Supplement 2: eTOM – Public B2B Business Operations Map (BOM). (GB921
Addendum C.)
– M.3050 Supplement 3: eTOM to M.3400 mapping.
Additional parts will be published as material becomes available.
This series of ITU-T Recs M.3050.x builds on the Management Services approach described in
ITU-T Recs M.3010 and M.3200 by developing a Business Process Framework.
This Recommendation contains representative process flows. It provides additional insight into the
eTOM framework and its application through the description of some example business scenarios,
or applications, in which the eTOM framework is applied, and shows process flows and related
information that demonstrate how the eTOM processes interact in these situations. It should be read
in conjunction with ITU-T Rec. M.3050.1 and other Recommendations in the M.3050.x series.
2 References
– ITU-T Recommendation M.3010 (2000), Principles for a telecommunications management
network.
– ITU-T Recommendation M.3200 (1997), TMN management services and
telecommunications managed areas: overview.
3 Definitions
Definitions of the following term may be found in ITU-T Rec. M.3050.0:
– eTOM
5 Introduction
A number of example scenarios are described in this Recommendation. These can be considered as
"Use Cases", if this terminology assists, with a business, rather than an implementation perspective,
since the eTOM framework and these scenarios seek to define the business requirements rather than
a particular solution that addresses these requirements. Nevertheless, since these scenarios are
examples, certain assumptions have been made about the nature of the business problem concerned,
and it should be stressed that these assumptions do not imply that the eTOM framework can only be
applied in the context described. Instead, these are intended to provide insight for the cases
considered, but many other scenarios and examples can be addressed, and it is hoped that as the
work on the eTOM framework progresses, a growing library can be assembled on these.
It should be emphasized that the representative process flows shown here should not be viewed in
the same light as the process elements set out in ITU-T Rec. M.3050.2: these process flows
illustrate how to apply the eTOM framework and the process elements in support of representative
business scenarios, and thus provide additional insight into the use of eTOM.
The value of information is confirmed when it is put to use. The eTOM framework has many
possible applications, but the most obvious way to use a framework of Process Elements is to use it
to guide the design of actual Process Flows that deliver value for the Enterprise.
To appreciate this, it is important here to differentiate between Process Flows and Process
Elements, especially from the point of view of how they relate to standardizing processes.
The Process Elements in the eTOM framework are intended as an exhaustive list, i.e., an enterprise
uses only the eTOM process elements when categorizing business activities within process
implementations. Should an exception arise where some activity is identified as not being supported
by (i.e., able to fit within) any existing process element, then a new process element would be
created and added to the eTOM framework in order to maintain its role as a comprehensive process
framework.
The Process Flows represent the way that the business activities (in the form of the process
elements) can work together to satisfy a particular need. An exhaustive list of process flows will
never be completed because needs are continually changing, but this is not an issue as the individual
scenarios, and the process flows developed around them, provide insight that contributes to an
enhanced understanding of how the eTOM framework can be used. What is important for an
enterprise that is trying to improve its efficiency by re-using its process and IT capabilities, is that it
must ensure that process flows are built using business activities that are categorized using only the
eTOM process elements.
The representative scenarios and process flows described in this Recommendation make use of a
tried and proven method intended to ensure that process flows can be built using the eTOM process
elements in order to address the actual business needs identified in each case.
For the scenarios included here, some description is included with each explaining the scenario
concerned and its scope of application.
A number of diagrams have been developed to assist in fleshing-out these scenarios. The first
scenario, on Fulfilment, explains the use of these.
Many of the diagrams are produced with the aid of a process analysis tool, and some of the
conventions involved may not be obvious. The flow diagrams are organized into "swim lanes" or
horizontal tracks that follow the layers visible in the eTOM framework (e.g., CRM, SM&O, etc).
This is done to assist readers by positioning processes in their familiar relative orientation as seen in
PLM spreads across the whole enterprise; Figure 7.1 shows the scope of Product Lifecycle
Management across the eTOM framework.
Scenarios were selected to illustrate the process flows required to support the above SLA lifecycle
phases. They were not intended to be prescriptive but were provided as one possible approach to the
process flows involved in SLA management. The scenarios originally selected have not been
changed for the eTOM flows except where it was thought necessary or desirable in the light of
experience with the original flows and with the different scope of eTOM compared to TOM. This is
evident, for example, in the fact that there were no processes for supplier/partner relationships in
TOM, and so the original scenarios did not include such processes. In one of the flows depicted
here, a relationship with a third-party service provider has been included in order to show how
supplier/partner processes can be used. Clearly, such relationships can be included in other flows,
but the first step was to adapt the TOM flows to eTOM flows and then to exploit the wider scope of
the eTOM framework as required.
Another point on which work within the TM Forum has progressed is in the clarification of the
relationship between product and service, and the greater emphasis on marketing processes in the
Service Provider enterprise. Although a product can consist of several services, the scenarios here
retain the approach of the original flows in that a product consists of one service. In further work in
this area, it would be desirable to coordinate the performance of several services comprising a
product and to examine the flows required for the management of SLAs for such products, as well
as between several service providers in a value chain.
The original TOM flows were designed to be generic as the focus was on SLA management and not
on any specific implementation of a service, and this is also the case in the eTOM flows. Again, it
would be desirable to examine this approach given the different kinds of service now available,
particularly in the mobile environment, and the work being undertaken in this area by the TM
Forum.
The process flows selected here are those for Stages 4 and 5 of the SLA lifecycle, i.e., the Execution
and Assessment phases. The scenarios originally selected for these two phases are shown here, first
as interaction diagrams and then as eTOM process flows. As with the TOM process flows, these
flows are provided as examples depicting illustrative approaches to aspects of SLA management in
the two lifecycle phases.
Figure 8.3 illustrates the case where threshold crossing alerts and resource failure alarms are
reported and have to be rectified. However, after checking against the customer SLA it is
established that no SLA violation has occurred. Most of these interactions occur in the Assurance
process grouping, but interactions also take place with the Fulfilment and OSR process groupings.
8.2.2 Execution with SLA violation
Figure 8.4 shows the operation of the service where real-time SLA violation handling is required. In
this case, the customer reports a problem that is rectified but which leads to a violation of the
customer SLA so that a Billing rebate is given. In this case, there is interaction between the
Assurance and Billing process groupings, but interactions also take place with the Fulfilment and
OSR process groupings.
8.2.3 Assessment
The Assessment phase can relate to a single customer SLA and the QoS required, or it can be
related to the Service Provider's overall quality goals, objectives and risk management.
Figure 8.5 represents the case where the customer needs have changed and there is no SLA to meet
these needs. The interactions occur in the Market, Product and Customer layer and involve not just
Operations process groupings but also Product Lifecycle Management process groupings.
Figure 8.6 depicts the process interactions relating to the internal business review concerning the
overall SLA performance across all customers, as well as a realignment of service operations and
service goals to improve overall service class performance. The process interactions here occur
among the Assurance process groupings as well as among the OSR process groupings.
Series E Overall network operation, telephone service, service operation and human factors
Series J Cable networks and transmission of television, sound programme and other multimedia signals
Series L Construction, installation and protection of cables and other elements of outside plant
Series M TMN and network maintenance: international transmission systems, telephone circuits,
telegraphy, facsimile and leased circuits
Series N Maintenance: international sound programme and television transmission circuits
Series Y Global information infrastructure, Internet protocol aspects and Next Generation Networks
Printed in Switzerland
Geneva, 2005