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There’s a bad misconception running around the executive hallways that the TMF NGOSS eTOM business process map recommends creating redundant activities specialized for each business area. Wrongo! Quite the opposite actually.

The truth is that the eTOM is built from a working set of business process patterns that apply the principles of reuse and repeatability across the NGOSS Domains; Market/Sales, Product, Customer, Service, Resource and Supplier/Partner. The patterns are applied to activities for: planning, infrastructure development, product development and operations (fulfillment, assurance – trouble, performance & billing).

Interestingly enough, what is viewed by many as the latest Silver Bullet for Application Integration, SOA, is actually best characterized as an “executive decision that requires commitment to discovering, mapping and executing repeatable processes”.  [Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., OMG Chairman and CEO]

Sounds like eTOM and SOA complement each either other well. And they do, SOA provides the principles for architecting the business processes. And eTOM provides a ready source of industry knowledge about the typical activities required to run a communications company. And the eTOM activities are pattern-based and so already have a natural inclination to be designed for implementation with reuse in mind.

Two key stakeholder groups in any organization are represented by the CEO and the CIO. The CEO typically has responsibility for ensuring that business activities are executing effectively across the organization. The CIO in complement, typically has responsibility for ensuring that the business activities are supported effectively by the operational applications. These two views complement one another, with the CIO looking at processes that run end-to-end vertically whereas the CIO looks at processes that span horizontally (in order to support the information affinity that organizes IT by Domain). Take a look at this slide to get the visual.

By example, the pattern of activities that should have been followed to handle the trouble that I had with my Blackberry would have used the Operations trouble handling flow pattern. My initial inquiry ‘started’ with the Product that I purchased and then should have worked through each dependent Domain until the full Specification tree had been navigated. As each Domain was traversed the Operations flow pattern would have been initiated. Take a look at this slide to get a visual of the Operations trouble handling flow pattern applied to Customer Trouble (Problem) Handling.

Now take a look at the eTOM Service Problem Management activities and see if you can make reuse of the Operations trouble handling flow pattern. Guess what? You can do the same for the Resource Trouble Management and Supplier/Partner Problem Reporting & Management activities.

Add the SID Business Entity model into the mix to get a view on the information required to support the business processes (can you identify the trouble handling entities in each domain?). And then identify the TAM application[s] that will provide access to the Business Entities (identify the trouble handing application capabilities).  And to make it all go together, the Silver Bullet application integration bit, the service contract. The NGOSS TIP (MTOSI & OSS/J) has and continues to work on defining interface specifications that will support such service contracts (did you find the trouble handing APIs?).

SOA and NGOSS taken together provide a useable reference architecture and framwork for achieving that committed executive decision to discover, map and execute repeatable processes.

Got a text message from my wireless provider letting me know that an upgrade for the Blackberry OS was available. Message heading was highlighted in red so I would be sure to take note. Followed the links and ended up at Blackberry’s own site and downloaded the Windows app that would handle the upgrade.

All went well and the new features were great! Able to record video, html email and more. Couple of days use and no problems.

The following Tuesday I head for the airport in Denver destined for a week in London doing NGOSS-styled SOA training. And, the incidents begin…

Blackberry starts crashing, can’t make a call without it crashing mid-sentence. End up having to use the pay phone. Make it to Chicago and have a short break before the London departure so get the browser going and sleuth a little, between crashes, and discover that I’m not alone in the world. Nobody seems to understand why the crash/reboot cycle is happening, but the general recommendation is to scrub the handset and re-install the OS. Not a pleasant prospect.

Give my carrier a call and end up getting routed to Tier-2 support in Canada. Explain the situation: I upgraded to the latest OS, worked OK for several days, and then suddenly in a recurring crash and reboot loop.  Support in Canada suggests buying a throw-away phone in London, put in the SIM card and return the handset when I return to the US. Ask if the popular wisdom of re-installing the OS will work. Answer: can’t hurt, give it a try when you get Internet access in London.

Not satisfactory! No idea what the root cause might be. Just re-install the OS, and if that doesn’t work plan on exchanging the handset at my earliest convenience

Once in London I’ve a day to adjust to the time change and get ready for my class, so some time to continue the sleuthing for the root cause. Work through the scrub and re-install cycle and am thrilled that it seems to be working! Until I disconnect the USB cable connecting the handset to my laptop Struggle through the next couple days with, basically, a mini-brick in my pocket. Do a bit more investigating online but nothing definitive pops out. There are people out there on their 6th handset with this issue!! Hmmm, that just doesn’t sound right, does it?

I begin to notice that the message exchange icons are wiggling just before the crash. Leads me to believe that we’ve got a problem related to email or text messaging. End up scrubbing everything from the handset and re-installing again. Bare bones this time, no reload of any stored info. Still, no luck.

Recall a vague comment in the online discussions suggesting pulling the SD card. Have exhausted everything else, why not. Well, no crash/reboot. Put it back in, back into the loop. Hmmm

Backup everything on the SD card and reformat. Plug it back in and lo and behold. We’re up and running again!!

Root cause of the incident, incompatible format on the SID card. Why? I think because the new features in the OS upgrade needed scratch space to do their processing of incoming/outgoing data. The new html email feature actually wasn’t working after I first upgraded, but I didn’t realize that until it finally did start working after reformatting the SD card!

Remember the comment about people on their 6th handset return? Imagine the folks processing those returned handsets and running the battery of tests to find out that there nothing wrong! Well, that’s because the culprit was removed, the SD card! So, the handset likely goes back into the market as a perfectly fine working refurbished offering. I wonder how many times that’s happening!! Can I have some of that revenue leakage?

Moral of the story? For my wireless carrier and their partner Blackberry, they need a better model of the Product they sold me! The SD card is part of the Product and they should have that recorded in their ProductSpecification Catalog as well as their Product Inventory. The SD card is a PhysicalResource that is bundled with the ProductOffering. Maybe not on the sell/purchase side, but it sure is on the trouble handling side of life!

The call center staff should be working with a big picture view of the incident/problem space. Gotta know about all the Domains out there that could be the source of the root cause!

Not a UML Guru but want to understand how you could use the TeleManagement Forum (TMF) New Generation OSS (NGOSS) Shared Information and Data (SID) Model? Trying to figure out what information is needed by the SOA services you’re defining? Well, you’re not alone!

So, we’ve taken the NGOSS SID and turned it into a Web Application that lets you create, read, update and delete your own SID Aggregate Business Entities. Pretty neat stuff!

You can not only learn about the Business Entites modeled in the SID but also all the relationships that have been captured.

Give it a spin yourself at http://amkb-soa.com

Let us know what you think of the AMKB SOA SID Web App.

The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) provides a terrific opportunity for the telco industry.

The communications industry in general continues to undergo dramatic evolution. What better place to utilize a dynamic capability that can keep pace with the demands of the business and marketplace?

But as with any good tool, you are typically challenged by starting with a clean slate! Lots of capability and power at hand, but no content to help get you started.

That’s where NGOSS can help, as well as other industry standard reference models; ITIL, COBIT &  NICC to name a few.

Imagine being able to get started with your BPMN-based business transformation initiative if you had a working set of proven process patterns to help you get started. There are so many repeatable processes that typically drive the activity of an enterprise. And these process patterns aren’t specific to a particular domain, in fact they repeat within and across domains. The pattern is the same, but the content/information being acted upon changes.

So, checkout the TMF NGOSS Enhanced Telecom Operations Map© (eTOM) for a rich set of process patterns that can help you on your next BPMN project. Look for the patterns supporting the: design, development and operations end-to-end verticals.

For more info take a look at these online courses.

The TeleManagement Forum (TMF) New Generation OSS (NOGSS) initiative continues to show that it does have legs!

Renewed efforts are focused on developing a SOA-based platform supporting BSS/OSS solution analysis, design and development. Teams are working across this continuum to create guidelines and specifications supporting key areas of business activity. Not only in the traditional Resource and Service Domains, but reaching toward the customer and into the Product and Customer Domains too.

The promise of SOA is real and teams are working hard to build the infrastructure necessary to support improved ways of realizing business transformation.

Get involved! Take a look at the TMF Technical team activities. And take a training course to learn even more!

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