This document explores a framework for Holistic Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for the Communications industry. PLM has, until recently, been a fragmented discipline in Communications, limiting the benefits that can be reaped by a coherent end-to-end management approach to communications product lifecycle. Holistic PLM becomes more imperative considering the landscape of today’s communication industry which continues to rapidly change. Organizations operate using more complex business models and value chains. New providers continue to enter the market. Network and Information Technology operations are converging. The end products can now combine communications and software services. Customers and end-users are expected to bundle these existing and new services in any way they choose and to have the services available anywhere and anytime. As a result there is a need to change the way products are developed, deployed and offered for this new age. In this context, PLM becomes a key discipline that could sufficiently manage this shift.
This report carries out a survey of the lessons learnt by the application of PLM in other industries. It presents the best practices and benefits expected to be had by applying a similar approach on communications. This leads into the introduction of a Holistic Product Lifecycle Management Framework for communications. The framework is characterised by 3 distinct dimensions, namely, Product Definition Process, Product Definition Data and PLM meta-capabilities. Each dimension is extensively described offering an in-depth view of the key features of PLM per dimension. The result of this report, i.e. the solid description of the holistic PLM framework, will allow in the next steps of this work to carry out a more extensive gap analysis in related TMF standards in the direction of fulfilling the framework.