Benefits of Team Participation

TM Forum’s ability to influence the communications industry relies heavily on the experts and outputs of its collaborative working teams.  As a member of a TM Forum Collaboration Program Team, you and your company will:

• Influence the communications industry by setting direction
• Gain first hand, in depth knowledge of TM Forum standards
• Learn from top experts in the industry
• Network with customers and partners
• Enhance your company’s ability to respond to market needs

TM Forum projects are open to all employees of TM Forum member companies.

Joining a TM Forum project team couldn’t be easier; just determine your area and level of interest, then visit the team’s page in the TM Forum Collaboration Workspace and sign up!

Joining a TM Forum working team is not only easy, but you decide your level of participation. There are some basic requirements for being a TM Forum working team member.  These guidelines make it easy for you to join the team that best aligns with you and your company’s interests and help you become productive on the team as fast as possible.  Click here to find a list of Active Teams to see what interests you.

1) Visit the project pages in the Technical Programs and Business Solutions areas of the TM Forum website.
These web area contains descriptions of each project, its goals, objectives, deliverables, time plan, contact information and current status.  This area also contains a link to the team’s project charter and other related documents.

• If you need more help in determining the best match for your expertise and/or what will benefit you and your company, please contact the TM Forum staff member for that program or project.
• If there is something that is a higher priority for you and your company, you have the option of starting a new TM Forum Collaboration Team at any time.  Contact Ken Dilbeck at kdilbeck@tmforum.org to discuss your interests.

2) Visit the TM Forum's Help Wanted pages 
Read about the levels of participation available, from one time contributor or reviewer all the way up to team leader.   We are always looking for marketing and product management participants in addition to technical resources.

Visit the “Want Ads” for teams who are actively looking for specific assistance on their projects.  Contact the team leader or staff member directly to discuss their needs.  

3) Contact the Team Leader. 
If the team you have interest in is not listed in the Want Ads, contact the team leader or TM Forum staff member in any case, as most teams are always looking for new resources and welcome new team members, and just simply have not listed all their openings in the Want Ads.
The team leader can describe the type of support needed by the team and identify the documents, both published and working, with which you need to be familiar before becoming active in the team.  It is important for new members to come up to speed as quickly as possible so as to not slow the team’s progress. 

• Understand the levels of support required by the team and determine your initial level of involvement.  Team members’ levels of participation vary. 
• Schedule the team’s calls on your calendar so that you can listen in to get up to speed

4) Officially Sign up for the Team. 
Go to the TM Forum’s Collaboration Workspace on the TM Foroum website at www.tmforum.org/cws.  Here select the team that you would like to join and add yourself to the team.  This will put you on to the team’s email exploder and ensure you receive communications. This also give you rights to email out to members of the exploder.

5) At your first team meeting or conference call, introduce yourself and show your interest in team participation by volunteering to do a work item the team needs done. 
Initial work you can volunteer to do are providing the next teleconference bridge, taking the meeting minutes and reviewing a contribution.