| The Information Framework (SID) provides an information reference model and common vocabulary from a business perspective. The Information Framework covers all the information required to implement service provider Business Process Framework (eTOM) processes.
The Information Framework focuses on “business entity” and associated attribute definitions. A business entity is a thing of interest to the business, such as customer, product, service, or network. Its attributes are facts that describe the entity. Together, the definitions provide a business-oriented perspective of the information and data needed to run your organization. In short, the Information Framework provides the model that represents business concepts and their characteristics and relationships, described in an implementation-independent manner.
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The framework is a layered model which partitions the shared information and data into eight domains. At the top layer (Level 1), each of the eight information domains is aligned with the Business Process Framework (eTOM). Within each domain there is a high degree of cohesion between the business entities; and between the domains, there is a loose coupling. This arrangement enables segmentation of the total business problem into manageable pieces and allows resources to be focused on a particular area of interest. In other words, for a particular business process that you are automating, you can identify the information within the Framework that is needed to support that process.
Within each domain, business entities known as “Aggregate Business Entities” (ABEs) are defined. ABEs may contain smaller ABEs related to their respective areas. Each ABE contains finer-grained business entities and their associated attributes.
In order to provide a single framework to harmonize all information models across the industry, the Information Framework Product and Service domains have been adopted by the ITU and are included in the ITUT recommendation M.3190. |