Q. What is the definition of a "Committed" resource?
A committed Resource is where a member company agrees to provide resources to deliver a work package, and where this work package is defined as Strategic in the Product Management roadmap, with an agreed timeline for delivery defined as part of the Project Charter.
For example, if that person is not available for any reason, the contributing member company will ensure that this person is replaced with someone of similar skill sets. An agreement will be put in place between TM Forum and the respective member company.
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Q. What is the definition of a "Best Effort" resource?
A Best Effort Resource is where a company provides resources to work on a particular project. So while the company is providing resources they do not sign an agreement to state the commitment.
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Q. Is there a formula for the eligibility criteria for the different Tier’s of Contributing Member?
- Silver Contributing Member = 1 person-year of effort of which 50% must be committed to deliver strategic work packages or a contribution to the equivalent of 6 months towards the strategic work packages outlined in the Product Management Roadmap, the remainder can be made up of Best Effort Resources (listed in the Project Charter) and / or other Contributions.
- Gold Contributing Member = 2 person-years of effort of which 50% must be committed to deliver strategic work packages or a contribution to the equivalent of 12 months towards the strategic work packages outlined in the Product Management Roadmap, the remainder can be made up of Best Effort Resources (listed in the Project Charter) and / or other Contributions.
- Platinum Contributing Member = 4 person-years of effort of which 50% must be committed to deliver strategic work packages or a contribution to the equivalent of 24 months towards the strategic work packages outlined in the Product Management Roadmap, the remainder can be made up of Best Effort Resources (listed in the Project Charter) and / or other Contributions.
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Q. If my company agrees to get involved in this program will an agreement need to be signed?
Where the qualifying criteria is made up of committed resources to Strategic Projects, then yes there is an agreement to be signed to ensure that the committed resource will agree to work on the project to deliver the agreed content in the timeline laid out? The template agreement can be viewed here (here should be a link to the agreement which can send separately)
If however, your company makes contributions of unique content via Online Contribution mechanism, and this is deemed to qualify towards the Contributing Member program as it assists directly one or more Strategic Projects, then the effort estimate of the work to complete this contribution will be counted towards the eligibility criteria and in this case an agreement is not required.
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Q. How are contributions assessed for eligibility towards the Contributing Member Program?
Every Contribution that is received via the Online Contribution mechanism, accessible from each of the Online Communities will be reviewed by the Product Portfolio Group. They will assess how each contribution can be used to advance the Strategic projects which have been defined to help realise the TM Forum Strategic plan. Where a contribution is deemed to meet the eligibility criteria, then the effort estimate provided by the submitter at the time of submission will be used towards the qualifying criteria.
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Q. Are Best Effort Resources working on existing Projects counted towards the eligibility criteria for this program?
Best Effort resources will only be counted towards the eligibility criteria where either:
- The minimum requirement of 6 months of committed resources working on strategic work packages or,
- A contribution which has a work estimate of greater than 6 months has been submitted and is considered eligible as it helps advance one or more of the strategic work packages.
In this situation the Best Effort resource information will be taken from the Project Charter. Other support that may not have been included in the Project Charter cannot be included at this time.
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