My last two blogs focused on implementing the SID. For a change of pace (and subject), this blog will look at implementing the eTOM.
Was back in China this past week, working hard and sampling some more culinary delights. One delight that is hard to find in Shenzhen, where I was, but is found pretty easily in Nanjing is egg dumplings. The wrapper for these delicious morsels is made of egg, rather than the traditional dough wrapper. They are often served in a broth or hot pot together with Chinese vegetables. Tasty. And for those of you looking to try your hand at making these, here is a link…. www.redcook.net/2009/02/08/egg-dumplings/.
Part of the delight of eating dumplings of any kind is finding out what’s inside. This also applies to decomposing processes, which, besides eating, I was also doing while in China last week. You don’t know if the process decomposes further until you “look inside it” by decomposing it further. That’s one good guideline to follow in the quest for the lowest level process – you never know if the lowest level has been reached, unless you keep decomposing until it appears you have gone too far! You can always roll back the decomposition back to the previous level.
Now, I could start a war by providing a suggested set of properties for a lowest level process, often call an elementary process. And I have participated in some of these wars in my past lives! So, what I propose here are some guidelines that indicate decomposition of a process has not YET reach the lowest level. Which means if a process exhibits any of these properties, its decomposition should continue.
Please know that this is not an exhaustive list either. Just some I have found useful. They can be applied for anyone implementing the eTOM and extending it to levels lower than currently contained within this component of Frameworx.
· If Semantic Analysis, which involves analyzing a process’ description looking for verbs/nouns or phrases which imply some action on an entity, association, and/or attribute, can still be applied to the process description. This means that there are implied sub-processes into which the process can decompose. · Acts on (creates/updates) multiple states of the same entity, which implies a separate sub-processes for each state · Acts (creates/deletes and sometimes updates) on multiple ABEs (a group of closely related entities), which implies separate sub-processes for each ABE, particularly for creates/deletes. · Carried out by multiple individuals, roles, organizations, which implies separate sub-processes, often associated with each individual, role, and/or organization. · Carried out at multiple locations and/or at different times, which implies separate sub-processes for each location and/or time. Note that particularly the time separation implies that that once the process begins, its execution cannot be stopped and then continued at another point in time. These guidelines can be applied in any combination.
If you have any guideline you would like to share with others, it would be great to hear about them.
You may also be interested in the Level 4 work that is being published as part of a guide book (GB942MAP) that describes and explains the use of mappings between Frameworx c omponents. It includes Level 4 processes that have been developed by the eTOM/SID mapping team in the Fulfillment and Assurance verticals of the eTOM.
This guide book in draft form can be found at… http://www.tmforum.org/DocumentLibrary/GB942MAPSolutionFrameworks/40793/article.html
Work has also been done in the Billing and Revenue Management vertical process grouping. This work can be found at… http://www.tmforum.org/Community/groups/the_business_process_framework/downloads.aspx?id=artf1937
I’ll be off traveling in the United States the week of 13th June 2010, so look for the next blog when I return.
Posted
06-06-2010 11:50 PM
by
John Reilly