Making TM Forum relevant to developers

So here I am, new to the TM Forum, tasked with helping build up a vibrant community of developers who use the TM Forum standards and initiatives as part of their daily jobs. Sounds like a challenge - which it is - but, with my first blog in my new role, there are a few thoughts that I'd like to share based upon observations, discussions and opinions that have built up over my first few weeks in the job.

The first thing that struck me is how much activity is going on in the TM Forum. There are projects, initiatives, activities etc, creating a whole bunch of standards, tools and so forth that provide real value to developers. However the true value of all the TM Forum activity is when it gets implemented, enabling development teams to produce services, code, whatever cheaper, quicker and more efficiently.

So how do we get all this activity into the hands of the developer community so that they can use it better (or at least know that it exists). One way is to create a formal developer community, with a portal aimed at translating the material produced within the TM Forum into a more developer-centric form. Over the next few weeks, the TM Forum will be contacting developer teams to really get an idea of the sort of things that will draw the developers into the community and provide true value to them - whether it is simple things like forums or code download areas or whether we need to think more innovatively about things.

One thing is certain though, the developer activities have got the full-hearted backing of the TM Forum team, and we see this as an area of key strategic importance.

So there are a couple of things I would like to leave you with from my debut TM Forum blog:

·         Is there more that your development teams could get from the TM Forum? Are you getting the most from all the activity that takes place?

·         Can your development teams provide thought leadership – not only to peer developers, but also to the TM Forum itself??

 Don’t forget that the Team Action Week takes place in Baltimore in a couple of weeks – we are hosting a developer workshop there which would be a great opportunity to meet many of the implementers of TM Forum standards, deep dive into the technical activities that are going on and also to meet not only your developer peers but also the TM Forum developer team and help us develop a program to really provide value to the community.