GB986 Frameworx Metamodels Concepts and Principles 1.0.3

TM Forum architectural frameworks have hitherto been developed to support specific and isolated transformation challenges of service providers and other members.

With the move towards enterprise architecture as the basis of transformation within service providers, the TM Forum strategic plan goals have been adjusted to deliver increased cohesion and alignment of component frameworks and the inclusion of additional elements that exist between and relate to multiple frameworks.

As part of the cohesion and alignment requirements the need for a Frameworks wide Metamodel and an associated governance structure has been identified as a critical for the enhancement of Frameworx adoption.

This document addresses the structure and content of the Frameworks and proposes a unified meta-Metamodel for all the frameworks under umbrella classification Metamodel. It shows how the meta-Metamodel is applied on each framework.

The intent of this Metamodel is to:

• Provide a formal structure to define what is in the Frameworx
• Provide a record of how these items relate to each other
• Provide a centralized capability to enhance and manage change and development of the frameworks in a coherent manner without unintended consequences
• Provide the basis for enabling model transfer between tools by providing explicit definition of components independently of the tools.

A snapshot of the Metamodel was published in TR177 as part of Frameworx 12 for broad community review. A materialized version of this work is hereby submitted. Further work is still expected in some areas such as business services.