Page 454 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

Network Management and Administration 3-245

3.10.4.1.1 Resource Lifecycle
The resource lifecycle addresses the management of the revenue-generating networks and systems—
those that are directly involved in delivering the services. It focuses on domain and element manage-
ment, including network management for managing the network components and IT management for
managing the systems and applications that are part of the revenue-generating infrastructure (VAS plat-
forms and applications, SDP, etc.). Different domain-specific resource lifecycles may exist. The resource
lifecycle is driven by both network engineering and operations, with heavy involvement from the OSS
systems. Typical business scenarios include:
• Understanding the resource needs and planning for new resources. This can be driven by the need
to support new services or adjust capacity to changes in demand.
• Engineering the details of the deployment of the resources. This could include determining where
the equipment will be located, how it will be interconnected, etc.
• Deploying and configuring the equipment to meet the design.
• Providing for ongoing configuration management that is independent of service instances such
as installing software patches.
• Monitoring the resources for any faults and performance issues, and repairing as necessary.
• Managing the operational data of the resources, in particular collecting the usage information.

3.10.4.1.2 Service Subscription
The service subscription lifecycle covers the use cases that provide a specific customer with an instance
of a service. The service lifecycle must be traversed once for each service being used by a particular cus-
tomer. This lifecycle is often driven by the account manager, customer service representative (CSR), and
customer. The primary systems involved with this lifecycle are OSS and BSS. Typical business scenarios
involved with service subscription are as follows:
• Sell the service to a customer and take the order.
• Provision the service (determine the changes and configurations required to provide the service)
and activate it (make the necessary changes in the infrastructure).
• Monitor the service to ensure that the customer’s expectations are being met; resolve any inci-
dents or problems that may occur.
• Determine usage of the service, calculate bills, and collect payments.
• Change or terminate the service to the customer based on customer request or other business factors.
3.10.4.1.3 Service Offer
The service offer lifecycle covers the activities involved in the management of bringing a new service to
market, monitoring its business performance, and evolving or withdrawing the service. The service offer
lifecycle, also called product lifecycle management, is not tied to any particular customer; it provides the
business view of a service offer or product. It is typically driven by a line-of-business manager. While
the OSS and BSS are involved in aspects of this lifecycle, the business planning, SDP, and engineering
systems are the primary systems involved. Typical business scenarios are:
• Decide on a new service to provide and plan how to deliver it.
• Develop, test, and deploy the service by making necessary changes in the infrastructure as well as
in the required support systems.
• Monitor the service to ensure that business requirements are met; this will include general quality
delivered, revenue, capacity, churn, etc.
• Evolve or retire the service.
3.10.4.1.4 End-to-End Service View
Within the three lifecycles, Operations looks at three major business process areas: fulfillment, assur-
ance, and usage. Fulfillment supports the processes responsible for getting everything ready to take