the functionality required of any given application, functional overlaps of existing applications to be identified, thereby facilitating rationalization and functional gaps to be identified. The level of functional decomposition is such that these benefits can be realized but without being over prescriptive. Within the TM Forum there is a strong definition of process and data. The Applications Framework provides a formalized way of grouping together function and data into recognised components, which would then be regarded as potentially procurable as either applications or services. An application or service (for example: web services) can be a relatively coarsely grained software that implements functions/processes and acts on or uses data. In daily life we see applications such as word processors or mail clients; in OSS terms we would regard an application as something such as a CRM component, a billing system or an inventory solution – although we also understand that these can be decomposed to some extent – for example a billing system will include a number of smaller applications, such as a rating engine. An “application” is defined as a set of one or more software artifacts comprising well defined functions, data, business flows, rules and interfaces. This would include a Data Model, for data used to interface to and within an application, policies, for governing external and internal application resources, a Flow Model, for functionality with the application and contract specifications for externally visible interfaces to the functionality within the application Applications are implementable as deployable packages and are procurable in the system market place. The Applications Framework is neither a part of the Information Framework or the Business Process Framework (eTOM) definitions but links to both in an easily understandable way and also provides a mapping between them. External links TM Forum Frameworx page Telecommunications OSS and BSS The TMF Reference page Other information TM Forum - Telcordia FTTx/PON Solution and MTOSI Case Study mTOP is program within the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) that covers the definition of management interfaces for telecommunications networks. mTOP covers both resource and service management. TTI-Telecom See also Model-driven architecture Service-oriented architecture Telecommunications Management Network Web service Telecommunications systems Telecommunications infrastructure