esign. 6.9.3 Provisioning Framework Flow and Core Functions The focus of the provisioning framework is to simplify service provisioning and allow rapid development of service provisioning applications. AdventNet uses a flexible template-driven approach, which minimises development for specific applications and allows easy customization of provisioning functions after deployment. This approach allows administrators employed at the end-customer to configure templates to suit their specific service, network and data needs. The parameterised XML service provisioning templates may be created for domain-specific configuration tasks, such as configuring a frame relay interface on a router. These templates take parameters (for example, the router name) and are designed to collect data from the network and the inventory database based on these parameters. While provisioning activities are being carried out, the data are collected and forms are presented to the user based on XML definitions of forms in the templates. These forms can be customised to present only the relevant data to operators. The user input is collected and used in provisioning, along with the col- lected inventory and network data. The XML-based templates are grouped as stages, which assists in part-provision- ing. Stage-based template processing or part-provisioning refers to the ability to customise the workflow (the sequences of data gathering) in the template. This flow captures many provisioning scenarios, so that these functions can be performed simply by providing the XML and without custom development. In some cases it may be necessary to apply rules, or other custom functions, to the template data 6 Service Provisioning and Activation Client Substitute Gather Gather template requested template inventory network request template parameters Render forms Substitute Client Client Process input actives gathers user template to template parameters provisioning inputs client rules Gather inputs Pre-process Update Stage Post-process Return provisioning 