ise concerned. In an e-business setting, automation goes beyond operations to include many more aspects of the service provider's enterprise. This requires systematic process descriptions for all aspects of the service provider's enterprise, the definition of interfaces between those components and the definition of interfaces between those components and the TOM. In an e-business setting, automation extends to the connections between customers and suppliers. Thus, eTOM provides a generic framework for interfaces at the edge of enterprises that hook up inter-enterprise processes. The eTOM can be viewed as having three major classes of process (see Figure 9.1): 1. strategy, infrastructure and product which cover planning and lifecycle management 2. operations, which covers the core of operational management 3. enterprise management, which covers corporate or business support management. We now introduce the eTOM business process framework, and explain its struc- ture and the significance of each process area. We also show how the high-level eTOM structure is decomposed to lower level processes. Because of the level of abstraction of the eTOM, much of this chapter may seem arcane. However, the abstract approach of the eTOM is its strength because it allows the eTOM to be applied by most any service provider in structuring its operations. Further, the eTOM seeks to support the e-business model while e-business is a relatively new idea and is itself rather abstract. K. Misra et al. (eds.), OSS for Telecom Networks © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2004 OSS for Telecom Networks The conceptual structure is an overall context that differentiates strategy and life- cycle processes from operational processes in two large process areas, represented by the two largest boxes in the figure. Beneath these are the third large area of enter- prise management processes, in grey. The structure differentiates functional areas in four horizontal layers across the two upper process areas. Figure 9.1 also shows the internal and externa