ice provider business process framework called Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS eTOM (enhanced telecom operations map). Some of the new concepts brought in to encompass all service provider processes were to introduce supplier/partner man- agement, enterprise management, and also adding lifecycle management processes. The eTOM is currently the most popular business process reference framework for telecom service providers. A separate chapter will handle telecom business pro- cesses and give a detailed explanation on TOM and eTOM. This section is intended to give the reader an understanding on how the basic TMN management stack evolved to the current eTOM. 19.7 Few OSS/BSS Processes Some of the OSS/BSS processes are discussed on a high level in this chapter. Most processes are performed using a solution, which means that in most scenarios there is a management application mapped to the service provider process. The intent is to familiarize the reader with some solid examples to get a better understanding of the concepts that will be discussed in the chapters that follow. Provisioning: This process involves service and network management func- tions. The provisioning activity requires setting up the infrastructure to offer the service. So the provisioning module has to interact with an inventory module to check on what resources-switches, routers, connections-need to be utilized in setting up the infrastructure. Once the resources are allo- cated, next the resources need to be configured. This includes configuration of service parameters for the various customer instances and the configuration of elements making up the network. Next the service is activated. The ele- ment managers send activation commands to the configured resources. The agents feed the equipment status and other management data to the element managers. Service providers look for flow-through provisioning and activation solutions that require minimal or no manual intervention. These solutions will interact with inventory and monitoring modules,