One is the network's view dealing with actual configuration running on the network and the management view, which is the network data maintained or cached by the NMS. Having two different views of data lead to the need for synchronization. Discrepancy can occur in a large service provider space where the network view is expected to be a mirror of the master data in a management space that maintains information based on inputs from the inventory module. The discrepancy is corrected by reprovisioning the net- work that requires an interaction with the network provisioning module. NMS Functions Network inventory management: Provisioning of service for a new work order will require allocating of resources and updating the inventory management system. It is the network provisioning module that understands the capacity required for a specific service and sends a request to the inventory module for allocating a suitable resource or checking the feasibility of available resources for executing the work order. This process of interaction with the inventory module starts when a "preservice" request is given to the provisioning module by the service configuration module. With a change in inventory database, the inventory module can also trigger a request to the provisioning module to add a new element, change the configuration of an existing element, or replace an existing network element. Element management: A key functionality of the network provisioning mod- ule is to test the configured elements for proper working after configuration. The interaction with network elements happens through the element man- ager for the specific elements being provisioned. Using event and performance data collected by the element managers from the NE and from test execution results communicated to the provisioning module by the element managers, the provisioning module gets information on the success or failure of the provisioning operation to complete a work order. 12.3 Resource Data Collection and Processing Resource data collection and 