TM Forum Community

Dear Community,

I have been studying several TM Forum Autonomous Networks assets, including IG1218, IG1292 (VOF), IG1409 and IG1457 Autonomous Networks Journey.

My understanding is that these provide:

• ·         a target vision,
• ·         maturity and value assessment,
• ·         and guidance for AN transformation programs.

However, in our practical transformation work, we are facing a different challenge. Today, operators are being approached by different AN solution strategies:

• ·         integrated Autonomous Network platforms from traditional telecom vendors,
• ·         more open and AI-native approaches from cloud and AI ecosystem providers,
• ·         and a growing number of modular automation capabilities.

One question that continues to arise in our transformation discussions is whether AN maturity alone is sufficient to guide transformation priorities.

Two operators may both assess themselves at AN Level 3, yet have fundamentally different transformation objectives:

• One may be focused on network efficiency and operational automation.
• Another may be focused on customer experience assurance.
• A third may prioritize new business models and monetization outcomes.

In such cases, AN maturity appears to describe "how autonomous" an operator is, but not necessarily "what the operator is trying to optimize."

Has TM Forum explored any frameworks, methodologies, or workstreams that complement AN maturity by helping operators identify and prioritize different transformation objectives across network, service, customer, and business domains?

Or is this still considered a gap to be addressed by individual CSPs?

The question from our management is often not "What is AN Level 5?", but rather "Given our current situation, what should we do next, and how should we prioritize our investments?"

For example:

• ·         Which capabilities should typically be established first?
• ·         Which capabilities can evolve in parallel?
• ·         How should operators balance the evolution of network autonomy with the evolution of business and operational models?
• ·         Is there any TM Forum asset that helps support these transformation sequencing and decision-making activities?
• ·         Have other operators developed their own transformation decision frameworks to bridge the gap between TM Forum standards and real investment decisions?

In other words, I am not looking for another maturity model or value framework. I am looking for a practical decision-support or transition framework that helps operators translate TM Forum standards into actionable transformation roadmaps.

I am particularly interested in understanding whether other CSPs use an additional classification dimension beyond AN maturity when building transformation roadmaps, investment priorities, or operating model evolution plans.

I may simply have overlooked an existing asset, so I would greatly appreciate any references, workstreams or implementation experiences from the community.

Best regards,

Linh Nguyen

HR Expert / VNPT

#DigitalTransformationMaturity

------------------------------
Ngoc Linh Nguyen
Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT)
------------------------------

We did develop a Transformation Project Framework in 

GB1011 Transformation Project Framework (TPF) v4.0.0 – TM Forum

This focused on planning transformation from an 'as-is' state to a desired 'to-be' state and driven by either maturity improvements or changes with economic benefits e.g. operational and financial metrics. However the decision and success criteria depend on the specific  metric chosen for a transformation project which is a project decision. e.g maturity metrics or benchmarking metrics as described in GB988 TM Forum Metrics Definitions v26.0 – TM Forum

------------------------------
Dave Milham
TM Forum, Chief Architect
------------------------------

Hi Ngoc Linh Nguyen

We have plans to tackle this exact issue. As you say we have developed AN maturity measurement tools (ANLET and ANLAV) which are aligned to the various scenarios associated with AN, with an initial focus on the scenarios that the members selected as being the highest value to them and had a feasible technical solution pattern from the work done to date. These are around fault management, service assurance, energy efficiency etc. in the different network domains e.g. Mobile access (RAN), IP, transport etc. AN maturity is currently measured per scenario and as you say different operators will have different priorities and different maturity levels. We have been approached by several operators to construct the "AN Playbook" to help our members plan their transformation journey to becoming an Autonomous Enterprise - where both the IT and the network exhibit high levels of autonomy, working seamlessly together to create the desired Zero-X and Self-X experience. We will distill best practice from our members on viable and effective transformation roadmaps to enable them to "join up" the various scenarios in a consistent manner, that also ensure the necessary architectural foundations are in place such as timely access to the correct data which is in the right format to support the AI models and agents that will deliver autonomy, as well as the necessary decoupling of the applications and resources to enable "brown field" incremental transformation based on clear business needs and return on investment. It would be great if VNPT could become part of the team creating the AN Playbook - watch out for the launch of this exciting new project.

------------------------------
George Glass
TM Forum
------------------------------