Product Lifecycle Management Introductory Guide

(1)

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTORY

GUIDE

IG1100

Version1.1

November, 2012

(2)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Notice

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to TM FORUM, except as needed for the purpose of developing any document or deliverable produced by a TM FORUM Collaboration Project Team (in which case the rules applicable to copyrights, as set forth in the TM FORUM IPR Policy, must be followed) or as required to translate it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by TM FORUM or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and TM FORUM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY OWNERSHIP RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Direct inquiries to the TM Forum office:

240 Headquarters Plaza, East Tower – 10th_Floor, Morristown, NJ 07960 USA Tel No. +1 973 944 5100 Fax No. +1 973 944 5110

(3)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

List of Figures

Figure 1 -‐ Product Maturity Lifecycle. Source: Tribold Limited. 9

Figure 2 – Application Framework Product Management Domain. Source: TM Forum. 11

Figure 3 – PLM across the Product Management Domain. Source: Tribold Limited. 11

Figure 4 – Product Model. Source: Tribold Limited. 13

Figure 5 – Information Framework (SID) Data Domains. Source: TM Forum. 14

Figure 6 – Information Framework Product-‐Service-‐Resource Associations. Source: TM Forum. 15

Figure 7 – Simple PLM Framework. Source: Tribold Limited. 18

Figure 8 – Holistic PLM Framework. Source: Tribold Limited. 20

Figure 9 – Goals of PLM. Source: CIMdata. 21

Figure 10 – Dimensions of PLM Deployment. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 22

Figure 11 – Business Process Framework with PLM Designations. Source: TM Forum. 24

Figure 12 – Business Process Framework PLM Domain. Source: TM Forum. 24

Figure 13 – ITIL Service Lifecycle. Source: ITIL/itSMF. 26

Figure 14 – ITIL to PLM Mapping. Source: TM Forum. 27

Figure 15 – Software Development Lifecycle. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 28

Figure 16 – Holistic PLM Building Blocks. Source: Telecom New Zealand _{based
on
Detecon
Model.} ₂₉ Figure 17 – Organization & Process Alignment. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 30

Figure 18 – PLM Process Model. Source: Tribold Limited. 32

Figure 19 – PLM Pathways. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 34

Figure 20 – PLM Process Model. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 35

Figure 21 – PLM Stages/Gates. Source: Tribold Limited. 35

Figure 22 – PLM In Practice. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 39

Figure 23 – PwC Product Management Maturity Framework. Source: PRTM Study. 49

(5)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

List of Tables

Table 1 – Benefits of PLM. Source: John Stark. 17

Table 2 – PLM Design Principles. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 31

Table 3 – Holistic PLM Framework Level 2/3 Processes. Source: Tribold Limted. 34

Table 4 – PLM Gate Definitions. Source: Tribold Limited. 36

Table 5 – Typical PLM Roles. Source: Tribold Limited. 38

Table 6 – With and Without PLM. Source: Telecom New Zealand. 50

(6)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Executive Summary

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has long been the reserve of the retail and manufacturing industries. When you are constructing something physical, it is easy to see how the idea and design of individual component parts and their successful assembly into a single saleable product depend directly on clear planning and definition, end-‐to-‐end process coordination, and ongoing delivery management, all of which are key aspects of a PLM framework.

The benefits are obvious too – assured interoperability during production, an end-‐state product that closely resembles the upfront requirements and design specifications, and a common understanding of what is being sold and what is required to sell and support it.

Applying these same principles to the communications industry, however, was not so obvious in the past. One could point to a number of reasons why operators did not feel the pressure to institutionalize PLM: limited product complexity and features, homogenous network/provider landscape, monolithic infrastructure, and so forth.

Fast forward to today’s digital world, and the environment is anything but simple and static. With the convergence of technologies and markets, the abstraction and virtualization of services, and a truly global market of over 6 billion people, digital services are exploding. Thus the traditional landscape of the communications industry has been forever changed.

With the seemingly infinite number of moving parts that require coordination in order to produce a seamless offering for the market, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing ecosystem, PLM is becoming an essential enabler of the Digital Economy.

PLM, if implemented correctly, can have significant operational, financial, and customer experience benefits:

• Operating cost reduction. Decrease execution cost, increase human resource performance, and

decrease churn rate.

• Time management. Decrease time to market, decrease waiting time, and decrease delay in delivery to

the customer through improved collaboration and establishing a consistent product development process across the business.

• Innovation. Organizations are looking for PLM to improve the business by enabling more innovation at the idea stage, producing better product designs, increased reuse, improved standards and consistency, and clearer visibility and management of product data.

• Product and process quality improvement. Increases can be observed in product management process

performance, customer value performance, value net performance, information availability and accuracy, product launch quality, provisioning performance, service quality, and reductions in technical defects.

(7)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Implementation of a PLM strategy should and can be underpinned by sound financial targets. These targets help to quantify the benefits of a transformative or improvement PLM project. Examples of benchmarks that have been proven by referenceable case studies in the marketplace include:

• 50% reduction in the time to market

• 20% increase in revenues by widening the product portfolio

• 20% increase in revenues by introducing products faster

• 40% increase in revenues by introducing new products/services on existing offerings

• 35% increase in product quality

• 60% reduction in cost to market

This guide explores the rationale for PLM in the Digital Economy, the maturity of the frameworks available, and how such organizations can deploy PLM fit for their purposes.

About the authors

This guide was co-‐authored in collaboration between Tribold Limited and Telecom New Zealand. It was compiled based on the experience of both organizations in defining, tailoring, adopting, and deploying PLM frameworks in the digital world:

• Catherine Michel, Tribold

• Sharon Lynch, Tribold

• Kiran Amin, Tribold

• Ella Obreja, Telecom New Zealand

(8)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

1. PLM in the Digital Economy

Competing in the increasingly commoditized digital service industry, providers are commercially compelled to seek more ways in which they can reduce their time-‐ and cost-‐to-‐ market, while improving innovation and quality.

With subscriber saturation in the communications sector at an all-‐time high, the emergence of multi-‐service providers from non-‐traditional sources, the convergence of user interfaces, and increasing network abstraction, the pressure is on to execute a product strategy that delivers simplification and accuracy, personalization without customization, reliability, and flexibility at a low cost.

These objectives are demanding a strategy that specifically answers a multitude of business critical questions, such as:

• How do I effectively exploit existing capabilities into more competitive and attractive

market offers?

• How do I quickly introduce new capabilities on top of existing infrastructure?

• How do I ensure that my customer’s experience is a satisfactory one, from the point of

order to the point of use?

• What can help me manage existing product lines, while launching new ones, without

disrupting business as usual?

• How do I simplify the product development process to reduce the cost and time it

takes?

• How do I bring the business and IT factions together to collaborate on more effective

offerings?

• How do I assure compliance with tax and regulatory rules for transparency and

traceability?

To answer these questions and respond to the intensifying pressure, service providers are increasingly focused on deploying a discipline that is turning under-‐managed capabilities and fractured processes into a coordinated effort to design, develop, deploy, and maintain the products around which their business is centered.

In this context, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the key to effectively and efficiently innovate and manage a company’s products and related services and resources to assure ongoing sustainability and profitability.

1.1. The Background to PLM

PLM has its roots back in the 1960s, when product marketing was becoming better understood and managed. The marketer and university professor E. Jerome McCarthy

(9)

proposed a simplified version of the previously published Marketing Mix concept, suggesting a four Ps classification to articulate a company’s market offering: Product, Price, Place, and

Promotion:1

• Product – An item that satisfies what a consumer needs or wants. It is a tangible good

or an intangible service.

• Price – The amount a customer pays for the product.

• Promotion – The methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide

information to different parties about the product.

• Place – The distribution of the product at a place that is convenient for consumers to

access.

The 4 Ps have evolved into the 4 Cs (Consumer, Cost, Communication, and Convenience), but the implications are the same: these are the fundamentals with which a company defines what it is selling and how it goes to market with it. How to manage these fundamentals is at the core of any company’s Product Management strategy.

A few years on from the 4Ps, the Product Lifecycle Model was first published by Harvard professor Raymond Vernon. Vernon observed five stages in the lifecycle of a product, with each stage having specific implications on how products are manufactured and traded across

local and international markets2_:

• Stage 1: Introduction • Stage 2: Growth • Stage 3: Maturity • Stage 4: Saturation • Stage 5: Decline

Figure 1 – Product Maturity Lifecycle. Source: Tribold Limited.

1_{McCarthy,
Jerome
E.
(1960).
Basic
Marketing.
A
Managerial
Approach.
Homewood,
IL:
Richard
D.
Irwin.}

2_{Raymond
Vernon
(1966).
International
Investment
and
International
Trade
in
the
Product
Cycle,
The
Quarterly
Journal
of
Economics,
Vol.}

(10)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

This model was gradually adopted by economics and marketing theorists as a way to describe and define more generically the product lifecycle management concepts and principles in the product development and product management domains.

Institutionalized adoption of PLM, however, did not occur until the 1980s, when it was taken up primarily by the automotive industry. This effort was in response to the cyclical market reality, as defined above, that the U.S. automotive industry was facing and therefore its need to compete at lower costs.

In other words, in the face of stiff competition and changing market conditions, companies asked, “How do I take my company’s 4 Ps and improve upon them using a process that reduces my time and cost to market, while preserving innovation and quality?”

The answer was found in the use of tools such as CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacturing), CAE (computer aided engineering), and PDM (product data management). Eventually, PLM as a discipline in practice emerged from the tools and activities geared specifically towards engineering.

As these technologies evolved and moved beyond just the automotive industry, they became the backbone of modern day PLM, which is the creation and central management of all product data and the technology used to access this information and knowledge. But PLM has grown to mean more than just the use of these tools; it is now viewed as the integration of

these tools with methods, people, and processes through all stages of a product’s life.3

The same pressures weighing on the automotive industry of the 1980s challenge the Digital Economy’s communications, media, and high-‐tech providers of today.

1.2. PLM Defined

In the broader organizational context, PLM is considered one of the core competencies of the Product Management domain, which is the overall area responsible for the organization’s 4 Ps. As defined by TM Forum’s Frameworx Application Framework (TAM), Product Management

contains four key facets4_:

• Product Strategy/Proposition Management

• Product Catalog Management

• Product Lifecycle Management

• Product Performance Management

3_{Teresko,
John
(21
December
2004).
"The
PLM
Revolution".
IndustryWeek.
Retrieved
26
September
2012.} 4_{TM
Forum
document
GB929,
GB929-‐CP.
www.tmforum.org.}

(11)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 2 – Application Framework Product Management Domain. Source: TM Forum.

In practice, PLM actually extends across the other Product Management competencies in terms of managing how those activities interoperate to produce a successful strategy around the 4 Ps. The transcendence of PLM underpins the premise of this document:

Figure 3 – PLM across the Product Management Domain. Source: Tribold Limited.

1.2.1. Product Data Management at the PLM Core

As previously mentioned, Product Data Management (PDM) as a discipline and as a capability existed before PLM. For manufacturing, managing the underlying data that defines the specifications of a product was seen as a critical component to managing the production of that product.

PDM for the digital economy can be viewed as the equivalent to the Product Catalog Management competency in the Application Framework’s Product Domain, as identified above. PDM is an even more fundamental competency in the digital world, where products

Product Management

PLM

Product Strategy Product Catalog

_Management

Performance

Product

Management

(12)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

are largely intangible services and therefore data driven in their logical design, physical composition, and customer use.

So a large portion of managing the “product” in this case is really managing the data that comprises the product specification, which can be viewed as the following elaboration of the 4 Ps:

• What is being sold

• What it comprises

• How it is sourced, fulfilled, and supported

• To whom it is being sold

• For what cost is it being sold

• How it is sold

• How it is used

• How it is tracked

• How it is rated, taxed, and invoiced

• How it is paid for and booked

• How it should perform

The resources that support the product’s services are important as well. So when referring to a product in the digital economy, the product is often more of a product composite that can be depicted by the following model:

(13)

Figure 4 – Product Model. Source: Tribold Limited.

In essence, the product composite is ultimately made up of attractive commercials (Offer), with great features (Product), that are based on the latest technologies (Service), using the best devices and networks (Resource).

Each of these elements, including Offer, Product, Service, and Resource, contains Data (information) made up of discrete logical entities with characteristics, values, and rules that together deliver or enable a specific experience for the customer.

These elements together comprise the Product Model. Delineating the product composite into a clear model on which specifications can be defined, stored, and managed is a core objective of PDM. The Product Model is the blueprint for structuring the product data in a modular, flexible, and most importantly, reusable way.

As a common reference source to illustrate the model, the Frameworx Information Framework (SID) offers a set of standard definitions for the Offer, Product, Service, and Resource data

entities relevant to the digital industry5_:

(14)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 5 – Information Framework (SID) Data Domains. Source: TM Forum.

The data definitions from the Information Framework can be used as a comprehensive guideline for establishing the organization’s common model for Product. They can be tailored to suit the organization’s physical implementation of the PDM model:

(15)

Figure 6 – Information Framework Product-‐Service-‐Resource Associations. Source: TM Forum.

Specifically, the Information Framework provides the following support for a common Product Model:

• Standard way of structuring, defining, and implementing information and behavior

• Consistent common terminology

• Reuse of investment

• Single representation from which technology-‐specific data models can be derived

ServiceUtilizes CustomerFacingService Product 0..n 0..n 0..n ProductReferences 0..n 0..1 0..n 0..1 0..n ProductHasCustomerFacingServices ResourceFacingService 0..n 1..n 0..n 1..n CFServiceRequiresRFServices ServiceSpecification 0..n 0..n 0..n InvolvedServiceSpecs 0..n Service 1 0..n 1 0..n SpecifiesService ProductOffering 1 0..n 1 0..n ProdOfferDescribes CustomerFacing ServiceSpec 1 0..n 1 0..n SpecifiesCustomerFacingService PhysicalResourceSpec ProductSpecification 0..n 0..n 0..n 0..n ProdSpecReferences 1 0..n 1 0..n ProdSpecMadeAvailableAs 0..n 0..n 0..n 0..n ProductSpecDefinesCFSSpecs 0..n 0..n 0..n 0..n ProductSpecDefinesPRSpecs Resource 0..n 0..n 0..n 0..n ResourceSpecification 0..n 0..n 0..n 0..n InvolvedResourceSpecs 1 0..n 1 0..n SpecifiesResource ResourceFacing ServiceSpec 1 0..n 1 0..n SpecifiesResourceFacingService 0..n 1..n 0..n 1..n RequiresResourceFacingServiceSpec 1 1..n 1 1..n RFServiceSpecHasResourceSpecs

(16)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

The data reproducibility and repeatability of the Product Model is critically important for when specifying products with the aim of supporting the key goals of PLM:

• Standardization: a common design language between customers, product managers,

and the rest of the organization

• Simplicity: a single repository for all products

• Profitability: leveraging reusable components to deliver low cost/high yield offers

• Intelligent customer solutions: from a reactive to a proactive solutions set

Hence, the PDM application is considered one of the most important elements of a strong PLM practice. It can manage the entire Product Intellectual Capital created and used in the PLM environment, most importantly the Product Data. PDM gets the Product Data under control. There are many different functions that the PDM application can provide, from data federation (configuring and storing product models) to actual lifecycle management (sign off and approval workflows, project management, updates, and design and build integration).

Below are some of the key benefits of a PDM application, which is the equivalent of the Product Catalog Management facet of the Application Framework’s Product Management

domain6_:

Description Benefit

Product data management

• Provide a single, controlled vault for product data.

• Maintain different views of product data structure e.g.

Product Model.

• Provide fast, real-‐time access to product data.

• Manage complex Product Model configurations.

Reuse of product data • Reuse existing Product Model designs for new products.

• Reduce duplication of product data.

Workflow management • Ensure the appropriate PLM process is followed.

• Improve distribution of product data to relevant

functional areas.

• Provide transparency of PLM activities and PLM stages

related to a product.

• Ensure PLM engagement and RACI is followed.

• Enable agile PLM governance and decision-‐making

processes.

6_{John
Stark.
Product
Lifecycle
Management,
21}st_{Century
Paradigm
for
Product
Realisation.
Springer,
2011
–
content
has
been
adapted}

(17)

Description Benefit

Overall business performance improvement

• Improve product quality.

• Reduce overhead costs.

Functional performance improvement

• Increase PLM productivity.

• Reduce product inventory.

• Develop better cost estimates.

Better management of PLM activities

• Improve project coordination.

• Increase the reliability of PLM plans and roadmaps.

• Provide high-‐quality management information.

Automation of PLM activities

• Automate the PLM process, including approvals and sign-‐

offs.

• Automate the exchange of product data.

Integration of OSS/BSS • Integrate Islands of Data and Automation.

• Link databases and systems, for example, PDM with

Business Intelligence.

• Remove unnecessary systems.

Table 1 – Benefits of PLM. Source: John Stark.

1.2.2. Holistic PLM

Products define a company. Without products, there will be no customers and no revenues. So

without its products, a company would not exist.7

PLM enables a company to be in control of its products across the different stages of their maturity and marketability.

As such, PLM can be defined as a controlled framework for managing the entire lifecycle of the product and its underlying components. This includes all of the processes required to design, build, deploy, maintain, and ultimately, retire the product.

7_{John
Stark.
Product
Lifecycle
Management,
21}st_{Century
Paradigm
for
Product
Realisation.
Springer,
2011
–
content
has
been
adapted}

(18)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 7 – Simple PLM Framework. Source: Tribold Limited.

Generally, these activities require a significant degree of collaboration across the company. When thinking about the company itself, in simple terms, it is organized into functions – sales, marketing, manufacturing, customer services, operations, and so forth. People’s jobs have been created and defined based on those specific functions, for example, sales representative or customer service representative.

As business models evolve, a great deal of effort and focus is placed on increasing efficiencies in these functional areas by introducing information and information systems to help these functions do their work.

Although operational improvements can be made individually in each of these areas, such initiatives suffer from the law of diminishing returns: while one factor is improved or enhanced, all the other factors stay the same. You then battle against the silo approach, disjointed business processes, a mishmash of systems and lack of collaboration among organizational departments and teams.

It is a common occurrence across many organizations, grappling with oceans of information and complex technology ecosystems, for functional areas to become isolated silos with little communication and coordination between them. This is an especially critical challenge in fast-‐ moving industries such as ours, which are struggling to catch up with ever-‐changing customer demands at the expense of shrinking margins.

PLM holds the promise of improving product efficiency through a cross-‐functional, holistic approach. By linking different functional areas through shared information, PLM can help

Idea Plan Design Build & Test Launch Maintain ReVre

(19)

break down the silo perspective and unlock the organization.8_{Sharing
of
information
through}

an integrated PLM framework is especially powerful: once the information capital is in place, it can be reused, reconfigured, and reutilized, and ultimately easily replaced without braking or reconstructing the whole system, thus enabling a flexible, dynamic, and agile business model. More holistically, PLM combines people, technology, processes, and data into a strategic business approach for developing and managing products across the enterprise, taking them from the cradle to the grave. Holistic PLM is therefore underpinned by five core building blocks:

• People – Puts product practitioners at the center of the approach with clear, simple,

and usable functions across the entire lifecycle. It empowers people and teams to develop ideas that are meaningful to customers.

• Product Information – Securely stores and manages the integrity of product

information (product-‐service-‐resource) and all the outputs (for example, internal documentation, collateral, service agreements) to allow management of product, including performance at the product-‐line level.

• Process – Facilitates execution of the collaborative process used across the product

functions to drive the lifecycle of products from initiation to retirement, including strategy, planning, product management, product service, and experience.

• Governance – Enables an agile, fit-‐for-‐purpose PLM Framework with clear roles, accountability, and a lean governance and decision-‐making model.

• Tools – Enable an integrated and collaborative product management ecosystem.

(20)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Put into practice as part of a broader, more holistic PLM Framework, these building blocks provide the basis on which the organization can strategize, implement, and manage products according to market and competitive demands:

Figure 8 – Holistic PLM Framework. Source: Tribold Limited.

• Develop Product Strategy. The activities necessary to develop the product strategy to

meet the overall company revenue and competitive targets. The organization will analyze product and market data in progress and future product initiatives and operational objectives to arrive at the desired product portfolio. This desired product portfolio is matched up with the budget planned for product development, and a product development plan is created for a period of time (quarter, annual, etc.). The product strategy is a fundamental function of PLM because it ensures that the organizational resources (people, technology, and budget) are focused on developing and managing the products that are the most profitable for the company.

• Design and Develop Products. The activities necessary to execute the product

strategy. Resources from across the organization work together to deliver the new and updated products as outlined in the overall product portfolio plan and strategy. The organization works together across functional areas, according to the pre-‐

(21)

determined responsibilities and processes to meet the product marketing and launch plans.

• Monitor and Update Products. The activities related to ensuring that the desired Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measured and monitored to achieve the desired operational results. Includes continually reviewing and analyzing product performance data to make intelligent, quantified decisions about the lifespan of a product and any changes that should be made prior to full retirement.

PLM brings together an eclectic mix of organizational responsibilities, information, and workflows in a structured and holistic way to deliver on the 4 Ps. The efficiencies, or improvements, triggered from a PLM implementation across the enterprise often relate to four key areas:

Figure 9 – Goals of PLM. Source: CIMdata.

• Cost Reduction. Organizations are looking for PLM to increase business value through

higher revenue margins against the bottom line – profits.

• Time Management. By improving collaboration and establishing a consistent

product development process across the business, organizations are looking to reduce the time required to define and deliver new products and manage existing ones.

• Innovation. Organizations are looking for PLM to improve the business by enabling more innovation at the idea stage, producing better product designs, increased reuse, improved standards and consistency, and clearer visibility and management of product data.

• Quality Improvement. Organizations are looking for PLM to produce a better end

result that meets the market and customer requirements and uphold a reputation for excellence and reliability thus reducing any faults through the design, implement, and testing stages.

(22)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

2. Making PLM Happen

The practice of PLM is based on an information-‐driven approach to managing a company’s Product Intellectual Capital, represented as Product Data (the fabric of products: product model/product architecture) and Product Knowledge (analytics, collateral).

When deploying PLM across the organization to manage these aspects of the Product, PLM deployment should be considered across three dimensions:

Figure 10 – Dimensions of PLM Deployment. Source: Telecom New Zealand.

• Mechanics: the Data and Systems domain. The capture, structure, storing, and maintenance of the Product Intellectual Capital in the Product Data Manager vault, where the Product Data and Product Knowledge are stored.

• Dynamics: the Process domain. The flow and exchange of Product Data and Product

Knowledge across the organization and how it is managed and maintained throughout the lifecycle of the product.

• Humanics: the People domain. The functions that own, exchange, and maintain the

Product Intellectual Capital and the processes that are used to manage it.

Mechanics: Data Domain Dynamics: Process Domain Humanics: People Domain

(23)

Standing up a successful PLM practice across the organization therefore involves:

• A simple, structured Product Model to organize product intellectual information and

eliminate complexity where the Product Model is used for all products and stored and managed in the Product Data Manager.

• A dynamic, flexible set of Product Workflows with clear functions to manage the

Product Intellectual Capital from cradle to grave, where Product Workflows make up the Product Lifecycle Management for all products.

• An organizational alignment to ensure a resource focus on effectively managing the

product model and the product workflows.

2.1. PLM Reference Frameworks

Rather than starting from a blank page to define and deploy the different facets of a holistic PLM approach, your best bet is to start with a pre-‐defined reference framework.

Depending on the industry, there already exist relevant reference frameworks that help to decompose the different facets of PLM. For communications, media, and high tech providers, there are at least three reference points available.

These reference points are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary in defining the dimensions of PLM across the different functions of the organization, and can be used as valuable input into determining how PLM should be deployed into your organization:

• eTOM (Business Process Framework)

• ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)

• SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle)

Each of the above frameworks is only briefly described in the subsequent sections, primarily to delineate their relevance to PLM. The source material is extensive and should be examined for use as benchmarks and blueprints.

2.1.1. Business Process Framework (eTOM)

The Business Process Framework (eTOM) is a comprehensive, industry-‐agreed, multi-‐layered view of the key business processes required to run an efficient, effective, and agile enterprise specifically for the Digital Economy. It is the most widely accepted and adopted standard for business processes in the industry, providing a business process model/framework for use by operators, service providers, and other organizations in the ecosystem. The Business Process Framework, a critical component of Frameworx, has been created and agreed by industry leaders and practitioners.

PLM is a well-‐defined domain in the Business Process Framework, which identifies key PLM business processes across a number of organizational competencies that support the

(24)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

marketing, offer, service, and resource management of the product, the relevant components

of which are highlighted in blue in the diagram below9_:

Figure 11 – Business Process Framework with PLM Designations. Source: TM Forum.

Figure 12 – Business Process Framework PLM Domain. Source: TM Forum.

(25)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

PLM in the Business Process Framework is formally defined as “end-‐end processes to manage products to the required profit and loss margins, customer satisfaction, and quality commitments, as well as delivering new products to the market. These lifecycle processes understand the market across all key functional areas, the business environment, customer requirements, and competitive offerings in order to design and manage products that succeed in their specific markets. Product Management processes and the Product Development process are two distinct process types. Product Development is predominantly a project-‐ oriented process that develops and delivers new products to customers, as well as new features and enhancements for existing products and services.”

Ultimately, the utilization of the Business Process Framework is intended to:

• Create a common language across the organization

• Add standard structure, terminology, and classification

• Apply discipline and consistency across departments

• Understand, design, develop, and manage IT applications in terms of business process

• Create consistent and high quality end-‐to-‐end processes

• Identify opportunities for cost and performance improvement

The Business Process Framework highlights that PLM is a core process of the overall functions vital for the operations of a company. The Framework is aligned to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

2.1.2. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of practices for Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of the business. ITIL describes procedures, tasks, and checklists that are not organization-‐specific, which organizations use to establish a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement. ITIL advocates that IT services must be aligned to the needs of the business, allowing for the organization to establish a baseline

from which it can plan, implement, and support the IT services.10

(26)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 13 – ITIL Service Lifecycle. Source: ITIL/itSMF.

The relevance of ITIL to PLM is the generic service lifecycle that ITIL seeks to manage. ITIL publishes five core guides that map the entire ITIL Service Lifecycle, beginning with the identification of customer needs and drivers of IT requirements, through to the design and implementation of the service into operation and finally, on to the monitoring and improvement phase of the service.

Where ITIL focuses on the activities to deliver within IT against business requirements, the Business Process Framework focuses on the overall organizational processes that drive out those activities.

It is in this IT Service-‐to-‐Business Process vein that the ITIL standards around service lifecycle and change management comfortably complement the Business Process Framework’s PLM process standards. ITIL highlights that the detailed processes of PLM need to be incorporated into the overall IT fabric of the organization.

This relationship is supported by the recent efforts by both TM Forum and ITIL to map the mutual process models to each other:

(27)

Figure 14 – ITIL to PLM Mapping. Source: TM Forum.

ITIL ultimately seeks to deliver benefits similar to the Business Process Framework:

• Improved IT services

• Reduced costs

• Improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service

delivery

• Improved productivity

• Improved use of skills and experience

• Improved delivery of third-‐party service

2.1.3. Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) is the process or method applied to create or alter

software projects. It defines the way to create a new software module or program11_{.
The}

different models of SDLC (Waterfall, Spiral, Agile, Incremental, and so forth) each have a process flow that defines the design, build, and test efforts that guide the software development project. For this reason, SDLC is typically a model that is adopted primarily by IT organizations:

(28)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 15 – Software Development Lifecycle. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

In the context of PLM and the broader organization, SDLC can be viewed as a subset of processes within the whole PLM framework. When the delivery of a product’s capabilities depends on the creation or modification of software, the activities of SDLC support the Design and Implementation stages of PLM.

It is logical that the SDLC’s flow conceptually mirrors that of PLM: software has a lifecycle that needs to be managed in and of itself but also in the context of the broader purpose it serves, which is the Product.

Getting the organization’s product management activities working in concert with the SDLC model’s activities is a key objective of the Holistic PLM Framework.

There are also some synergies between the SDLC framework and the service development principles established in TM Forum’s SES TR168, Software Enabled Services Management Solution and Frameworx Relationships, Version 1.5. Of particular relevance are the lifecycles and roles defined here:

http://www.tmforum.org/browse.aspx?linkID=46857&docID=15788

Note: additional work is expected to align the SES Lifecycle Management work included in TM Forum’s SES TR168 and the PLM work outlined in this document.

(29)

2.2. Standing up PLM

2.2.1. Establishing the PLM Foundation

The purpose of the PLM Framework is to streamline the organization through a structured, dynamic, and human way to make Product change happen faster while enabling value creation for the customers and the company.

So any discussion on how to deploy PLM within an organization to achieve that value creation needs to begin with what the product lifecycle actually is and means to the company.

One example of how to understand the implications of PLM for the organization is to refer back to the five building blocks of Holistic PLM described earlier.

When taken in turn, each building block can comprise specific components or ‘bite-‐sized chunks’ that make a specific contribution to the design and maturity of PLM:

Figure 16 – Holistic PLM Building Blocks. Source: Telecom New Zealand based on Detecon Model12.

As the building blocks are further decomposed, you can ensure correct alignment with key processes to organizational responsibilities. The net result is to deliver a connected Product operating system with the building blocks working together to achieve a common purpose:

12_{Building
Blocks
Design
Blueprint
based
on
the
Detecon
Consulting
PLM
Framework; Detecon
Consulting.
Next
Generation
Telco
Product}

(30)

Product Lifecycle Management - An Introductory Guide

Figure 17 – Organization & Process Alignment. Source: Telecom New Zealand.13

The outcome is a PLM Framework that brings together all of the stages of the product lifecycle, from idea through to retirement. The framework connects all the touch points of the product lifecycle across the organization, from customer through to IT platform, ensuring that that product information is captured, shared, and managed without any gaps.

The ultimate objective is performance improvement in the way of14_:

• Time – Decrease time to market, decrease waiting time, and decrease delay in

delivery to the customer

• Cost – Reduce execution cost, increase human resource performance, and decrease

churn rate

• Process quality – Increase PLM process performance, increase customer value performance, increase value net performance, and increase information availability and accuracy

• Product quality – Improve product launch quality, increase provisioning performance,

reduce technical defects, and increase service quality

2.2.2. PLM Design Principles

When developing a PLM Framework for your organization, it is important to establish a set of principles to guide the design of the framework. The design principles need to be specific and then socialized, agreed to, and endorsed by the appropriate leadership and bought into by the key stakeholders.

Examples of such principles are as follows:

13_{Organization
&
Process
Alignment
–
Local
&
Global.
Julian
Lonsdale,
Telecom
New
Zealand.}

14_{Detecon
Consulting.
Next
Generation
Telco
Product
Lifecycle
Management:

How
to
Overcome
Complexity
in
Product
Management
by}

Product Lifecycle Management Introductory Guide