Interaction Classes

  As shown in the previous section by enumerating some example interactions between customer and provider, it is impossible to investigate every interaction occurring along the service life cycle. Thus, we need an abstraction of these interactions. Besides the life cycle phases that can be used for classifying interactions (every phase corresponds to a class), interaction classes spanning more than one life cycle phase can be useful: Such a classification beyond the life cycle phases helps to identify roles involved in more than one phase. One of our main conclusions after examining interactions along the life cycle is that there exist exactly two major interaction classes: Usage and Management.

 

Abbildung:   Classification of interactions according to the service life cycle

Of course a refinement of the management interaction class according to functional viewpoints is necessary. The matrix shown in figure classifies the interactions. The interaction classes result from an analysis of TMF's TOM [#!smart-tmn-tom99!#] and OSI's Systems Management Functional Areas [#!iso10040!#]. Combining the two classification approaches results in the interaction classes presented in figure , where a single interaction class is represented by a bar indicating the phases of the life cycle it spans. As an exception, OSI's performance management and TMF's QoS management are not shown. These two classes are internal to the provider domain and covered by the service management of the provider side without interacting with the customer side.