Most autonomy programs stall between Level 2 and Level 3, and the reason is almost never technical. The measurement model and the operating model were built by different people, on different floors, in different decades. Until they are reconciled, the score and the system disagree, and the program funds the wrong work.
That reconciliation is the work I have spent the last few years on inside TM Forum, and the work I lead when an operator brings me into a transformation program.
The work spans assessment, transformation governance, and the standards themselves. What I do not take on is implementation: vendors build, and independence is what makes the read worth having.
Where I sit in the work.- Co-chair, Measuring and Managing Autonomy. The TM Forum workstream reconciling AOMM with the Autonomous Network Levels evaluation.
- Member, Autonomous Networks Core Team. Governing how the evaluation tool evolves and how it links to value measurement.
- Architect, business-layer extension to the AN Map. For public release this year.
- Author of IG1491 and IG1403, and the GB15xx ANLET questionnaire series. Contributor to AOMM (GB1042A).
- Architect, GNN Catalyst. Linking the technical, business, and solution-design teams to TM Forum standards.
- Co-launch of the AN Upskilling Hub. With Huawei and Ericsson, at Innovate Asia.
- Judge, TM Forum Excellence Awards. Excellence in Autonomous Networks.
The first combined AOMM + ANLET assessment, with KPN, applying IG1403's outside-in and inside-out method with independent validation. Presented jointly at DTW Ignite 2026. Speaking detail.
Business-Aware GNN Healing Networks, the multi-operator Catalyst I architected, won the Moonshot Award in Autonomous Networks (Showcase and Storyline Excellence) at DTW Ignite 2026. TM Forum filmed the award and released it on its channel.
Background.Control systems was my engineering major. Twenty years on, after telecom, oilfield digitalization, and building a consulting firm out of Estonia, I am back at the same problem at industry scale. The closed loop is the through line.
Founder of Makman Technology Consulting. BSc Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Tripoli. Lean Site Champion, University of Michigan.
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