Applying UML to design an inter-domain service management application

We present a component-oriented approach to demonstrate the use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Open Distributed Processing (ODP) concepts to design service components of a telecommunications management system. This paper is based on the work done in the design phase of the ACTS project "TRUMPET" (Inter-Domain Management with Integrity). This project undertook to produce a service management architecture suitable for emerging liberalised telecommunications markets. The criteria where that the system should be highly distributed both technologically and administratively -- i.e., across many kinds of organisations. TRUMPET project presents a good model environment to develop not only the service architecture itself but also the methodologies for producing such designs. In our approach, we use the conceptual framework of ODP and discuss some methodological issues related to ODP-viewpoint modelling of distributed systems using UML notations. We conclude with recognising the power of combining UML and ODP so as to manage the complexity of the problem.