Openreach Product Development Process (C2M)

Product development at Openreach

We use our Concept to Market (C2M) governance process and customer engagement framework to develop new products and improve current ones. C2M is a way of undertaking programmes and projects in a standardised way. C2M splits a project into stages with “gates” between each one. Details on the industry forums which form part of the process can be found here.

Projects which go through the C2M process are either generated by the Statement of Requirements (SOR) process from CPs or Openreach initiated projects.  Comprehensive information on how the SOR process links to the gates of the C2M process are available here.

The following diagram shows the Commercial C2M Governance – End to end process.

The following diagram shows the Commercial C2M Governance – End to end process.

A summary of the C2M stages are outlined below.

Justify [Gate 0]

• Define the problem and opportunity
• Decide whether to go ahead
• Get sponsor buy-in

Define [Gate 1]

• Understand the environment it will affect
• Identify stakeholders
• Define and start designing the vision, strategy and target state

Design and cost [Gate 2]

• Finalise the high-level design and costs
• Get industry and internal agreement to consume the project
• Request business case approval

Build and deploy [Gate 3]

• Develop and test the solution
• Refine the business case

Pilot [Gate 4]

• Deploy the solution ready for launch
• Check it’s working without significant issues
• Consumed by operations (and a communications provider if needed)

Deliver & Review [Gate 5]

• Product launched
• Adopt the change as business as usual
• Check we are realising the benefits
• Complete a review and share learnings

C2M has five gates. When we reach each gate, we review the project to make sure we’re on course and should carry on. We use rigorous checklists for these reviews to make sure they’re thorough and consistent. We engage with you during some of the stages. We might use industry forums, industry working groups or discussions to do that.

• You know that we’ve properly evaluated and assessed developments by the time they’re ready to launch.
• We work with you and industry forums to get input at the right time.
• Having a defined process makes sure we develop the right products with tight governance.