The evolutionary path described in the revenue assurance maturity model is based on real-life observation of revenue assurance in several providers since the year 2000. This is then extrapolated to characterise how the principles of revenue assurance might continue to develop in future. The future development proposed represents an ideal which can be used as a source of comparison for widely different businesses because they represent a rational extension of the underlying principles.
The descriptions given are couched in themes applicable to any business, such as organisation, status and technology. The descriptions avoid reference to systems, products or processes. Describing the model in terms of specifics would have made the description less abstract and easier to relate to real-life. However, this would have been at the cost of making the description less general, creating a barrier to comparison between providers with little similarity in terms of systems, products or processes.
The revised model significantly expands upon and amends the model presented in the TMF document TR131. The TR131 version was itself an expansion of an initial proposal made by T-Mobile to the TMF's RA technical team in 2004. The revised and enhanced version of the model has been made more useful than its predecessor on a practical level, through the addition of a detailed and reproducible questionnaire and scoring system. In addition, a number of errors and confusions in the TR131 model have been identified and eliminated. Many of those confusions related to a failure to distinguish revenue assurance from the nominal revenue assurance department.
