Abstract: Methods for deploying improved telecommunication services. The methods comprise the steps of providing one or more existing service packages, each being a set of instruction for deploying a telecommunications service. In a further step the method provides a platform runtime environment that has a work flow engine and a pipeline engine that is capable of interpreting the service package to carry out the instructions therein. In an additional step, the method provides a user interface for configuring the one or more service packages. The user interface is configured to receive user input by offering a plurality of functional elements that may be manipulated by a user to describe one or more operations of the service packages, each functional element having one or more properties that may be controlled by the user. In a further step the method configures one or more features of the service package in response to the user input to alter the telecommunications service.