Abstract: In a telecommunications network in which a threshold crossing alert (TCA) notification is generated when a threshold set for a variable related to an object of a network element (NE) of the network is crossed, there is provided a method of identifying the object, comprising: creating an entry for the variable in an alarm table of the NE, the entry comprising information concerning the identity of the NE and information concerning the position of the entry in the alarm table, constructing a managed object identity (MOID) of the object and storing this in the alarm table entry, using the alarm table entry to generate the TCA notification when the threshold is crossed, the TCA notification comprising the information concerning the identity of the NE and the information concerning the position of the entry in the alarm table, interrogating the TCA notification to read the information concerning the identity of the NE and the information concerning the position of the entry in the alarm table, accessing the alarm