This paper proposes a method to ease the creation of -distributed- telecommunications services. The method is based on a generic component model which is a common software architecture applicable to the design of every component of a telecommunications service. The concepts, architecture and specification of the Generic Component Model are presented. The method based on the Generic Component Model is then applied to the design of a Connection Management Service on top of an ATM communication platform Keywords: TINA, Service Specification, Design and Management.