Span design based on the organization of telecommunications components into a hierarchy of elements, segments, and/or architectures, the use of templates representing the hierarchy of components, and the conformity of the components to rules. In response to receipt of an order for digital services, the order data is used to obtain an assignment of components for the digital services. The order data and the assignment of components are used to obtain equipment data. The order data, the assignment of components and the equipment data are used to create the span design based on the templates.