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ITS System Design,
Development and Review
Trevilon offers
ITS system design, development and review services.
Even simple ITS systems can be quite
complex. In order to ensure that a
proposed system will properly meet the user expectations,
it is critical that the project successfully
link the worlds of the transportation engineer
-- who will be the user of the delivered system -- and the systems engineers who are responsible for
delivering the system. All of our technical
staff members are trained in the latest
technologies using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) in
order to make this linking possible with the
highest assurance that user requirements are
not lost in the process. A key aspect of this process is to ensure that the user is able to review the
development of the system throughout
the effort.
This process can be used in a variety of ways,
including:
To develop a preliminary
design
As a basis for designing a
building a system
To
perform independent validation and verification of systems
To perform system
testing
Based largely on the input of Trevilon
Corporation, UML is now being used as a
critical component of many of the ITS Standards efforts.
The benefits of using this approach are
demonstrated by the improved quality of the second version of the standards,
including:
A better description and documentation of the user
needs
A clearer definition of the
precise requirements for implementation
An
unambiguous definition of the sequence of events that must
occur in order to
fulfill a user need
A clear
definition of the traceability among the different sections of the standard,
thereby
simplifying the procurement process
Unified Modeling Language
(UML)
A transportation engineer
would never construct a bridge or other piece of physical infrastructure without first developing
a design, including blueprints and a
specification, and ensuring that an inspection process was in place. Yet many ITS systems
have documentation that are so deficient
that the next system integrator is unable to
follow the system design, let alone having the user be able to verify the design. UML provides the tools
necessary to enable a similar set of design
and inspection capabilities to which many
transportation engineers are already accustomed.
UML is a graphical language that presents the
overall design of the system, including the
logical design of data and memory structures
(e.g., equivalent to the physical layout of a bridge) and
the design of how the system operates (e.g.,
the equivalent to how the traffic flows over
a bridge). The process allows a thorough examination of a system by making design flaws more
easily identifiable. It is the equivalent to
a blueprint in construction projects.
Unfortunately, all too often, this sort of documentation
is never produced for systems projects. As a
result, the final software package is often
delivered behind schedule, over-budget, and
still does not meet the user expectations.
The iterative and incremental process that UML
provides, allows for the pieces of the whole
to be broken down in smaller slices or mini-projects. Each "mini-project" is an iteration that
results in an increment. By properly
managing software and system development through the iterative approach, you can reduce the risk
to expenditures on a single increment. This
also allows flaws to be detected early
before significant resources have been expended. For more information on UML, link to http://www.omg.org.
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