ECOSIM Telematics Applications Project:
Deliverable D05.01

Integration Plan

Programme name	Telematics Applications Programme
Sector	Environment
Project Number	EN1006
Project Acronym	ECOSIM
Project title	Ecological and environmental monitoring and simulation system for management decision support in urban areas
Deliverable number	D05.01
Deliverable title	Integration Plan
Workpackage contributing to Deliverable	WP 5
Author	K. Fedra, ESS
Project Manager
Name	Dr. Kurt FEDRA
Organisation	Environmental Software and Services GmbH
Address	Kalkgewerk 1
Country-Code City	A-2352 Gumpoldskirchen, AUSTRIA
Telephone	+43 2253 633 050
Fax	+43 2253 655 059
E-mail	kurt@ess.co.at

Keywords:

Software development, prototyping, testing and validation, software tools, common data formats, networking, client-server architecture.

DRAFT Release 0.4, 10 December 1998

Author: Kurt Fedra

References:

Oskarsson, Ö, and Glass, R.L. (1996)

An ISO 9000 Approach to Building Quality Software. 274 pp., Prentice Hall, NJ.

Rumbaugh,et al., (1991)

Object Oriented Modelling and Design. Prentice Hall, NJ, USA. ISBN 0-13-629841-9.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Executive Summary
• Software Development Methodology
• Implementation of the Demonstrator
• Testing and Validation Issues

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This document describes the ECOSIM Integration Plan.

Based on the functional specifications defined in Work Package WP04, see related deliverables:

• Specification of user interface, GIS, and DBMS functions (D0403)

• Architecture description and assessment methodology (D0404)

• Architecture assessment results (D0405)

individual partners are proceeding with the detailed design, coding, integration and testing of all components. Each distinct component has an associate acceptance test specification which will identify the status it must reach before its final integration with other components. The specifications for acceptance for integration will be formulated primarily in terms of:

• the data interface (input and output data structure and formats)

• communication and networking requirements/standards

• performance criteria in terms of time and space (memory, disk space, execution times)

• performance criteria in terms of accuracy and reliability

• documentation standards.

The Integration Plan defines the actual design and implementation (development phase) of the ECOSIM Demonstrator through a series of incremental phases (prototyping cycles and concurrent requirements and documentation engineering) and the associated validation tests that the output of each phase should satisfy.

The prototyping cycles will progress from the integration of a set of initial, very simple but fully interactive models, that mainly demonstrate interface capabilities and the DSS elements (first demonstration prototype), to an intermediate layer of 3D and dynamic forecasting models but with a number of simplifying assumptions (e.g., complexity of terrain) and reduced geometrical resolution (advanced demonstration prototype), to the full integration of the two most complex dynamic 3D forecasting models MEMO and DYMOS (operational prototype).

In total, six major prototyping cycles with an average duration of three months are planned, see the Implementation section below.

The testing and validation will be done both on a component level as well as within the specific framework (systems configuration, user requirements, validation scenarios, and data availability) of the three validation test sites Berlin, Athens, and Gdansk.

The choice of the software development methodology is based on the main relevant characteristics of the ECOSIM demonstrator development, which include:

• research orientation and a high degree of innovation,

• a heterogeneous and distributed development team,

• approximate initial user specifications from a diverse user group,

• a complex and ill-structured application domain, and

• the pre-competitive nature of the product.

The basic software development methodology adopted for the ECOSIM demonstrator development and integration is rapid prototyping within an object oriented design and development methodology as described in Rumbaugh OMT (Rumbaugh et al., 1991).

Prototyping is preferably used as a development method in cases where the users find it difficult to explain what is required of the software in a sufficiently technical language to allow precise interpretation. While the User Requirements Analysis (see ECOSIM deliverable D01.01) provides general and high-level guidelines, in particular on aspects of required (and also desirable but not essential) functionality, and describes application scenarios in some detail, it lacks the technical details that could be used as the basis for a more structured top-down design approach.

This includes the integration

• of the main ECOSIM SERVER with:

  • the interactive GUI,

  • hypertext help and explain (multi-media system) with WWW linkage;

  • the geographic information system (GIS),

  • object data bases,including the

    • time-series analysis for monitoring networks,

    • and model scenario management

    • and the multi-criteria decision support tools (DSS);

• linkage to remote data bases and monitoring systems,

• linkage to the (remote or local) environmental simulation models.

Integration strategy and procedure, the related documentation, testing and validation issues are discussed in this document based on the functional specifications and the chosen systems architecture as well as on an analysis of project characteristics and constraints.