“Managing value through an Architecture Approach”

Challenges
Projects such as this face a number of challenges.

During start up delays, the organization undergoes significant change and the basis of the value proposition is challenged. Along with organizational change, requirements change.

A three and a half year project presents significant uncertainty which is manifested in a number of business and market drivers:

competition and deregulation drives continual organizational change
during the project, new off-the-shelf application solutions enter the market, with functionality bundled differently to that designed in the project plan. There are benefits to adopting these new solutions
the base GIS product (Smallworld) continues to be enhanced, reducing the requirement to buy or build add-on functionality
new projects typically start up, taking advantage of other off the shelf products that in many cases overlap to some degree with the functionality being delivered by AM/FM.

The data conversion component of the project typically runs in parallel with the application development effort, creating further uncertainty in the data to be loaded. Applications to be developed a year or two into the project have not yet been adequately analyzed or designed when the data conversion effort is contracted, resulting in potential rework in parts of the conversion effort later on in the project.

Through this myriad of uncertainty and opportunity the project has a value proposition to deliver on.

Two approaches helped minimize risks and ensure project success:

To provide maximum flexibility in the design and delivery of the applications and to make best use of the Smallworld technology the project team identified an object oriented approach to delivering applications, leveraging inheritance and re-use wherever possible.
To mitigate the risks and capitalize on opportunities, these and other factors resulted in the development of an AM/FM architecture to help plan and manage the project.

The following sections describe the major components of the architecture and the advantages realized.