In a sector continually challenged by the growth of air traffic, improving performance, agility, safety for airspace users and reducing environmental impact are certainly a crucial task for the ATM community.
Coflight Cloud Services is delivering a technological innovation to take the air navigation sector to the next level thanks to an interoperable, modular and resilient service. The service embodies a contemporary vision of the flight data processing system, brought by an international task force, that will empower customers with more agility. This remotely accessible service uses the latest technology in order to ensure a reliable result with the best possible performance.
This value is also translated by an innovative process of development and way of working. Indeed, CCS puts innovation into its core process, team spirit, and working methods.
CCS has based its three success keys around innovation: process development, customer-focused collaboration and cost sharing.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHOD BASED ON VALUE CREATION
Framework Agile SAFe is a project management method that consists in delivering value as quickly as possible and in a regular way. Recently, this approach has been offering a new dynamic to the development of the CCS project
Traditional project management is based on a “V” model that leads to long development cycles. This model can slow down the development of new projects, as anomalies can be revealed at an advanced stage of the project which involves effort duplication with additional delays and costs. Additionally, the project occasionally does not (or partially) meet the initially defined needs and objectives, which leads to a significant delay in deliveries.
Project management based on the Agile methodology, and SAFe for CCS, reduces these development cycles and costs with regular deliveries based on value creation. This methodology allows teams to continuously adjust the need and anticipate anomalies to perfectly achieve the objectives.
Results are already visible for CCS development: the Agile SAFe allowed to regularly deliver various final service steps on short cycles. Currently, the software development process perfectly meets and adapts to ATM market expectations and evolution, especially regarding European standards. This process allows CCS to take on board early results from the SESAR program to deployment. Naturally, adjustments are regularly made, during all phases of the development process in order to optimize the value of CCS services. Thanks to this approval method, each team member contributes at the earliest phase of the service development. Indeed, the team is working from the specification to the operational validation. This practice allows sharing the service vision within a project team by offering different lines of exploration so they are involved and have a complete better overall view of the project.
François Raymond, the Program management officer explains:
“This project management is effective for CCS and helps empower the teams through their engagement roles. The actors thus move forward in a uniform way by indicating their current and future actions, which are perfectly adapted to the project’s needs.”
F. Raymond
CUSTOMER-FOCUSED COLLABORATION TO BE CLOSER TO REQUIREMENTS
The customer-oriented approach offers a modern and modular vision for the ATM of tomorrow. This vision is innovative for this sector and represents the most appropriate approach to respond to market evolution in real time.
CCS is developed by DSNA (France) and ENAV (Italy), two ANSP members of the A6, an alliance between two of the leading air navigation service providers in Europe. Both of them have a deep understanding of the operation of air navigation systems. The project is held in close cooperation with partners acting as clients; skyguide (Switzerland) and MATS (Malta) that are addressing industry requirements. These four ANSP members are supported by their technological subcontractors which are market leaders: Thales, Leonardo and more recently, Frequentis. This collaboration allows to design a personalized service which closely answers customer’s needs. And, this approach sums up the main value of CCS development.
CCS considers that all contributors have an added value in the development of services for the ATM of the future.
Thus, CCS project leaders and partners invite many new customers to join CCS. It consists of participating in a customer-oriented approach, from definition phase to daily operations, by being a part of a Coflight User Group. The objective is to define the future service evolutions according to the customer’s needs.
Certainly, the more ATM actors there are, the more complete and precise the service will be, by taking into account the needs and expectations of each one of them. New ATM needs will appear with the involvement of new customers. CCS is committed to remaining continuously modular in order to expand its operational services offer while keeping in line with European ATM regulations.
BASED ON VIRTUAL CENTER, CCS OFFERS A COST SHARING MODEL
The data center represents a real financial advantage for all customers to be involved in this project. CCS offers a considerable cost reduction for ATM market.
The European Commission has commissioned SESAR to work on SES build, including a cost reduction objective for the ATM market. CCS responds to this financial perspective and allows to unite forces and pool ATM community strengths to build the future system together, to contribute to the defragmentation of the European Sky.
Thanks to Coflight’s advanced capabilities and the innovative CCS cost sharing model, several ANSPs remotely use the same Coflight system to deliver FDP services, thus sharing investment and operating costs.
Using the same FDP system makes it possible to considerably reduce service costs, for the air navigation service providers, according to the size and activity of their respective structures. Infrastructure costs, such as electricity, maintenance and human resources decrease.
Currently, CCS centralizes its Data Center in Paris (France) and Rome (Italy) and is able to provide services remotely to other European ACC. The system guarantees service continuity by doubling the location of the Virtual Centre, which is an optimal solution for security and protection against cyber-attacks.
To conclude, the Framework Agile Safe represents a real strength in the system development, hence optimizing value creation. It’s also a stimulating method that empowers the technical teams on a daily basis. This method also gives to the development team and the customers a quick feedback on value delivered.