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OCR for page 26
CHAPTER V
Defining the System
It is important that you understand what you want from the system as you define it. Are you
primarily looking for a tool to effectively manage the information associated with right-of-way
activities or are you looking for a digital work environment that captures and supports business
processes? Are you completely redesigning a system or enhancing an existing system, such as
adding geospatial capabilities? Are you expanding another agency system to incorporate right-
of-way activities? Do you want to incorporate decision support tools? Does your office work on
local desktop computers or on agency servers through the Internet/intranet? These questions
should be answered when you define your requirements.
Understanding these requirements in conjunction with how you want to meet them is the
basis for actual design and development of the system. This chapter is designed to review different
criteria and to provide guidance on how you can use the 8-55A logical model.
Role of Workflow Management
How work is performed in your office will provide important input to the design of your system.
Factors to consider include:
· Does your state centralize its right-of-way activities or are they delegated to the regions with
the central office providing oversight?
· Are right-of-way activities performed by staff, contractors, or a combination of both?
· What functions are performed in each area of your office?
· How do you manage workloads?
· How do you handle approvals?
· Do you have internal performance measures that need to be tracked and reported?
· Who responds to owners or people being relocated when they call? Who responds to the public?
If you are considering a system that provides an electronic work environment, you will need
to capture the business processes that are performed by each area in your office to ensure the
same functionality is provided in the system. The 8-55A logical model includes the business
processes identified from FHWA's Project Development Guide.
Technical Architecture (Type of System)
The specific architecture of the system will be determined based on your requirements,
capabilities, and the type of system that you want. Whether you want a user-friendly ledger-entry
type interface to a comprehensive enterprise database or a customized front-end to a system built
on service-oriented architecture will define how the design moves forward. Regardless, you will
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Defining the System 27
want your system to be accessible, scalable, and reliable. Conceptually, the system will be composed
of four logical components: user interface, application, data, and security.
User Interface
The user interface needs to be straightforward and understandable by each person for his/her
own activities. Navigation between "pages" should be intuitive or easily learnable. Users should
be able to get to the information they need easily in as few steps as possible.
Application
In the current technical environment, you will probably design the application to reside
on a server that is then accessed remotely through the Internet/intranet. This structure typi-
cally consists of a web server, a development server, an application server, and the database
server. You should work with your IT department to define the structure that best meets
your needs.
The software residing on the web server manages connectivity and supports resource
management--directly affecting system performance. This is extremely important for rapid
access to the underlying databases and should be designed to accommodate the expected number
of simultaneous database connections.
The application server hosts the actual application and executes user processes and requests
from client software. If you are doing the development in-house, you will want a development
server separate from the application server. This is where you make changes to the software and
test it prior to launching it onto the application server. After you have implemented the system,
the development server is used for adding upgrades and correcting problems.
Data
The database server houses the database software as well as the data. In a distributed environment,
the data may reside on multiple computers or servers throughout the agency, which are then
usually managed by the database software from the server for specific applications.
Security
Security is important at several levels of the enterprise architecture including the network, the
application, and the data. Security should be carefully implemented to protect your investment
while meeting accessibility needs.
Additional Considerations
When defining the characteristics of your system, several factors are important to consider.
Compatibility and scalability issues include the following:
· Internet/intranet accessibility including speed and connection types
· Firewalls and security management
· Use of copyrighted and proprietary data/files
· Data sharing capabilities, such as XML
· Validation of data entry
· Workflow management
· Wireless support
