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May 2016 98 Chapter 5 :  Conclusions, Recommendations, and Suggested Research This research effort utilized the systems engineering process to realize the development of an ITS technology portal for transit managers. Prior to project initialization, little was known beyond the purpose that such a portal might serve and that MyAPTA would be the final location of the portal. Research led to the development of user needs, from which functional requirements were derived to describe the portal system. The requirements led to the selection of technologies, and a system architecture design. These initial outputs then allowed a prototype of the portal to be developed. The portal was tested to ensure that the requirements were met and validated to ensure that the user needs were met. This entire research effort demonstrated the ability of the systems engineering process to create a system that has real world utility for transit managers. This research effort represents only the beginning of this process. The research effort does not include the actual integration of the portal into the MyAPTA environment, but provides the framework for the final system. The research team does recommend that APTA proceed with implementing the portal within MyAPTA. The Integration Plan provides steps to perform the integration. In this process, it is of key importance that the process be well integrated to MyAPTA. Users will benefit from a seamless operation between the portal developed by this research and the existing functionality of MyAPTA. Once this portal is at its final location, attracting users is important. The research team recommends that the marketing plan defined by this effort be adopted. This will ensure that users are attracted to both provide and access content. Without users, the portal will provide minimal benefit to anyone. The sustainability plan provides performance metrics that can be used to evaluate how well the portal is being utilized. Further, feedback should be frequently solicited from active and potential users of the portal. By ensuring that the portal reflects the desires of its users, it there will be more interest and usage of the portal. The team that operates the portal, particularly the review committee, will play a key role in portal upkeep. If the material is kept up to date and user-appropriate, the portal is more likely to be successful.
