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CAATS Second Workshop

Validation User Group

VDR Survey - Results

Ulrich Borkenhagen; EUROCONTROL HQ, Core Team

Lanzarote, Thursday 16th February 2006

European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation

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Background

The idea of a central repository for validation results dates back to the Mid ‘90s.

Building on the approved EATMS Validation Strategy (EVAS) the EUROCONTROL Agency started more concrete development steps in 1998.

After several prototyping cycles the Validation Data Repository (VDR) became publicly available via the Internet in June 2002.

In October 2002 there was an agreement between EC and the Agency (annex to the general MoC) that the Agency provides the VDR. EC requested all new projects in its framework programmes to input their relevant results into the VDR.

The VDR has always been a topic for the FAA/EUROCONTROL R&D collaboration.

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Objectives of the Survey

The VDR has been available for more than 3 ½ years. The readiness of projects to input their data into the VDR turned out to be low.

Since the VDR was conceptualized the world has moved on: The Internet with efficient search engines is now available to everybody.

What role does the VDR actually play in the day to day work of ATM R&D practitioners and managers?

How should we improve the VDR?

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Questionnaire

Questionnaire addressing the entire ATM R&D community, whether VDR user or not, was developed.

8 questions for the general use of ATM R&D information and 9 VDR related questions.

Sent out via email to ~150 non-Agency recipients ~65 Agency staff (EHQ and EEC)

40 responses (~20%) received 24 non VDR users 16 VDR users (10 beginners, 3 experienced, 3 advanced)

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Findings - General

The limited number of responses indicates that the existence of the VDR or how to get access to it is generally not well known: It is not used and probably not even known by airlines, military, airports and industry. The VDR is known and used more or less within the classical ATM R&D Community (R&D

Organisations, Institutions, ANSPs). Although the VDR has been public for more than 3 years, a positive message

from the VDR users has not spread. Among the users only a few make it from a beginner to more advanced stages. This may be

partly due to the HMI and comprehensibility of functionality which are not intuitive (however all in all acceptable).

A majority of the users actually inputs its data into the VDR or would do so, if less effort was needed. Some users identified some additional basic and simple (from user’s perspective) services

which would improve the VDR. The targeted audience does not consider the VDR as a day to day tool for

getting information.

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Findings – Management

Although corporate managers show a high interest in the VDR they don’t use it themselves. The role of 8 out of 40 participants is corporate management. 1 VDR user

The reason for their awareness may be that they would appreciate a more systematic way to get consolidated information for their decisions.

There are proposals for additional management level services in the direction above.

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Findings – ATM R&D Experts

VDR is mainly used by ATM R&D experts. The majority use it as one way to get info among many other ways. There appears to be a small hard core (3 out of 16) of dedicated VDR

users.

VDR is used more to get general information or info about a specific ATM area. It is not used to analyse problems.

The VDR content is reliable, relevant and is presented appropriately. However it is not complete and current enough.

HMI and functionality is not intuitive but all in all acceptable.

The VDR Team support is appreciated.

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Findings – ATM R&D Information

There are very diverse practices to get ATM R&D info. Almost no practice is consistently applied by many participants. There is a certain preference for subjective practices. Most popular

are “webbish” or “personal / informal” ways. Least popular are VDR and ARDEP. However for nearly all participants the dissemination of results is

important.

The majority of participants require dedicated project web sites together with a permanent general repository or index for the results. Search criteria should be project and area-wise. Obviously this requirement is not yet met. The VDR is not perceived

as a sufficiently complete solution.

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Here we are – where to go?

A detailed evaluation report will be available at the Validation User Group Web Site:

www.eurocontrol.int/valug