The Emergency Web
Introduction
EMERGENCY was a Leverage Action ESPRIT
funded research project (29512, January 1999 - August 1999) the aim of which was to tailor the
RENAISSANCE
Method to devise a method to assist organisations adapt their IT applications to make them Euro
compliant.
This section provides an executive summary of the technical
objectives, evaluation, results
and their exploitation.
Technical Objectives
The impact of EMU is immense and organisations preparing for it must plan
the logistics of IT application conversion meticulously. This is
the rationale behind the EMERGENCY project
the overall technical objective of which is to produce a method, supported
by documentation, to assist an
organisation to plan and execute a Euro conversion project.
The principle technical objectives of the EMERGENCY project
partners
were :
-
To assess the feasibility of applying the Renaissance
Method, particularly those parts of the method concerned with evolution
planning, to the problems of Euro conversion
-
To suggest method adaptations which will tailor it to this task
Evaluation
Evaluation of the method was enabled by a case study using a live,
'typical' legacy system dealing with financial transactions.
User satisfaction was the main means of evaluation and was
judged using the success criteria below :
-
Learning complexity
is the method easy to learn and documented clearly?
-
Usability
is the method easy to apply and does it return useful
results for relatively little effort expended?
-
Scope and applicability
are there classes of systems for which the method
is clearly inapplicable?
-
Strengths and weaknesses
what is missing from the method?
-
Compatibility
is the method compatible with other approaches and
tools?
-
Helpfulness
in what ways does the method assist the solving
of EMU problems?
-
Alternatives
how does the method compare with alternatives?
-
Overall value
are the benefits of using the method worth the effort
expended?
While user satisfaction will be the main means of evaluating the method,
the sample application used to assess the method might significantly affect
the value of the results in qualitative terms and so must be chosen with
care. The choice of the wrong application may lead to results that lack
generality. While these results would appear to signify a successful method
application, they would, in fact, be irrelevant.
The successful method application will be documented in a report which
sets out the results along with recommendations.
Results
The results of the project are documented
in a set of EMERGENCY deliverables tabled below:
|
Title
|
Description
|
|
Renaissance Method Revision
|
An appendix for the Renaissance Method document which
describes how the method may be adapted for the problems of Euro conversion |
|
Method Adoption Report
|
A document describing the performed study and pointing
out strengths and weaknesses of the adapted Renaissance method when applied
to Euro conversion |
|
Case Study
|
A set of Powerpoint slides documenting
a case study on the project for inclusion in the EC's Euro web site |
|
Project Report
|
A final report summarising the project's main
findings and results |
Table of EMERGENCY deliverables
Exploitation
The scale of the Euro problem is immense. Across all EU countries (whether
or not they will enter the first wave), all IT systems that deal with financial
information will have, ultimately, to be converted. The EMERGENCY results
will be public domain and available to the community as a whole.
The results of the EMERGENCY project will be exploited in the following
ways:
-
Direct exploitation of the results by the project partners
in accordance with their business objectives
-
The creation of a web site, containing access to the documents, to bring
the results to the notice of the European Community
-
The creation of training material which
will be available through this web site
-
Press releases:
-
Short articles on the project for widely disseminated publications such
as the Computer Bulletin
-
An article on the project results for distribution to journalists in both
technical and popular newspapers
-
A documented case study available to companies in the European Union from
the EC web site
The description of the adaptations of the RENAISSANCE method and specific
advice and guidelines on Euro conversion will also be made available through
the RENAISSANCE
web site.
The project work is positioned in important market area as organisations,
by law, must convert IT systems to legal deadlines. There is, therefore,
a firm market opportunity to exploit the project results.
