Rijkswaterstaat is a government organisation that works to ensure flood control, sufficient clean water and a good and safe flow of traffic. The traffic control system is a real-time system that aims in particular at ensuring the safety of road traffic. West contributed to the testing of this system.
| Market: | Government |
|---|---|
| Technology: | J-STD-016, Quality Center, structured and methodical testing |
| Brochure: |  |
The Dutch traffic signalling system is used to show speed limits to road users (for instance during traffic jams) and place red crosses above traffic lanes when these are blocked, for instance as a result of accidents or road works. This is done using matrix indicators that are placed above the roads, which are able to show a number of different images. The matrix indicators are controlled from roadside stations that are situated directly alongside the main road. These roadside stations can be controlled from a central system located in a traffic centre; however, they can also operate independently.
The current generation of roadside stations fully meet all the requirements of the Rijkswaterstaat. However, as they have been designed especially for Rijkswaterstaat, they are relatively expensive to buy and maintain. The traffic industry has therefore decided to ask various manufacturers to design "universal" roadside stations that use COTS products (Commercial Off the Shelf) where possible and thus reduce costs considerably.
These universal roadside stations must of course still meet the (mainly functional) requirements of Rijkswaterstaat. which is why they are first being tested by the Test Centre for Traffic and Transport in Delft.
West wrote a test plan in this project that can be used to test roadside stations, made test cases and fully tested the roadside station of one manufacturer.
West classified this project as a "classic" test project, whereby the correct functional operation of a real-time test object needed to be tested by an independent party. For this reason, West chose a formal approach whereby the planning, formulation of test cases and the execution of the tests could be determined precisely. The complexity of the roadside station was taken care of by the technical knowledge and experience of the team members, which enabled the team to finish the project on time and within budget.
Documentation writing formed an important part of this project. The J-STD-016 standard was used for this purpose; an STP (Software Test Plan), an STD (Software Test Description) and an STR (Software Test Report) were written. Quality Center was used so that the tests could be traced in relation to the requirements.
It is very important for Rijkswaterstaat that the systems it purchases from manufacturers work correctly and are highly available. West's structured approach and its conscientious execution of the tests were able to sufficiently guarantee the functional operation of the roadside station in question.