New Generation Project Management

with Agile Practices and Model Driven Development

for an Avionics Control System Development
New generation PM practice at Valtech India Systems to Increase Quality,
Reusability and Reduce Time-to-Market for Avionics Control Application

By: Cdr. R.N. Ramachandran, Practice Head Avionics and Aerospace, Valtech India Systems

About the author

Commander R.N. Ramachandran holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical
Engineering from an Indian University, and a Post Graduation in Computer Sciences
from IIT, Mumbai, India
Cdr Ramachandran hails from a Naval services background, having served over
28 years in the Indian Navy from 1969 to 1998 and retired as a Commander. He had
the honor of serving onboard Frigates, Aircraft Carriers and Defense Equipment
Production and R&D laboratories during his tenure as Naval officer.
In addition to his Military and business careers, Ramachandran has helped author two IEEE papers on
AWACS radar tracking algorithms. He is a certified SCRUM master for Agile based project development
practices, and has written white papers on Avionics and Aerospace systems and Agile practices.
A white paper co-authored with Telelogic, an IBM company, on use of Model Driven Architecture for
Avionics projects was presentd in Military and Aerospace Electronics (MAE) conference held at London
on 20th Nov 2007.

About Valtech
Valtech is a highly regarded global business consulting and technology services company. To help
clients hit their constantly moving business targets, Valtech makes IT “business-friendly”. With thought
leadership in Agile Methodology, Software Quality, IT Knowledge Transfer and Open Source solutions,
Valtech provides a refreshing approach, capable of delivering sure-fire results and IT self sufficiency in
any fast-paced business environment.
Valtech supplies management, technology and e-business consulting, global sourcing and learning
services to forward-thinking companies. With over 1,100 employees, the company operates 17 offices
located in the US, Europe and Asia. Founded in 1993, it is listed on the Paris stock exchange.
For more information, please visit www.valtech.com.

Contact
Valtech GmbH
Bahnstraße 16
D-40212 Düsseldorf
Tel.: +49 (0)211 179 237-0
Fax: +49 (0)211 179 237-19

White Paper "Avionics Control System Development Project" © Valtech India Systems, June 2008
Table of contents
1  Executive Summary........................................................................................................... 3 
2  Project Overview................................................................................................................ 4 
2.1  Computation Independent Model (CIM)....................................................................................... 5 
2.2  Platform Independent Model (PIM) .............................................................................................. 5 
2.3  Platform Specific Model (PSM) .................................................................................................... 5 
3  Valtech India: Transitioning to MDA with Agile Development....................................... 5 
3.1  Project Overview .......................................................................................................................... 6 
3.2  MDA Development Solutions ....................................................................................................... 6 
3.3  Model Instability Causes Delay.................................................................................................... 7 
4  Project Metrics ................................................................................................................... 8 
5  Meeting PM Objectives...................................................................................................... 9 
6  Lessons Learned ............................................................................................................. 10 
7  Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 10

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White Paper Avionics
© Valtech India Systems 2008
1 Executive Summary
Systems engineers and software designers in the intensely competitive global avionic controls market
face demands for complex deliverables. Concurrently, they must also meet the unique needs of real-
time performance, compact code, safety, reliability, and specialized hardware control – all with extremely
short time-to-market deadlines. Consequently the new technologies and process methodologies evolved
has changed the face of conventional Project Management style.
Traditionally, avionics industry suppliers have used a Project Management process with a sequential
“waterfall” model that flows from requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, integration, and
maintenance. Due to very stringent safety critical requirements adaptation of newer methodologies and
technologies are approached with abundant caution.
However, as delivery times grow more stringent – to as few as six weeks – some avionics controls
manufacturers are investigating the benefits of switching to an Agile based project management
methodology coupled with a Model Driven Architecture® (MDA®) process to speed development while
gaining more quality assurance throughout the product lifecycle. This approach is more relevant to a
duo-shore project management where multisite teams with diverse cultural and language barriers.
While MDA has been used extensively in telecommunications, automotive, and healthcare, this
approach is still new to avionics development. However, some forward thinking manufacturers in the
Aircraft and Aerospace markets are starting to take notice of the productivity, reusability and quality
benefits of MDA. Most importantly, some are already mandating that their avionics suppliers adopt an
MDA environment as part of the contractual agreement.
Yet while the promise of increased productivity, significant reduction of defects, and lowered
development costs makes MDA for avionics development a very attractive alternative, MDA may not be
the right approach for every project or organization. To illustrate a real-world application of MDA, this
white paper discusses how the avionics division of Valtech India Systems rose to the challenge of
adapting its Agile development process to an MDA environment to satisfy a major Aerospace customer’s
Object Oriented (OO) Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®) 2.0 platform request.
The paper will relate all the Project Management experiences, both positive and negative, of Valtech’s
system designers and engineers and the lessons they learned as they worked in an MDA environment
for the first time. It will also explore Valtech’s use of Telelogic, an IBM company Rhapsody® as their
customer’s preferred modeling solution to support the MDA process, as well as the benefits and
improvements Valtech achieved to maintain its CMM Level 5 status.

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© Valtech India Systems 2008
2 Project Overview
A Telelogic, an IBM company expert defines MDA in the following way:
“Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is an approach to using models in software development
including the writing of specifications and the actual developing of applications that allows the
functionality and behavior of the system to be separated from implementation details. This
enables the application to be easily ported from one environment to another by first creating one
or more platform independent models (PIM) that are later translated into one or more platform
specific models (PSM).”

Valtech India leveraged Telelogic, an IBM company Rhapsody’s core capabilities to successfully deliver a complex, high quality
avionics application while meeting level 3 CMMI standards.

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© Valtech India Systems 2008
Three models, or ways of focusing on distinct areas of a system in development, are key facets of MDA:

2.1 Computation Independent Model (CIM)

Business analysts create the CIM, which shows the business model of the system. Its viewpoint
separates the fundamental logic of the system from the platform-specific specification. The environment
and requirements of the system are the focus here. The structure and implementation of the system may
be hidden or not yet implemented.

2.2 Platform Independent Model (PIM)

This viewpoint focuses on the operation of the system while hiding the platform-dependent details.
Architects usually create the PIM, which is a model of the system functions. The focus is on the
operation of the system rather than the platform-dependent details. A platform-independent modeling
language, such as UML, is often used.

2.3 Platform Specific Model (PSM)

The PSM models the implementation of the PIM on one or several platforms. Implementation details of a
certain platform are viewed in this model.
In the development of an avionics control, for example, high-level UML diagrams in the CIM would show
what the control should do. Next, an architect would translate the CIM into a PIM, which has detailed
UML diagrams of the physical structure that houses the technology of the control. The PIM does not
have any information related to the control’s technology. Using an MDA solution, architects can translate
the PIM to one or multiple PSMs, to which developers can mark and code for the final product.
As such, this approach saves time and costs because the system architecture defines the models of the
system before implementation begins. In addition, regardless of the platform or technologies being used,
the MDA approach can use available components and existing mappings to produce similar functions.

3 Valtech India: Transitioning to MDA with Agile Development

Valtech India Systems, the global development arm of Valtech, a leading software and systems
developer, has two core technology beliefs – Agile development (AD), provided by Valtech’s Pulse
approach, and Open Source technologies, delivered through Valtech Highway, an Open Source
framework. Valtech was driven to move to an Object Oriented (OO) approach for global development to
satisfy the request of its key customer – a leader in the Avionics marketplace. The customer wanted
Valtech to take advantage of the high requirements re-use in OOAD/UML and follow an iterative and
incremental paradigm for concurrent engineering.
One of the drawbacks of the company’s old process was the inability to re-use requirements on multiple
projects with similar components. As such, everything had to be started from scratch for each new
project. Valtech’s systems engineers and developers needed to adapt their existing methods to a robust
MDA environment in order to deliver the improved productivity, quality, and reduced cost of offshore
development that its customer expected.

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© Valtech India Systems 2008
3.1 Project Overview
The Avionics customer engaged Valtech to design and develop Human Machine Interface (HMI) text
pages for a cockpit display system which would interface with a Flight Management System (FM
Souche). The display system needed to meet certification requirements specified for Level B / C of
RCTA DO178B Standards. The multi-functional system included flight plan, navigation, trajectory,
predictions, and guidance.
Valtech’s system designers and engineers for this project were dispersed globally at multiple sites, each
with its own multi-cultural team. As such, clear communication of requirements and changes throughout
the product lifecycle in this concurrent development scenario would be a critical challenge to achieving
the project’s goals, which included:
 Create and communicate software models between multiple and dispersed sites in a multi-cultural
environment.
 Accommodate frequent changes due to evolution (addition of more functionality) and refactoring of
developed design and code.
 Concurrent engineering paradigm to support the development of related software components built
at different sites simultaneously.
 Support daily build and continuous integration process.
 Facilitate full traceability from system to software to design and code.
 Architectural level reusability of developed components.
 Make developers more productive, help create more reliable code and enable a more effective
maintenance process.
The most critical challenge for Valtech, however, was adapting its Agile development method to the
MDA process. To do this, the company leveraged a Model Driven Development™ (MDD™) solution that
used UML 2.0 and an Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture. Valtech needed to adapt its Agile
development process with six weeks time-boxed iteration and maintain the high CMMI level needed for
its business. In this way, Valtech could improve productivity and quality, as well as reduce the cost of
offshore development for its end customer.

3.2 MDA Development Solutions

Valtech’s customer evaluated several solutions and mandated that Valtech use Telelogic, an IBM
company Rhapsody for this and all future projects. Telelogic, an IBM company Rhapsody is an
industry-leading UML 2.1 and OMG SysML™-based MDD environment for embedded systems and
software engineering. Based on UML 2.1, Rhapsody allows for both function-oriented and Object
Oriented design techniques to co-exist in one environment. Rhapsody was chosen because of its high
architectural level re-usability, seamless communication across multiple development sites, and robust
support for the concurrent engineering paradigm. The solution supports compliance with Avionics
standards DO178B Level B, as well as HMI Design and Simulation Development (Avionics Domain
using Ada95). Other tools and technology used included OOAD, Ada95, CVS, VSS, ELIOS, RTRT.
Valtech implemented Rhapsody in its global development center in Bangalore, India, with minimal
assistance from Telelogic, an IBM company Professional Services. Rhapsody’s key enabling
technologies are focused on the needs of the embedded developer and follow the concept of separating

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functionality and behavior from implementation detail, enabling developers working on embedded
systems to get the most out of their MDA process.
The first thing Valtech management noticed was better communication among the multi-site, multi-
cultural teams. Everyone could work a single model using the same attribute or object. Communication
is simple since all the developers can see what each other is doing. They can re-use objects and ensure
that no one else is doing the same work, resulting in no duplication of effort.
On a daily basis Rhapsody streamlined the Agile development process at Valtech. Application
synchronization was achieved through local and remote CVS servers. Each individual developer
compiled the changed modules and then continued with the build. Every six weeks Valtech delivered the
current build to the customer for review. Any bugs or defects found by the customer were fixed, and a
baseline was created. Rhapsody supported Valtech’s approach to incremental development and testing,
which ensured quality despite the complexities of a multi-site, offshore development environment.
Valtech’s engineers achieved flawless code quality, which is checked with Telelogic, an IBM company
Logiscope™ and another code analysis solution by the client before acceptance.
Rhapsody was the complete development environment Valtech needed to adapt its Agile development
process with six weeks time-boxed iteration and maintain its high CMMI level. Rhapsody also enabled
Valtech to achieve UML 2.0 compliance, which is very important to Valtech’s commitment to industry
standards.

3.3 Model Instability Causes Delay

Working in the new MDA environment and using new solutions on such a complex project did not come
without its challenges, however — despite the ultimate benefits of using MDA solutions like Rhapsody
that deliver model stability. The project overshot its seven-month deadline by five months. The main
reason for this time overrun was very low model stability between 17 and 31% in the first months of the
project. The model had to be re-factored and corrected many times at the high-level architecture design
phase, mainly because the engineers did not have enough relevant experience in MDA or with
Rhapsody as it was their first time using this approach and solution. However, research by Craig
Larman, one of the world’s leading architects of Agile technologies, indicates that normal time overrun
when adopting new technologies can range anywhere from 270-320%. Valtech’s overrun percentage
was 140%, which Larman considered very reasonable.
Despite the delay, the customer was still able to stay focused on the outcome, which was to achieve
model reusability for systems in future aircraft projects. So despite early delays, there were considerable
time and cost savings ahead because models could be reused.
Using Rhapsody also helped Valtech meet its business challenges by escalating productivity, reducing
defect density in production and post delivery, and promoting process improvement.

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4 Project Metrics
As the graphic illustrates, Valtech managed many aspects of the project and was able to capture a wide
range of metrics to help evaluate the company’s first experience with MDA. The project began on June
27, 2005, and ended on July 12, 2006. As noted earlier this time frame represented a time overrun of
five months or 140% due to model instability early in the project. As the developers became more
competent with the MDA processes and solutions, the percentage of the model stability rose to
acceptable, high levels in the last months of the project.

Model stability rose to acceptable, high levels in the last months of the project.

Despite the time overrun, Valtech posted an effort overrun of 23% or 13,567 hours. Again, this overrun
can be attributed to the lack of experience of the developers. Even so, the teams were able to achieve
significant productivity levels by fixing defects and keeping defect density throughout the process at
normal to minor levels. Despite measuring a high defect density relating to Façade compared to the
application code, the overall defect density is of the order of one fourth of the previous FMS
development using conventional technology. This speaks of a four-fold increment in the quality of the
delivered code. The intrinsic code quality measured by other solutions such as Polyspace, Rule checker
and Logiscope came out well beyond the expectations of the client.
It is also important to note that the estimations were made based on what other organizations have
achieved in industries that are not new to MDA. Valtech had to adopt new technology and adapt it to
normal standard estimations for its usual Agile processes, and the company succeeded in coming within
acceptable ranges under the circumstances. Thus, organizations should take its developers’ familiarity
with MDA and experience with solutions like Rhapsody under consideration when making delivery and
cost estimates.

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© Valtech India Systems 2008
5 Meeting PM Objectives
Valtech successfully met its PM objectives for their inaugural use of the MDA environment and the
Rhapsody environment in the following ways:
Create and communicate software models between multiple and dispersed sites in a multi-
cultural environment.
The XMI-based intermediate code helped in generating the model at each level of development across
the sites. Also, communicating with reference to a single and unique model to a great extent reduced the
communication barriers across diverse cultural groups. The need for an onsite coordinator was
eliminated. Creating the models also helped in interfacing third party / home grown solutions for
automation of Testing and Low Level Requirement (LLR) traceability.
Concurrent Engineering paradigm to support development of related software components built
at different sites simultaneously.
The Rhapsody solution provided an excellent environment to adapt the Concurrent Engineering
requirements in the best possible manner. The change migration across the components should be
planned well to reduce the overheads.
Support daily build and continuous integration process.
While the daily build is not a huge concern, the continuous integration would require a build and test
server like Cruise Control incorporated in the development. Manual testing, if adapted, does not scale up
to meet this requirement. Using Rhapsody supported Test Driven Development (TDD) efforts so this
goal was achieved.
Facilitate full traceability from system to software to design and code.
Valtech needed to make some custom build solutions to work with the CASE solution to provide
automated traceability functionality. Rhapsody provided easy interfaces to build the solution set.
Accommodate frequent changes due to addition of more functionality and refactoring of
developed design and code.
Patched development can lead to poor quality of the software and therefore must be removed at the
earliest and first opportunity at every incremental integration cycle. Refactoring the design and
architecture is an important issue that needs to be tackled with extreme care and meticulous planning in
an MDA environment. Valtech was able to achieve this objective with the Rhapsody MDD environment.
Architectural level reusability of developed components.
The biggest benefit to the end customer is the ability to reuse the developed product for different aircraft
platforms with ease and agility, thereby providing a significant cost saving. A major contributor to the
cost saving was using the MDA process with Rhapsody to support PIM models. The entire cost of the
solution and high cost of skill needed could be offset with this single benefit many times over.
Make developers more productive, help create more reliable code and enable a more effective
development process.
Both onsite and offshore resources working with a common development server and environment using
MDA helped boost the productivity and sustainability of the teams. Implementation of Scrum based Agile
methodology and scrum of scrums between teams at both sites have reduced the communication
barriers and continuous knowledge share and feedbacks.

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© Valtech India Systems 2008
6 Lessons Learned
As a result of embracing an Agile, UML
2.0 based MDA process for the cockpit
display system project, Valtech increased Productivity, Quality at an All-Time High
productivity, improved the development
As a result of embracing an Agile, UML 2.0 based MDA process
process, and reduced defect density such for the cockpit display system project, Valtech increased
that the net effect is a 40% increase in productivity, improved the development process, and reduced
productivity and a 75% defect reduction defect density such that the net effect is a 40% increase in
with a CMMI level 5 status. With all of productivity and a 75% defect reduction with a CMMI level 5
status. With all of these advances, Valtech is now able to
these advances, Valtech is now able to consistently meet a rigorous 6-week build and delivery cycle.
consistently meet a rigorous 6-week build
and delivery cycle.
Looking at Valtech’s first experience with
MDA, several lessons come to light that
any organization considering MDA should
heed.
 Ensuring model stability from project start to finish is the key factor for project success. The high-
level architecture should be stable at levels of at least 80% and above.
 Architects and master programmers have the highest and preferred skill levels for developing the
high-level architecture of the models. Inexperienced personnel are not likely to get up to speed on
MDA methods and solutions to meet CMMI 5 level deadlines.
 The Object Oriented approach inherent in MDA provides model-level reusability, which leads to
increased productivity and reduced costs in future projects. The bold initiative to use the MDD
approach and Rhapsody solution has paid rich dividends to Valtech’s customer in many ways. The
biggest benefit is the ability to reuse the developed product for different aircraft platforms with ease
and agility, thereby providing a significant cost saving. The entire cost of the solution and high cost
of skill needed could be offset with this single benefit many times over. In addition, architectural-
level reuseability provides a nearly one-year head start for porting onto a new aircraft.
 In regard to low-level architecture, the use of Test Driven Development (TDD) and continuous
refactoring at the implementation level is the key to generating timely feedback for use in refactoring
high-level architecture models.

7 Conclusion
Application of Agile based PM methodology with Model Driven Architecture, while proven successful in
many different industries, offers great promise for the design and development of Avionics systems.
However, this approach may not be right for every organization and every product. Valtech’s experience
should be viewed as a pioneering step with many positive results and a few drawbacks that were
overcome by design and engineering teams willing to learn, advance their skills, and fulfill the stringent
objectives of an important customer.

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White Paper Avionics
© Valtech India Systems 2008