On behalf of the Austrian motorway and expressway financing company ASFiNAG, EBP developed a client-server architecture for managing construction sites on Austria's motorways and expressways. Operational since June 2014, the software is a planning, coordination, and monitoring tool for a wide range of user groups.
More than 500 workstations access the developed server landscape of the construction site management system to optimally coordinate construction sites on Austria's highways and expressways without causing any inconvenience to operators, customers, or traffic.
Construction sites are mapped in the system in all phases, from initial rough planning to completion, so that the status can be called up and edited by users at any time. With the help of a geoinformation system, the construction sites are located and can be displayed, selected, and edited on the workstations using various configurable list views or via an interactive map.
The system enables the management of routine daily tasks, such as mowing or renewing markings, which are carried out by the highway maintenance departments, as well as the management of complex large-scale construction sites, which are initially planned from a central location with several possible implementation variants. In addition to ensuring this core functionality, the system serves a number of external interfaces: for example, authorities such as the police, but also the Austrian toll company, must be informed about construction sites via defined interfaces.
By using SCRUM as an agile software development method, it was possible to involve users in the design of the software from the start of development, thus adapting the application perfectly to the different needs of the individual user groups.
As an ISO 9001-certified company, quality assurance measures are an integral part of EBP's development process and are therefore also reflected in the tools used. The following overview provides an excerpt from the range of tools used in this project, which, in addition to continuous user testing, contributed to the success of the project:
- Atlassian's JIRA, with customer involvement, for mapping requirements, the SCRUM process, error management, and as an aid to project management
- Jenkins as a continuous integration tool for build and deployment processes
- Sonarqube for static code analysis
- Various library extensions for JUnit, such as Mockito for creating unit tests
At the core of the developed system is a Spring Server Framework, which ensures efficient data provision via JPA/Hibernate and management in an MS-SQL database. Communication between client and server was consistently implemented as a REST interface. The client was implemented based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform and the associated Java SWT and JFace components, ensuring a familiar look and feel for users and offering a range of convenient functions that are already included in the framework.
The development of the construction site management system was carried out as a complete package with a high level of customer satisfaction. Further developments are planned based on this modern foundation.
Image Source: ASFINAG