Published on 16-Apr-2009
"With [IBM’s] products, we almost doubled productivity." - Julian Robins, technical director, Westinghouse Rail Systems Australia
Customer:
Westinghouse Rail Systems Australia
Industry:
Industrial Products, Travel & Transportation
Deployment country:
Australia
Overview
WRSA provides rail signaling and control solutions within the South East Asian marketplace and globally. To leverage emerging technologies and to ensure the success of future projects, WRSA needed to transform its diverse set of development tools into an integrated environment that promoted compliance with global safety and reliability standards. Customers required backwards compatibility with their installed equipment base for advanced rail control solutions.
Business need:
WRSA, formed from Westinghouse Signals Australia and Foxboro Transportation, initially lacked a common development environment.
Solution:
Using a phased approach that leveraged IBM Rational professional services, the company standardized on IBM Rational DOORS and IBM Rational Synergy solutions to support a common, repeatable process across the organization.
Benefits:
WRSA has increased productivity, created an environment for collaborative development and established a center of excellence within Invensys.
Case Study
The story
Invensys Rail Group is a global leader in the delivery of signaling and control systems for the mainline and metro rail market. WRSA, a business unit of Invensys Rail, provides rail signaling and control solutions within the South East Asian marketplace and globally through collaboration with sister companies within Invensys.
To leverage emerging technologies and to ensure the success of future projects, WRSA needed to transform its diverse set of development tools into an integrated environment that promoted compliance with global safety and reliability standards. Customers required backwards compatibility with their installed equipment base for advanced rail control solutions.
“Business success relied on standardizing our approach to requirements management and software change and configuration management,” says Julian Robins, technical director, WRSA.
The success of an integrated solution
WRSA signed a five-year, token-based licensing agreement for IBM® Rational® DOORS® software for requirements management and IBM Rational Synergy software for change/configuration management.
By standardizing on the Rational DOORS and Rational Synergy solutions, WRSA established a common, repeatable process for its projects while increasing communication and collaboration between its sites in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia.
“Between our two sites, we develop control and communication signaling systems that are safety critical,” says Robins. “It’s imperative that we can demonstrate that our process meets national and international safety standards like those set down by Cenelec, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization. With IBM, we’ve developed a repeatable process that shows our compliance.”
WRSA’s decision to implement DOORS and Synergy software has positively influenced the success of SystematICS, its integrated rail network information and control systems product. While SystematICS is developed in Australia, the product is sold globally and tailored for each region in which it is sold. This degree of customization requires a tight integration of requirements management with software change and configuration management.
“WRSA adopted Rational DOORS based on the positive results we obtained from using it on local and overseas projects,” says Robins. The IBM product suite enables us to move staff across projects, which accelerates new project rollouts.”
A phased approach
WRSA approached its deployment of IBM products in phases. The Rational Synergy solution was applied first to new projects. This was followed by the implementation of Rational DOORS software on strategic projects such as the development of SystematICS. Rational Professional Services supported the rollout with training and consulting services in both Brisbane and Melbourne. Each IBM product deployment was customized to help ensure that the products supported WRSA’s specific needs.
“We engaged IBM Rational professional services because we wanted a successful deployment the first time around. A controlled rollout was important, so we elected to work in phases. We were extremely pleased with the deployment,” says Robins.
A center of excellence
WRSA has been able to significantly increase output from research and development (R&D). A common environment and process enable the organization to bring new employees up to speed with a short learning curve. Because it selected one of the industry leaders in requirements management solutions, WRSA has found that new hires who have requirements management or systems engineering experience typically know the DOORS solution.
Rational Synergy software helps WRSA overcome many development challenges and supports the extensive technology and resource sharing of Invensys’s parallel and distributed development teams.
WRSA has been so successful that it is now recognized as the center of excellence for control centers across the IRG R&D group within Invensys.
“With IBM’s products, we have increased productivity, particularly in collaborative development activities. Because of our belief in their solutions, we are evaluating other IBM products to see how they might improve our future initiatives,” Robins says.
For more information
To learn more, visit:
ibm.com/software/rational
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software:
Rational Synergy, Rational DOORS
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2009 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 USA Produced in the United States of America June 2009 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DOORS and Rational are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products and services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. The information contained in this document is provided for informational purposes only and provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. Without limiting the foregoing, all statements regarding IBM future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software. IBM customers are responsible for ensuring their own compliance with legal requirements. It is the customer’s sole responsibility to obtain advice of competent legal counsel as to the identification and interpretation of any relevant laws and regulatory requirements that may affect the customer’s business and any actions the customer may need to take to comply with such laws. This customer story is illustrates how one organization uses IBM products. Many factors may have contributed to the results and benefits described; IBM does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.
