ADV proposes their expertise in the definition of operational concepts from the initial brainstorming until the production and maintenance of the official concept documents, based on user needs captured beforehand. As an example, we develop and produce:

• Operational Concept Document (OCD):
  
  The OCD is a high-level description of the target concept. It introduces the concept through a detailed analysis of the rationale behind it, pointing out the problem at stake and emphasising the need for change. It then outlines the concept-to-be, explaining to what extent it offers solutions to the problem faced by ATM users. The OCD seeks justification for the new concept and is very much oriented towards stakeholders and decision-makers, in order to get their go-ahead and proceed with the definition of the Concept of Operations;
• Concept of Operations (ConOps):
  
  The ConOps is a detailed description of the concept which is more oriented towards the operational actors impacted by the changes and / or the future users of the new systems. It addresses the concept from their perspective, insisting on the proposed operational principles, the evolution of roles and responsibilities, the transition issues that may be faced, etc.
• Operational Services and Environment Description (OSED):
  
  The OSED is an even more refined description of the concept which does not loose sight of the operational actors / system users, but is also oriented towards system developers: the OSED is a formalised, systematic description of the concept in the form of services to be delivered, processes to be performed to convert inputs into outputs when triggered by predefined events etc. The OSED may rely for instance on modelling techniques such as SADT or EAEA.

ADV has demonstrated this skill on many occasions in the ATM domain, to prepare the introduction of changes in ATM operations, would it be on the airport platform, in the terminal area, en-route or at the level of the network and the management of traffic flows.

We master the different steps of the definition process:

• Concept Rationale
  • Context and scope of the concept being described;
  • Stakeholders interested in the concept;
  • Objectives of the new concept;
  • Analysis of the current situation, identification of the issues to overcome;
  • Justification for change, rationale behind the new concept;
• Concept Description
  • Concept assumptions;
  • Concept Principles;
  • Proposed changes to current operating principles, new operational processes based on the user needs capture (previous step);
  • Uses cases;
  • Scenarios;
• Impact of the concept
  • Impact on the actors’ roles and responsibilities;
  • Impact on procedures and working methods;
  • Impact on systems;
• Constraints and Benefits analysis
  • Concept expected benefits;
  • Anticipated constraints;
  • Transition issues;

ADV’s consultants work in close partnership with:

• (Former) operational staff reflecting the end users’ perspective;
• (Former) executives from the aviation world reflecting the stakeholders’ perspectives

Our partners are associated to the projects to review periodically the documents, comment on it and make sure that the concept gets the customers’ buy-in in the end.

Our documents are developed in accordance with approved methodologies such as the OSED (Operational Services and Environmental Description) derived from the EUROCAE ED78A standard.