Concept Development

Producing the blueprint for operational deployment of solutions

The Concept Development (CD) process transforms the solution approach developed in Concept Exploration (CE) into a clear description of the software, producing the blueprint for operational procedures and successful deployment by the FAA and airlines.

The key to success in deploying new technology is ensuring that all problems in the software design have been fixed, all operational impacts have been considered and the needs of all parties will be met. Metron Aviation has found that the only way to meet these requirements is to thoroughly refine and vet the concept through Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) simulations that incorporate the people who will be the eventual users of the new system. These simulation exercises are at the core of our CD process.

Early in a typical CD project Metron Aviation develops the initial prototype software and begins the refinement process. In this process, system stakeholders participate in realistic interactive simulations of the problem situation under “live” operating conditions. The participants are given the opportunity to use the new software to manage the problem and observe the results of their actions. Other participants might react to the situation and the actions of the other players by exercising their own controls over the system and the group plays out the scenario until the problem is resolved in the simulation. By observing this process, the results and absorbing operator feedback, any enhancements to the solution are identified and implemented for the next round of simulations. After several iterations of this process, Metron Aviation converges on the best implementation of the solution and guidelines for execution.

This approach has proven successful and consistent in producing high quality, defect-free solutions for complex aviation problems, and has supported the delivery of the most significant advances in the field of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM).