ARRA
Regional observatory
The Project consisted in developing a tool for monitoring the production of social housing actors in the Rhône-Alpes region in the form of a web application easily accessible to all actors and ARRA staff.
Total duration of the project : 4 months
The total cost of the project was 100 man-days.
Details of the project :
Problematic
ARRA already had a computerized production follow-up in the form of an Excel file. To overcome the various technical limitations, the association wanted to develop this solution in the form of a web application. The main objectives were to encourage parallel data entry by member organizations and real-time updating of information.
The needs to be met by the application were :
- Complete or partial capture of information on the annual activity of each agency
- Real-time consultation of the information entered
- Information access rights management
Mission statement
Development of a web application including :
- An interface for managing organizations
- An interface for entering information on the activity of each organization (more than 300 fields per record).
- Screens for consulting information and editing reports
Organization
For the realization of the project, 3 persons have been allocated :
- 1 project manager and functional manager
- 2 development engineers
This contract was executed entirely with Tana Corp resources dedicated to the project.
Main characteristics of the client
Created in 1975, the Rhône-Alpes Regional Association of Social Housing Organisations (Association Régionale des organismes d’HLM de Rhône-Alpes) brings together 84 social housing organisations based in Rhône-Alpes.
These organisations, present in the 8 departments of the region, manage a stock of 416,000 social rental housing units. The ARRA’s missions are articulated around 3 strategic axes: regional lobbying, territorial structuring and professional animation based on networking.
Conduct of the project
Advice and support role provided throughout the project
- A real force of accompaniment: The organization of the project gives a primordial importance to the quality of the accompaniment, to make the customer benefit from the expertise and the know-how capitalized by Tana Corp on its projects of the same type.
- Consulting strength : Working in close collaboration with the client’s interlocutors during the solution design phase, as well as our experience in specific development projects has enabled us to propose the best technical and functional solutions to the client’s various problems. In addition, Tana Corp. is a driving force in the identification of functional options likely to bring high added value.
- Expertise on web applications: The interfaces for managing and exploiting the results have been realized in the form of web applications to facilitate collaboration and access to information. We used our expertise in this field to create ergonomic and easy-to-use screens to maximize the productivity of technicians using these applications.
Proposed methodology to validate the project steps from a client’s point of view
Proposed project reporting
A monthly steering committee enabled us to steer this long-term project in close collaboration with the client.
Tools chosen for the project management
Project Management: MS Project
Incident follow-up : BugX (based on Mantis, http://www.mantisbt.org/)
Version and configuration tracking: SubVersion (http://subversion.tigris.org/)
Solution features
Business processes covered by the solution
- Entering information with input and consistency checks
- Storage and consultation of the information entered
- Editing of activity reports
What were the most difficult features to implement?
One of the data entry forms contains more than 300 fields to be filled in, thus involving a significant amount of data entry time. Among the problems posed by this large number of fields to be entered, the most important ones were form validations and data loss due to session expirations. AJAX (AJAX) controls were implemented to address the first problem; for the second, automatic and transparent partial backups were implemented.
Technical platform elements
Software package, software or development languages used
After analysis of all the constraints, Tana Corp proposed the realization of a custom application, based entirely on a Microsoft :
- Microsoft .Net Framework, C# language
- ASP.NET with AJAX
- SQL Server 2005 Express
- IIS 6 Web Server
Reasons for the choice
- Microsoft .Net Framework with C#: development platform allowing an excellent cost/delivery time/quality implementation ratio.
- ASP.NET and AJAX: scripting languages allowing the development of WEB interfaces with a high level of ergonomics.
- SQLServer 2005 Express: free, high-performance database server, perfectly adapted to the target data volume.
- IIS 6 Web Server : Microsoft’s Web server for ASP application hosting
Share of pre-existing developments used on which the Supplier has capitalised to complete the project
Libraries of AJAX interface elements already developed internally by Tana Corp.
Challenges and key success factors
- Ergonomics: daily use of the application in a production context, rapidity of screens and interfaces, validation during input, automatic partial backups
Résultat business
Today, the developed application is in production and is fulfilling its role to the full. It has received excellent feedback from users, who have appreciated :
- The ergonomics of the input application
- Ease of access to information
