It’s an exciting time for Team ADEV. For several years it has developed and delivered the Dynamic Mission Re-planning (DMR) suite of web applications under the Agile methodology, but with DMR in sustainment the team has started work on its next web development project: the Consolidated Air Mobility Planning System (CAMPS). CAMPS is a command-and-control application for scheduling airlift and air refueling missions. For over twenty years the legacy version of the software has played a crucial role in ensuring Air Mobility Command (AMC) mission success. Now, AMC has assigned Team ADEV to completely rework and modernize CAMPS as a web application.
Shifting Web Applications
Developing the CAMPS application will be a significant change from developing and delivering DMR. While DMR is geared for use in only a few command and control centers, CAMPS has a user base of thousands positioned across the globe. Also, while DMR is designed for quickly re-planning existing missions due to unforeseen circumstances (such as aircraft issues or shifting/emergency needs), CAMPS schedules missions from their initial concept though assigning aircraft and aircrews to managing cargo and mission completion. These additional complexities are a challenge Team ADEV looks forward to meeting.
Team ADEV Faces Development Challenges
There are several specific challenges Team ADEV must face to deliver CAMPS successfully. The first is to develop a complex, multi-faceted web application from scratch, with nothing but input from users and a blank screen, using an Agile methodology. Under Agile principles, detailed development specifications and requirements are not part of the process. As the term Agile implies, development must be flexible enough to meet shifting demands from the user community – even while in the middle of writing the software.
Another significant challenge is to shift the CAMPS development environment to the cloud. Team ADEV and CAMPS will be in the forefront on moving government/defense software development into the cloud. As usual, being a pioneer means tackling a host of difficult problems and issues never before encountered. This includes completely new new architecture, tool sets, processes, and methods.
However, Team ADEV is up for each of these challenges. Team ADEV has already faced and overcome a different set of challenges with DMR – such as providing real-time graphical information by interacting with a variety of web services. Now it will apply its expertise and initiative to this new challenge, and do its best to deliver and support our nation’s warfighters.
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Nathan Reames is a Junior Technical Writer with the ADEV program.