Defense Personal Property System
CPS provides expert life-cycle
software development and technical support on the Defense Personal
Property System (DPS) Program, which integrated roughly twenty
disparate legacy government systems and databases into a single
J2EE based system. CPS architected the baseline DPS system, and
designed and developed the DPS external systems interfaces, costing
and electronic invoicing module, shipment management module, rate
reasonableness module, and best value scoring module within DPS.
The CPS developed modules provide core web based user interfaces as
well as core business services to the DPS system, which run within
the context of the CPS developed Enterprise Service Bus, which
provides the Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform services
for DPS.
The purpose of the Defense Personal Property System (DPS) is to
provide a single, centralized, web-based system for the management
of personal property shipments for the Department of Defense (DoD).
The system, being developed for the Military Surface Deployment and
Distribution Command (SDDC), is responsible for all aspects of
personal property shipment management, including:
- Qualification of Transportation Service Providers (TSP)
- Submission of TSP rates
- Service Member (SM) counseling
- Shipment pickup
- Shipment delivery
- Invoice management.
DPS is composed of a number of distinct software components,
consisting of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components from
Siebel and Manugistics, Government Off-The-Shelf (GOTS) components,
and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) based custom code that
implements SDDC-specific business logic/requirements that are not
covered by these three major component types. All components other
than Siebel are also J2EE-based, and run under the BEA Weblogic
Application Server using the standard 3-tier architecture approach
of J2EE.
Complete Professional Services, Inc. (CPS) as a subcontractor to
SRA is supporting SDDC by performing requirements definition,
systems analysis, design, application development, process
engineering support, operation and maintenance.
All DPS custom J2EE modules are founded on common persistence
architecture, designed and implemented by CPS staff, based on
Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) principles and several core J2EE
technologies such as JDO, EJB and XML.
IT Facility Operation and Maintenance
CPS supports installation and testing of DPS at the Ogden, Utah
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) hosting facility
providing installation documentation, installation builds and
binary distributions as well as hands-on help and interaction with
the DISA facility staff.
IT Systems Development Services
CPS follows a classic iterative-waterfall model of systems
development for the DPS project involving the following steps given
existing requirements.
- Systems Analysis. CPS analyzes the system requirements and the
system conceptualization model, Concept of Operations or CONOPS and
determines how these requirements are accommodated in the system.
This involves extensive communication between the customer and the
developer.
- Systems Design. CPS identifies in detail how the system is
constructed to perform all required tasks. More specifically what
standards will be followed, what the interfaces signatures look
like, what data process flow and data formats are required. Such
details are captured in the DPS Software Design Description
(SDD).
- Programming. CPS creates the system software translating and
incorporating requirements, analysis and design documents into
machine readable computer code using standard J2EE best practices.
DPS employs an advanced database-access infrastructure, designed
and implemented by CPS staff, based on well-established
Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) design-patterns and principles. The
infrastructure is composed of several object models, many of which
are partially or entirely generated at build time in accordance
with MDA.
- Testing. CPS performs iterative unit tests of all components
and sub components checking for requirements compliance and
efficient operation.
IT Systems Analysis Services
CPS analyzes the system requirements and the system
conceptualization model, Concept of Operations or CONOPS and
determines how these requirements are accommodated in the system.
This involves extensive communication between the customer and the
developer.
CPS documented in detail the analysis details and software
architecture design for DPS found in the Software Design
Description (SDD). This document is organized by first presenting a
high-level discussion of the major design decisions and approach
used for DPS. The DPS high-level architecture is described, along
with associated modular depiction of its primary components along
with a brief discussion of each primary component. Also found
depicted are the general development models, design patterns, and
J2EE-based integration approach that are employed. In addition, the
concept of operation, specifically the user interface concept that
unifies the different components into a single common view using
Siebel, is discussed. It then details the internal interfaces
between the software components, as well as interfaces to external
systems. In addition, it includes the overall security model for
DPS, which encapsulates the required external interface with the
Electronic Transportation Acquisition (ETA), SDDCs single sign-on
authentication system. In the final sections, each of the
individual components that make up DPS is then described in
detail.
Automated Information Systems Design and Integration
Services
During the system design phase, CPS identifies in detail how the
system is constructed to perform all required tasks in a manner
which is automated. More specifically the data process flow and
data formats required in order to facilitate system-automation.
Such details are captured in the DPS Software Design Description
(SDD). System design for DPS integrates existing customer IT
infrastructure such as existing databases, data sources and
third-party products such as Sterling Commerce Inc. Gentran 6.0 EDI
server as well as third-party COTS products like Siebel and
Manugistics in addition to Government Off-The-Shelf (GOTS)
components.
Programming Services
CPS creates the system software translating and incorporating
requirements, analysis and design documents into machine readable
computer code using standard J2EE best practices.
DPS employs an advanced database-access infrastructure, designed
and implemented by CPS staff, based on well-established
Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) design-patterns and principles. The
infrastructure is composed of several object models, many of which
are partially or entirely generated at build time in accordance
with MDA.
Use of MDA within DPS is an approach to create good designs that
cope with multiple-implementation technologies, rapidly changing
requirements and extended software lifecycles. MDA is based on
widely used industry standards for visualizing, storing and
exchanging software designs and models.
The best known of these standards is the Unified Modeling
Language (UML). The Object Management Groups (OMG) creation of UML
has promoted good design by providing a common, widely understood
visual language for engineers to exchange and document their ideas,
which has led to a dramatic increase in the use of visual modeling.
Visual modeling has too often, however, been seen merely as a way
to draw pictures of software; pictures which must be later
translated into executable code. One of the traditional excuses for
skimping on design is that comprehensive models are just paper, and
effort spent creating them could be better spent on writing real
code. Partly as a result of this, theres a trend today towards
development techniques that emphasize creating executable code
instead of mere designs.
In contrast, MDA heavily emphasizes creating designs, not paper
designs, but machine-readable models stored in standardized
repositories. The intellectual effort invested in these models does
not just sit passively on the page waiting to be laboriously recast
as code. Instead, MDA models are understood automatically using
tools from multiple vendors. These tools generate other, more
specific models such as database schemas, Java source code or
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) translation models for the
multiple platforms used in a typical project. Design and effort
invested in MDA models are repeatedly reused to generate multiple
components.
By being updated over the life of an application, it provides
accurate documentation of how the software really functions, rather
than a frozen image of how things looked at the end of the design
phase. In short, MDA is an architecture framework for creating good
designs in todays multi-platform information technology
environment.
IT Network Management Services
CPS detects and facilitates resolution of network and firewall
problems both at SDDC and DISA government facilities and at U.S.
Bank.
Automated News Services, Data Services, or Other Information
Services
DPS incorporates a high-volume secure EDI interface between SDDC
and U.S. Bank-PowerTrack, designed and implemented by CPS staff,
incorporating a stand-alone EDI-translation COTS product (Sterling
Commerce, Gentran 6.0) and several custom data transformation and
transmission processes and sub-components.
Other Information Technology Services
- Testing Support. CPS helps facilitate and monitor Software
Acceptance Tests (SAT) conducted by SDDC, U.S. Bank and government
personnel.
- Network Management Support. CPS detects and facilitates
resolution of network and firewall problems both at SDDC and DISA
government facilities and at U.S. Bank.