As agencies progress toward the next generation of their Traffic Management Systems (TMSs), the addition of new operation strategies or functionality is often integrally tied to operating system replacement or new software installation. A new or revised TMS may be designed and have the capability to facilitate the integration of an operating system that accommodates the addition of multiple software programs. The addition of software programs may include commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), open-source, or customized software developed by agency staff, external developers, or a combination. Agencies face uncertainty in finding the best way to design, procure, manage, and integrate software subsystems, programs, or applications to meet the current or evolving TMS needs.

There are many potential options and variations of requirements and designs that could be applied to software subsystems and meet the needs for an agency’s TMS. Currently there are limited resources to support identifying requirements, evaluating design options, and assessing different technologies (e.g., cloud, server, hybrid cloud and server) or solutions (e.g., distributed, centrally managed) for integrating and managing new or evolving TMS software subsystem, programs or applications. This project seeks to provide insights and understanding of options and practices with developing and managing requirements, designing, procuring, evaluating technologies, and maintaining TMS software subsystems, programs, and application programming interfaces (APIs).

The objective of this project is to synthesize practices and develop a technical report identifying the key issues to consider and challenges with designing, procuring, managing, and integrating new software subsystems, software, and APIs within a TMS.