"NATS: A Case Study"

Event Report

The PROMS-G meeting held on Tuesday, 11th January, 2005 at HP, Bracknell, was a presentation by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) as a case study on a specific project which had already been implemented.

A general introduction to NATS was given by Dr Rob Witty, Chief Technology and Programmes Officer, who explained the Company’s responsibilities, coverage and control of aircraft in and around the UK, which not only covers all those landing and taking-off but any other aircraft passing through our air space.

This was followed by Andy Beaumont, Project Manager, describing a project to replace an existing training simulator with a new system using up-to-date technology to replicate, as near as possible, the new work console of the air traffic controllers. One of the main aims was to be able to train more air traffic controllers at a time.

Andy covered the technical and operational requirements together with the business case to justify the expenditure. He also emphasized how serious NATS considers risk management. Andy also described in detail the project management methodology used by NATS and discussed some of the problems encountered during the nine month project.

Both Rob and Andy were pleased to tell the audience that the project was implemented successfully and the new system was delivered on time. The discussion, both during the presentation and at the end, brought out a long list of interesting points, including the resourcing of the project, the eventual buy-in by all concerned, issues peculiar to a simulation system in Air Traffic Control operations etc.

In conclusion, it was an extremely interesting evening covering a unique project which installed a very technical system into a fascinating environment.

The slides (1.28Mb) from this presentation are now available