As Head of SESAR Industrial Support and member of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), could you describe to us the fundamental elements in the construction, testing and validation of Air Traffic Control Systems?
The Air Traffic Control sector is characterised by two conflicting requirements: on the one hand, ensuring innovation of existing systems and procedures by applying new technologies and concepts, and on the other hand, respecting operational needs and, above all, the requirements of safety and continuity of a service that must be available 24 hours a day with high levels of quality. The balance between these two requirements is related to the recognition of"performance" as a a guiding element in the development activities. This allows one to direct essential elements such as operational safety and at the same time human factors - vis-à-vis users and operators of Air Traffic Control systems - but also more operational aspects that benefit from innovation, such as the increase in transport flows, the reduction in fuel consumption and impacts on the environment and also a decline in delays. These principles are reflected in concrete terms in construction, testing and validation activities through the strict application of certain system engineering processes, in particular those of architecture and of the formal management of validation requirements and results. This allows one to demonstrate the original performance goals through the various stages of design and development of the system components and lastly to verify the achievement of the expected results or, conversely, the appreciation of possible rejects.

To what extent are the traditional system engineering processes directly applicable to research and development in the domain of ATM?
The seven years of activities under the SESAR Programme have shown that, although one should always refer to consolidated system engineering processes, on the other hand, working to serve the ATM community requires traditional methodology to be brought into line with the specific aspects of the application domain and with the actual maturity level of research activities. This need for the standard principles to be adapted should not be viewed as a limitation of the success and potential of systems engineering in the field of Air Traffic Control. In fact, one of the golden rules in the implementation of systems engineering is the actual modification of standard processes based on specific needs within each application context. It is accepted that the lack of such flexibility gives rise to the risk of rejection of the methodology by its users and therefore the loss of the expected benefits and the frustrating waste of the associated investments.

The application of common methodologies, on such a large scale, for the definition and validation of systems within the framework of a vast European Programme such as SESAR, is a new element. What are the first results of this experience? What new aspects are there in the future Programmes?
To be absolutely transparent, the early days were difficult, mainly because of the originally proposed methodology - inspired by industrial development experiences in the field of defence and space - which introduced excessive complexity and rigour with regard to the actual level of maturity, the SESAR Programme's research activities and the fairly heterogeneous background of the ATM community. The close collaboration with the SJU and the SESAR Programme projects made it possible to gradually adapt the processes so as to find the right dose of methodology that allows one to draw the maximum benefit from investment in system engineering activities. The processes defined during these years now provide essential support to the management and control of the programme, in particular by providing guarantees on the quality of the results which need to be shared with others, such as the Deployment Manager and the European Commission. The intention of the SJU is probably to confirm the application of system engineering processes in the future SESAR 2020 Programme. The experience of recent years will be put to good use: lessons learned in the application of the methodology in the SESAR 1 Programme will, therefore, be the starting point for the SESAR 2020 Programme.

Since 2011, the SESAR JU has entrusted the leadership of one of the SESAR Reviews to ENAV, in the capacity of WP3 Leader. What do you think about the role of ENAV also in view of the new SESAR 2020 Programme?
ENAV, as leader of the group of SESAR projects that define, develop and test the validation platforms (Work Package 3), plays an extremely important role in SESAR within the scope of the system engineering activities. The platforms are, in fact, the meeting point (integration) between the new technologies and pre-existing systems. The platform development methodology guarantees quality and therefore has a direct impact on the validity of the results in the ATM research conducted within the Programme.
The attention brought by ENAV to the engineering processes is confirmed by the responsibility it bears in conducting the programme reviews which authorise the launching of validation campaigns, which are notoriously among the most resource-consuming activities in the life cycle of a project. These reviews are a typical example of the value added of system engineering processes: a limited investment to mitigate a risk with potentially critical effects.
In preparation for the SESAR 2020 Programme, ENAV is acting as a catalyst to confirm the need for a methodology that will embrace the activities in future projects. The transition towards the new programme is seen by ENAV as an opportunity to innovate certain processes, relying on the principle of collaborative engineering and facilitating the move from the culture of documentary support to one that gives prominence to the information content.