European Commission Managing European consumer’s health safety and protection through alert systems Developments for the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General Evelyne LUCTKENS (Projects & Bids Manager) Ludovic DERAVET (Technical Team Manager)

What? The Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General (DG SANCO) of the European Commission manages alert systems to provide rapid information exchange between Member States and the Commission about measures taken in case of danger to the health and safety of the consumers.

Business Opportunity  Build a robust platform for Rapid Alert Systems (RAS),  Consolidate users requirements,  Develop a rich client interface,  Integrate different European Commission tools.

Objectives  Identify common business characteristics,  Harmonize the different Rapid Alert Systems to provide a similar interface to end users,  Facilitate the exchange of information between Member States and the European Commission.

Systems RASFF Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed RAPEX / REIS Rapid Exchange Information System for consumer products RAS-BICHAT Rapid Alert System for Biological and Chemical agent Attacks GRAS Generic Rapid Alert System Used by

Project Structure and Organisation GRAS Team Project manager Project LeaderDevelopers RAS Team Project Manager Project LeaderDevelopers QA Team TestingQA Reports Functional Team Users requirements AnalysisQA Reports DG SANCO Sponsor and Lead IT TeamRAS RASFF/RAPEX/RAS-BICHAT Content Manager Users

RUP Methodology Analysis and Design Implementation Testing Evaluation (DG SANCO) Continuous Integration Iterations Test Reports Deployment

Methodology Iterations have many advantages: – Easier integration of users’ change requests, – Quick delivery enabling rapid user feedback, – Early discovery of misunderstandings and rapid adaptation, – Easier processing of the information flow. But: – They require rapid customer’s feedback, – They require additional management (for each iteration).

Situation at Project Launch Functional and technical analysis documents written by other consultants in Development of a generic platform failed, Diverging systems since no common platform, Several applications in place: – Access DB for RASFF, – Operational RAPEX procedures, – Operational RAS-BICHAT system, – RAS-CHEM under development, Evolving users requirements with much information to handle.

Project Realization Gathering of users requirements, Writing of Functional Analysis for GRAS, RASFF & RAPEX Development of mock-ups (web prototypes) Gap Analysis for RAS-BICHAT & RAS-CHEM Phase 1 Development of GRAS (five iterations) Phase 2 Development of RASFF (four iterations) Development of RAPEX (five iterations) Development of RAS-BICHAT (one iteration) Phase 3

General Process Member State Alert is raised and registered into the RAS system Submission Validation Creation Submitted to European Commission Distribution Validation Distributed to concerned Member States Member States

GRAS Common Platform Services MessagingRepository Business Process (workflow) The Whole System RASFFRAPEXRAS European Commission’s Tools SANCAS (authentication & authorization) SAAS Web (users management) XML Gate (validation of alerts) data RAS Web Interface BO (Business Object) Reporting Statistics

Issues Rich multi-lingual system Data language (applies to values from controlled value lists) User interface Warning (through s) Business Process (workflow) Differences in business processes : validation, distribution, translation, urgency, … Content Managers focus on their RAS and have wide expectations Others New complex or evolving requirements Difficulty to structure alerts content (free text fields) Project’s Content Managers from different locations, working independently from each other Complex integration and follow-up between systems (GRAS / RAS / Commission’s tools)

Example (1) Users’ home page: Tasks List Filters Users settings Search for Alerts Manage Alerts Information Messages Important items are easily accessible Users’ main menu. Navigation in large list Filters Important information displayed to users in “blocks”

Example (2) Original Alert: No huge form but only what users have to specify Different contextual helps to guide users (by section, by field…) Multilingual interface (buttons, lists…) Navigation by tabs Users get help by various means Complex Alerts are organized in tabs (with dependencies) Dynamic Action tool bar to minimize possible actions

Example (3) Original Alert: Dynamic forms Very complex fields Many dependencies across fields Complex validations that help users to quickly identify and solve issues Each tab might content several “blocks” Only what is really needed ! Validation to help users filling in their Alert

Questions?