Overview
As part of Project L13A, the research team successfully developed, tested, and released a webbased, interactive archive system to store data and information from Reliability and Reliabilityrelated projects from the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2): http://www .shrp2archive.org. The SHRP 2 Reliability Archive is designed to provide an open and accessible data hub. This hub creates a foundation that encourages additional transportation data research. Without the SHRP 2 Archive system, valuable data artifacts—including measured traffic data by various types of sensing equipment, structured analytic databases, spreadsheets, research reports, and other valuable transportation data—would be stored in scattered locations in forms that might not be publicly accessible.
The SHRP 2 Archive resolves the scattered nature of data by creating a hub of data storage that is organized with built-in visualization tools for online analysis as well as downloadable structured data sets to support further research. By storing data in a consolidated and public manner, SHRP 2 has increased the likelihood that future researchers will discover data, thus increasing the value of the data and decreasing the cost of data acquisition for the collective transportation community. This structure also saves valuable resources for additional research by reducing the acquisition costs of time and funding that are associated with additional data collection.
As a part of the initial preparatory analysis, the L13A project team reviewed the findings of the SHRP 2 prototype L13 project report and past work on data archiving systems and technologies. This analysis resulted in the selection of WordPress as the core content management system (CMS), on which the Archive system was built. The selection of WordPress was based on its simplicity, flexibility, and extensibility.
The development of the Archive itself was an iterative and two-sided process involving the stakeholders or users on one side and the developers or the project team on the other side. An agile software approach was used to develop the Archive; using the methodology allowed for needs and requirements to evolve through collaboration between both sides. Through a series of phases, the L13A project team established a collaborative effort in which a subject matter expert (SME) group—consisting of the Technical Expert Task Group (TETG) members, future users, and experts—worked together to help the software design team identify practical user requirements and design a system that can be operational for more than 25 years.
The main steps for developing the Archive consisted of the following:
- Identify user needs, in collaboration with key stakeholders and potential users of the Archive;
- Design, test, and deploy a cost-effective, interactive, scalable, and robust archive system to store artifacts from SHRP 2 Reliability or Reliability-related projects;
- Develop processes and procedures to collect, upload, and use artifacts;
- Define a guideline to prepare artifacts for upload;
- Discuss challenges and issues regarding operations and maintenance of the Archive; and
- Provide technical information on the design and architecture of the Archive system.