The home of the FRAME architecture

If you have not already done so, please Read Me First and The FRAME Architecture V4.1.

The Selection Tool provides support for a user to select a consistent sub-set of the FRAME Architecture (Functional Viewpoint), and then to create one or more Physical Viewpoints of this sub-set.

Installation

Download 1.4MB (zip file - Selection Tool, Help and system files) - if you have any problems downloading this file please contact info(at)frame-online.net

Download 1.3MB (zip file - Selection Tool Database) - if you have any problems downloading this file please contact info(at)frame-online.net

The Selection Tool comprises TWO parts and it should be installed into its own directory.

Part 1 - The Tool itself

FRAME Selection Tool.zip - extract "using folder names"
The tool is started by executing FRAME_SelTool_vPQR.exe, where PQR is the version number

Part 2 - The Database

FRAME_DB_vXYZ.mdb where XYZ is the version number of the FRAME Architecture and this should be same as for the Browsing Tool.

NOTE - any execution of the Selection Tool will make changes to this database and so you are recommended to keep an unused "read only" copy in case you need to start again.

System Requirements

Windows XP - the Selection Tool should run without any further actions provided the system (ocx, oca & dll) files are kept in the same directory as the exe file. The patch.bat file should only be executed if you get an error message saying that one or more of the system files cannot be found.

Windows Vista - not yet available

Windows 7 - not yet available

Using the Selection Tool

Reference Manual

A detailed Reference Manual on how to use the Selection Tool is available.

Download 6MB (pdf file)

Short Notes

Some short notes on how to use the Selection Tool are also available

Download 150kB (pdf file)

Overview

The following is an overview of how the Selection Tool is intended to be used.

When creating a bespoke ITS Architecture from the FRAME Architecture the architecture team needs to select a sub-set of the FRAME Architecture and, possibly, add some extra functionality that us not currently present. This process is supported by the FRAME Selection Tool which contains a database with all the elements of the FRAME Architecture, and to which more can be added. This is illustrated in the following figure.

Use of the FRAME Selection Tool

The Tool does not perform any selections automatically, but it does support the architecture team in its use of the methodology in the following ways.

• The team selects those User Needs that reflect the Stakeholder Aspirations.
• The tool will then guide the architecture team to those parts of the Functional Viewpoint that help to satisfy those User Needs.
• The FRAME Architecture does not claim to satisfy every possible ITS User Need, and in some circumstances it may be necessary to add extra User Needs and Functional Viewpoint elements to the Selection Tool data base.
• Since the mapping from User Needs to Functions is not an exact science, the tool will probably report some logical inconsistencies after the first pass (e.g. a data flow with only the function at one end selected). The team can then select further elements, or deselect some of those already selected, until there are no logical consistency errors, and they are satisfied that their selection fully represents the Functional Viewpoint needed to satisfy the Stakeholder Aspirations.
• Once a Functional Viewpoint is considered acceptable, it can be used as the basis for one or more Physical Viewpoints. The architecture team does this by allocating functions and data stores to individual sub-systems, and to modules within them if required. Modules are used to partition the functionality in sub-systems so that, for example, the functionality for traffic management can be separated from that for parking management.
• Once a Physical Viewpoint has been completed one of the reports available from the Selection Tool can be used to provide the starting point for an analysis of the Physical Data Flows. This leads to the creation of the Communications Viewpoint, which shows the characteristics of the links required between each of the sub-systems and modules, plus those with the Terminators.
• The Tool permits more than one Physical Viewpoint to be created from a Functional Viewpoint so that the advantages and disadvantages of different component configurations, physical locations and deployment scenarios can be explored.

Thus, although the Selection Tool does not have any intelligence to make decisions on behalf of the architecture team, it does perform much of the detailed work of recording all the decisions taken by them. Experience has shown that it is not normally necessary to produce a Data Flow Diagram of the Function Viewpoint since all the information required to produce a Physical Viewpoint is held within the data base.