The home of the

FRAME architecture.

The Selection Tool

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 340kB (zip file - Selection Tool and Help files)

Download 400kB (zip file - Selection Tool Database)

Download 1MB (zip file - Patch files (see below))

The Selection Tool comprises THREE 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_ST_vPQR.mdb where:
a) XYZ is the version number of the FRAME Architecture and this should be same as for the Browsing Tool
b) PQR is the version number of the Selection Tool and this must be the same as for the exe file in Part 1

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.

Part 3 - Patch Files

Some PCs will not be able to run the Selection Tool without the addition of certain extra "system" files. Since it is no longer possible to predict what the missing files might be on your PC, we are unable to provide precise instructions. Files that are often missing can be found in the file "Patch.zip" and they can be installed by extracting them into the Selection Tool directory and then execuing the "Patch.bat" file. If this does not solve your problem you should contact your local PC expert (the error message gives the name of the missing file).

Using the Selection Tool

Reference Manual

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

Download 6MB (pdf - Reference Manual)

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 aleady 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.

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. 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.