Development of a Dispatch System for Fire Brigade - Essay Example

18 November Development of a Dispatch System for Fire Brigade Executive summary This report will highlight the internalization issues involved in globally introducing a model that substantially resembles the ambulance dispatch system developed for London. The report shall shed light on the general software issues, changes in the software construction procedure, and issues specific to fire fighting dispatch systems. Introduction Internationalization includes creating and modifying current software systems to incorporate localizable elements. The advanced design of the software is re-engineered in consideration of the locale-market needs. Factors such as current dispatch system, customers’ needs, and localization requirements will determine the particular aspects of the software that need to be internationalized. General software issues The first step should be a re-analysis of the software design in consideration of the global requirements of fire brigades and market opportunities. The rest of software construction would revolve around four key areas, namely, user interaction, algorithm design and format, software services, and documentation. Re-engineering or modifying existing software will involve introducing local–dependent elements into design by the use of application programming interface, specific libraries, or creating new ways to implement changes for internationalization. The local-dependent components should be arranged in a locale-invariant core with processes to trigger the cultural and language dependent aspects for particular target locales (Hall 60). Modularization should be employed by dividing the application software into various parts, which will reduce complexity involved in re-engineering. Dependencies within each part should be isolated and factored out in order to incorporate adequate features for localized version in the localization procedure. The implementation of these parts will in turn depend on the primary operating system, kind and characteristics of other services utilized by the application, for instance, windows management or telecommunication. The graphical user interface should connect the resources to run-time to benefit from dynamic libraries while the program executes. Moving on, the application design should have the same data formatting as the platform on which it runs. Issues specific to fire fighting dispatch systems A global dispatch software solution for fire brigade needs to consider several aspects. For instance, it needs to incorporate mobile computing, which will enable actual fire brigadiers to access the same incident information as is available to operators. Additionally, mobile computing should allow for automatically updating incident activity logs and status reports through a secure source. It is critical to reduce response time rates to the minimum in life-death situations such as fire hazards (Walz, Krumperman and Zigmon 245). Moreover, an element of interoperability should be introduced in the global version of dispatch system. It is integral for a global dispatch software solution to offer data-sharing capabilities amongst multiple agencies across widespread jurisdictions. The introduction of interoperability will be beneficial in a variety of ways. For instance, it will help in improving situational knowledge, incident planning, and greatly reduce response time rate (Brennan and Krohmer 80). This will also improve the extensive interface facilities in the overall despatch software. Lastly, the global fire brigade despatch system should contain reporting and analytical capabilities. This will allow public safety organizations all over the globe to more effectively manage the plethora of valuable information generated daily. This aspect should be specifically tailored in consideration of the requirements of local fire brigades in order to aid in more effective decision-making. Changes in the software development process of the company For developing successful international software, aspects that will be affected by localization should be identified and treated as separate modules. Changes should be made in data encoding to ensure that the software processes information in universal data formats and transforms them into particular localized representations when displayed. Conversion algorithms should be gathered in particular modules and definition rules should be divided from algorithms to facilitate localization. This point will be especially relevant for character manipulation and text processing as language varies across regions (Hook 209). Therefore, these algorithms should be accumulated into specific modules to divide the language-dependent points from the algorithms to tailor to local requirements. Isolating all localized features into clear local-dependent modules will help in restricting access and modification for localization to these particular modules. Additionally, application interface programming should involve a universal coding system such as Unicode to be internationally portable. Localization should be limited to the external data format employed for user interface. Furthermore, system information will be crucial in the success of a globalized dispatch fire brigade system. This is because system information contained in processes make up an application, system information files, or system servers. The sharing factor will allow fire brigades globally to fulfill their reporting and analytical responsibilities. Moreover, the operating system of this internationalized dispatch software should support universal coordinated time. Graphical terms and symbols used for denoting particular system components need to be localized to aid understanding. The internationalized software should also disallow inputting prohibited or problematic characters in naming files or directories. Lastly, data exchange should be modified to facilitate the transfer of information across globe as quickly as possible. This will aid in identifying the nearest fire brigade to the accident scene and simultaneously equip those fire fighters with the same information as the local operator. The software should be tailored in order to facilitate transfer of multilingual data and information from various countries in dissimilar languages. The data should be transferred without compromising the original locale. The data exchange aspect should be modified to identify the local definition of the application and convert it instantly as well. Conclusion The development of internationalized software for fire brigades will enable response teams to identify easily the geographical locations of the accidents, nearest response vehicles by providing first responders with the same incident information as dispatchers. Thus, this software will not only escalate the performance of response teams, but also more importantly, save more lives and properties all around the globe. Recommendations Attention should not be solely focused on software development and modification, since there are numerous other aspects that affect the creation of internationalized software. Before global implementation, a prototype should be first tested across some countries to ensure its effectiveness Works Cited Brennan, John A. and Jon R. Krohmer. Principles of Ems Systems 3e. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2005. Print. Hall, Patrick A. V. Software without frontiers: a multi-platform, multi-cultural, multi-nation approach. New York: Wiley, 2007.Print. Hook, Brian. Write Portable Code: A Guide to Developing Software for Multiple Platforms. Daly: No Starch Press, 2005.Print. Walz, Bruce J., Kurt M. Krumperman and Jason J. Zigmon. Foundations of EMS Systems. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010.Print. Read More