Problem reporting
According to the Central Reporting Office (CRO) terms of reference one of the key tasks of the CRO is to manage problem reporting, investigation and resolution when local resolution is impossible. It is anticipated that there will be two levels of problem reporting and investigation; a local level managed by a particular stakeholder (e.g. ANSP, ACSP, airline, avionics supplier etc.) and a central level managed by the CRO. Whether any particular stakeholder decides to offer a local problem reporting and investigation service is a matter for them to decide and if they do decide to offer such as service, how that service operates is also a matter for them to decide. However in order to maintain an overview of the status of the entire system the CRO would like to be informed about all problems found and their resolutions, even if those problems have been reported and resolved at the local level. Hence the CRO offers a facility that allows:
- Problems that are reported and resolved locally to be recorded centrally with the CRO.
- Problems that are reported locally but which cannot be resolved locally to be passed on to the CRO for resolution. This may be for any reason, for example because the problem involves the interaction of several parts of the overall system.
What sort of problems should be reported?
This procedure is intended to be used to record any kind of problem experienced in the implementation and usage of the data link services in Europe. For example it should be used to report problems relating to:
- The operational use of datalink services (DLIC, ACM, ACL and AMC)
- The use of ATN
- The use of FANS 'aircraft equipped with FANS will be accommodated in Europe, so should presumably also be included in our problem reporting even though it’s not covered by the DLS IR'
- The use of VDL Mode 2
- Any of the documentation associated with the implementation of the DLS IR (e.g. the implementing rule itself, the SPR, guidance documents etc.)
- Any specific piece of technical equipment.
The procedure should not be used to ask for clarification of any documentation, the CRO will provide a separate forum for this purpose. Nor should be the system be used for problems in local documentation.
The CRO Problem Reporting Tool
A separate online tool is provided to record and manage problem reporting by the CRO. This tool is based on a commercial issue tracking application called JIRA, which has been specially configured to meet the needs of the CRO.
The Different CRO Communities
There are a number of different groups of people defined as part of the problem reporting procedure. They are as follows:
- CRO Coordinators. Member of CRO Core team and able to assign PRs to members of CRO core team for investigation.
- CRO Core: Core team of SMEs here. Able to read all PRs, Raise PRs.
- CRO members: Representatives from each organisation. Will be registered users on the PR database. Able to raise PRs. Able to read their own PRs and any PRs made available to all CRO members. << need to be given the right to set issue security levels in JIRA – see http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA044/Configuring+Issue+Level+Security >>
- Link community: Broader community of users – pilots, controllers, engineers etc. People who use link services or work on them but are not main points of contact for their organisation. <<generally expect this community to interact either with their local CRO member or via the wiki – we will keep an eye on the wiki and raise PRs for anything that seems like a real.new problem>>