1. The lessons learned from
the “Railpocket Wifi” project

2. The Railpocket system in a few lines..
 The Railpocket is the digital
assistent for the Frontliners of
Dutch Rail
 It’s a standard COTS Windows PDA
 Used on daily basis by 5000 Frontliners
 ..... enables a full digital workflow!
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3. The wifi on the railpocket project - a rollout in a very short timeframe
 Rollout within 5 months:
• WIFI infrastructure on 50 stations
• New software ecosystem based on an
innovative middleware synchronisation
layer
• Introduction of new operating procedures
• enabling the full digital workflow!
 Hard deadline: december 12th,
2005
• Annual start of the new shiftroster
• Project enabled a more compressed
shiftroster
• Created huge savings by staff reduction
(natural flow out)
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4. 5 months, a daunting task..
 Organisation
• an organisation used to long project cycles
and formal procedures
• new operational procedures
• tension with the unions (the staff reduction)
 Technology
• Complex IT infrastructure with multiple
owners.
• Permit issues with the network owner.
• New unproven technology
• Mission critical data distribution in a
wireless network with limited coverage
 Project
• Multiple and remote software suppliers,
language issues.
• Migration. The new distribution needed to
run in parallel with the existing distribution.
• Started in the holiday season, Final delivery
in the holiday season.
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5. In essence, the project needed ways to:
 Prevent disrupting discussions about
the new operational procedures
 Reduce the risks with unproven
technology in a fully operational system
 Prevent the steadily evolution into a
large, slow moving project team
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6. The project approach - based on 3 general principles
Rollout features fast and frequently
Keep the team small and effective
Exploit the benefits of modern
technology
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7. Rollout fast and frequently
Leading by example enables you to demonstrate the value
and react and adjust problems before they escalate
1. Use development iterations and multiple pilots
2. Use staging environments
3. Use “super users”
4. Use “sponsor stations”

8. The project outline
August September October November December
Main design
Build Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Start new
timetable
dec 12th
Acceptance Production
environment environment
Training frontliners (video etc)
Admin Start
Pilot 1 Pilot 2
training Production
Rollout Wifi (3 stations) Rollout Wifi (50 stations)
Pilot 1: 50 users @ 1 station
Pilot 2: 2000 users @ 3 stations
Production: 10.000 users @ 50 stations
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9. Use iterations and pilots
August September October November December  Iterations
• Focus on end-to-
Main design end use cases
• Start with the
Build Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Start new technical difficult
timetable issues
dec 12th
1
2
3
Production
Acceptance environment environment • Do not execute the
traditional waterfall
Training frontliners (video etc) • You will postpone
the integration
Admin
Pilot 1 Pilot 2
Start problems to the
training Production end
• You will have no
Rollout Wifi (3 stations) Rollout Wifi (50 stations) time to facilitate or
solve the migration
of 10.000 users
• The complexity in
the project will
increase and you
will fallback on
only one end-to-end use case is needed to go live! formalization and
delays
Real problems occur in the field, not in the lab

10. Use staging to reduce the risks
Version pilot1 Version pilot2
Development
Development Test Acceptance Production
 Benefits
• Fast, controlled rollouts with minimal risk
• Enables easy rollback and fallback scenarios
• Lowers the disturbance in the development
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11. Use super users
 Super users: a group of technology savvy
Frontliners with strong presentation and
communications skills.
 Selected in a formal selection procedure
• an advertisement in a frontliner magazine,
• job interviews and a role play,
• Training to improve skills
 Super users have a training/instruction role.
But can also act as the users in the first pilot
 Super users are essential when the system
goes live on multiple places. You cannot clone
the experts. They are the first line of
defense
Super users are important because they
speak the language of the Frontliner and
they keep the positive vibes in the field
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12. Start pilots in sponsor stations
 Select stations with an open mind and
obedient Frontliners.
 Use the station manager to radiate
positive vibes in the chain of command.
 Use super users on the floor and station
managers in the chain of command
creates a overall positive emotion.
•
Pilots silence objections because:
• You execute pilots - errors are part of the experience, you cannot start a
lawsuit based on errors in a pilot
• Pilots create a track record of success and momentum when you
gradually increasing the scope and size of the pilot
• At the end your increased pilot is basically production!
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13. Keep the team small and effective
A small project team runs fast, can create momentum and
ensures that the team has full focus on the essential things
1. deploy single issue management
2. create a connectivity plan
3. do not mix project communication
with creating awareness

14. A small core team with integration knowledge/capabilities
5 people: Program
- Project manager management
- Project assistent
Wifi on the Railpocket project Related projects
- System engineer
- Configuration manager
- Tester Project
management
Comm.
project Wifi@NS
rollout
Tech System Acceptance
Project
support Engineer Test project
aid
NS departments Suppliers
Planning + Functional IT + Context Railpocket
New
Logistic support Management Engine Application Behcom
Railpocket apps
Safety IAM
Infrastructure Infrastructure Infrastructure
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15. Deploy uniform and single issue management
 All suppliers were
forced to use a single
webbased issue
management system
 We included the
Super users. They
became really
involved in the
bugfixing cycle.
 Created a focus on
high quality. All
issues addressed.
fast bug fixing cycles.
 330 bugs, 169
improvements, 1100
activities and a single
teammeeting every
week.
Reduces meetings and enables fast communication with low
overhead
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16. Create a connectivity plan
 Infrastructure is a major source of delay
• complex subject which requires experts
• Returning discussions about security
• Permit issues on stations
 The solution:
• Invest heavily in an outstanding connectivity
plan
• Start the rollout when the document has
been accepted by all parties on forehand.
• Setup a demo station to validate the plan
 The connectivity plan is a sacred
document
• Act fast and furious when somebody
expressed doubt about the infrastructure
• Do not allow any updates on the document
after acceptance.
• Act as a fixed price project manager:
Postpone all changes
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17. Exploit the benefits of modern technology
Mobile middleware as an enabler
1. Context processing for multiple data distributions and easy migration
2. Create robustness with a distributed architecture
3. Create a user friendly interface to make all this less complex

18. Use context for multiple datasets and a simple migration
No coverage = Provisioning Save or discard
Click&Run™
no services of services service
 OTAP - development, Test, Acceptance and Production environments
• but in reality.....
− Setup an extra proxy
− Define a new dataset
− validate safely in the production environment
 Simple management of multiple data distributions
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19. Create a robust system with a distributed architecture
Wireless network(s) Back-end Data center
Appear
server(s)
Appear
proxies
Network
Appear clients
Enterprise Service Bus
Create scalability, reliability and a high performance
Reduces the dependency for a flawless infrastructure
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20. Example of the distributed system
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21. Reduce support load in the field with self healing
Self healing creates a fast deployment scenario
Simple and clear userinterface makes it simple to understand
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22. How can these techniques help you?

23. The project
 A 5 month time period is short
when:
• People have to adapt to a new way
of working
• The projects introduces innovative
technology
• The organization is used to slow
pace projects
 This project was:
• on time,
• above customer expectation
• and .. delivered all functionality
before the deathline!
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24. Achievements
 Meeting a hard deadline with all
functionality in place (some stations had
still some coverage problems)
 Easy migration of 10.000 users
 Error rate data synchronization dropped
from 3 percent to less then 0.1 percent.
 Substantial lower support costs by self
healing, click&run™, the use of context
and the marvelous distributed
architecture.
 The project survived 2 lawsuits initiated
by the unions.
 It uplifted existing functionality to a
higher level (WIFI enabled software).
 We created an easy to use development
platform for future new services with low
ROI and TCO figures.
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25. 1. Rollout features fast & frequently
2. Keep the team small & effective
3. Exploit modern technology to the max
QUESTIONS?