Community Software Design: The Unidata Java-Based MetApps Project

The goal of the Unidata MetApps Project is to deliver platform independent analysis and display tools for the university community. Building successful tools must involve the users in both the design and testing phases. The Unidata MetApps Project has evolved to maximize user input in the software development process through the creation of use cases. The MetApps Task Force represents the interests of the university community considering tools for teaching and research. The role of the Task Force is threefold: soliciting input from the community at large, defining software requirements, and testing prototype tools. An essential component of the software design and development process is communication between the Task Force and the Unidata Development Team. Communication is accomplished in a number a ways including email, conference calls, and a Web based discussion forum known as UMADA (Unidata MetApps Discussion Area http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/community/committies/umada). UMADA provides capabilities that support the MetApps Project through the use of focused discussion areas and it is used throughout the entire development process from initial specification of requirements to the testing of prototype tools. In the short tenure of the MetApps Project, significant progress using this community based design approach has been made leading to the development of prototype tools to be described and demonstrated. Examples of these include an image viewer, interactive sounding tool, gridded data viewer, and radar viewer.