Development of a System for Geologic Data Storage through a R&D Software Process

In this paper, the software process employed to develop the Geonote geological data storage system is described; and the prototype-based requirements engineering is complemented with the technique developer-as-apprentice for operation-context requirements elicitation. The Geonote system provides the means for geological data collection, capture and storage; with desktop and mobile versions Geonote's characteristics arise from the needs posed by an international company dedicated to data collection and analysis of geological data. Following the COMET-OCEP process, the result of the first phase (research), generated a solid design, independent of the implementation, and following the requirements obtained through disposable prototypes. The first prototype was built on paper, considering the user interface and geological data typical of fieldwork. The last two software-based prototypes, were tested in real capture scenarios (developer as an apprentice), and new features were found that were not considered in previous requirements. The overall design obtained from a stable set of requirements and independent of the implementation platform. The second phase (development) starts with implementation decisions in detailed design, and agile development begins with periodic incremental deliveries based on OCEP. As a result, a desktop version was developed in Java and is being used for the concentration of historical data from geologic field notebooks.