MIE Activity 3.10 2023 Mar 17

Details

2023-Mar-17, 12:00-12:50UTC, Microsoft Teams

Agenda/Notes

1. Welcome
2. Outcome of MIE/9:
   
3. Potential items requiring attention:
   • The means to promulgate the publication announcement of a new IWXXM version and the entities involved, taking into account the depth and breath of the recipients we would like to reach
     • Mailing list
     • State letter
     • Others
   • The content of the announcement
     • IWXXM version(s) that could be used (see version compatibility)
     • Applicable date
   • Who should be involved and the approval process workflow involved
     • WMO TT-AvData, Secretariat, or otherwise
     • ICAO WG-MIE, Secretariat, or otherwise
   • [Outside the scope of this activity] In determining the applicable date whether we need to take into consideration the expected implementation and deployment time of providers, consumers as well as requirements on aeronautical information updates (AIRAC) stipulated in Chapter 6 of ICAO Annex 15.

Discussions and actions

• Matt presented his paper on IWXXM change management: stakeholder notification is critical; release cycle takes 12 - 18 months depending on if it is minor or major release; AIRACs (every 28 days) are used in the aviation community for aligned changes to be made to systems, this way all stakeholders make required changes at the same time.
• Minor changes still have a big impact on the release cycle; No matter the size of the change, notification to Civil aviation authorities of the change to operational systems, assurance from manufacturers, testing and operational deployment is required.
• There are already another 2 updates being developed and have release dates, 1 minor 1 major. With this in mind could the need for the updates and IWXXM not being ‘stable’ be a reason why there is not as much engagement in IWXXM as is desired? [Post meeting note (Choy): This is a valid point. However, as changes to IWXXM is mostly driven by changes to Annex 3 (except FT2023-1 which involves a missing representation in WAFS SIGWX F/C), there is no way we could reduce the number of versions to be published like aggregating changes, etc. Through the decoupling of information representation and presentation (a common practice in TAC) in new IWXXM design, we hope future IWXXM can be less affected by changes in the TAC templates).
• The WMO development cycle will be provided to Matt so it can be added to the IWXXM change management study note. This will allow WMO, ICAO and stakeholders to understand why a change management ‘process’ – ‘timeframe’ is required and the length of time necessary from initial consultation to operational deployment. The WMO development cycle occurs before with a pre-release for state consultation and then approval through Fast-track procedure.
• Informing all stakeholders of a new IWXXM change is required but the most efficient method(s) need to be agreed. When IWXXM has a pre-release for state consultation, new version is released what is the forum for notification? - (Jun) could use ICAO social media and website and email notifications.
• (Jun) ICAO should circulate a state letter upon WMO approval of IWXXM release.
• (Terhi) Annex 3 should identify a date for implementation/operational use. [Post meeting note (Choy): (Jun's) view is sought on the possibility to bring up to METP/ANC the need to include the consideration of 'release cycle' in determining the applicable date of changes to Annex 3/PANS-MET that require a consequential change to IWXXM. The need for 'release cycle' is not apparent for TAC as processing of TAC messages is not necessary for most of the use cases].
• WMO has a mailing list and stakeholders can sign up to for notification: https://groups.wmo.int/tt-avdata/
• National Focal Point for Codes and Data Representation Matters can be found at - Group Profile · Customer Self-Service (wmo.int).

Attendees

• Matt Wagner
• Anna Milan
• Terhi Nikkanen
• Jun Ryuzaki

Apologies

• Tim Hailes
• Rebecca Kotten
• BL Choy