How much effort does it take to implement the IOS?
A simple SurveyMonkey questionnaire was setup: 
https://nl.surveymonkey.com/r/LW7GFVP
Figure: Effort required to create an IOS adapter
Effort drivers
The question how much effort is involved in creating an adapter for your tool really depends on the kind of tool you are considering and what you want to achieve with the adapter. The following aspects are important (in rough order of decreasing impact):
- How open is your tool for interoperability? This depends on internal structure of data. The less open for interoperability, the more effort.
- How mature does the adapter need to be? The more mature, the more effort.
- Is this the first time you build an adapter? The less experience, the more effort.
- How fast should the data exchange via the adapter be? The faster, the more effort.
- How many IOS domains must the adapter support? The more IOS domains, the more effort.
Interoperability definition TRL 1-2: 2 – 12 weeks
The need for interoperability is identified and specified, a solution is chosen and a functional mapping from your own tool towards the chosen solution is established. A solution in this case is a particular interoperability implementation approach such as IOS, import/export, sockets, etc.
| Regular effort | Extra effort | Effort saved |
| Time to define your local processes that use this tool’s data or are affected by it | ||
| Understanding the user’s workflow, requirements and business objectives | ||
| Need for interoperability for the tool identified | ||
| Time to define data artefacts involved | ||
| Deciding the scope of the interoperability solution | Deciding which IOS domains the solution could cover | |
| Time to map existing artefacts onto artefacts of the chosen solution. | CRYSTAL offers examples how to do this mapping. It is only necessary to make this mapping once, not for each new tool you want to be interoperable with. | |
| Getting to know the chosen solution (first time only). | Mapping engineering steps to functionalities of the chosen solution. | CRYSTAL offers examples how to do this mapping. It is only necessary to make this mapping once, not for each new tool you want to be interoperable with. |
Interoperability prototyping TRL 3-5: 3 – 14 weeks
The interoperability solution has been prototyped, i.e. the required functionalities are available for evaluation. The solution has been integrated in System Engineering Environment, i.e. it is possible to execute the workflow.
| Regular effort | Extra effort | Effort saved |
| Time to install the development tool for the solution (first time only) | ||
| Get to know the development tool for the solution (first time only) | ||
| Prototype level coding and testing | ||
| Establish a data provision connection between your tool and the solution | Time to create provider adapters. Time to determine link style. | You now publish your data for all tools that wish to use it. So you have to do this only once for this tool |
| Establish a data consumption connection between your tool and the solution | Time to create consumer adapters. | You can now read from any tool that publishes this type of data (this IOS-domain). So you have to do most of this only once and only test it for new providers. |
| Time to set up authorizations | ||
| Time to test pilot solution in parallel |
Implementation at client TRL 6-9: 4 – 10 weeks
| Regular effort | Extra effort | Effort saved |
| Adapt functionality of the solution based on evaluation | ||
| Optional: adapting tool to make it more open for interoperability | ||
| Piloted in project | ||
| Integration of solution in existing tool chain | ||
| User customization of the solution |
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