Opening the DOORS of ITER’s technical requirements

ITER will count approximately over one million of components. Try to imagine the different stages they will have to go through from the moment they are conceived and designed until they get manufactured, tested and delivered. For a project like ITER with multiple interfaces these stages are bound to become a bit more complex. We therefore need a system that allows us to have good planning, traceability and sound analysis.

Europe is responsible for nearly half of ITER’s in-kind contribution. In other words, its share of procurement will be no easy task and the list of equipment to be manufactured is rather long. Therefore, Gonçalo Serra and Ivan Bénilan, working in F4E’s Project Management Department, have been looking for a system that will encompass the management of all requirements, help with the tracing of their specifications, their final acceptance and delivery. For this reason F4E has opted for IBM Rational DOORS® as the platform that will contain information about anything Europe will need to procure to ITER.

During the last two years the two colleagues have taken upon themselves the task to explain and showcase this system to F4E and ITER International Organization staff plus suppliers. Already 22 training sessions have been organised and more than 225 people have attended their hands-on workshops. Due to the specificities of the ITER project, they have taken IBM Rational DOORS® a step further, and customised it developing a platform to Manage ITER Requirements (MIR). The feedback from users has so far been positive because the new platform gives them guidance on the various steps in the lifecycle of a component and helps them have a quick overview. In fact, there seems to be some serious potential commercialising these bespoke features. They have been working closely with colleagues from the areas of Remote Handling, Cryogenics, Diagnostics, Plasma and Antennae demonstrating the benefits of the platform. Next year, however, they will target more colleagues from ITER IO and will aim to improve the traceability of project requirements.