DUET is gaining traction by achieving a more detailed understanding of user’s requirements, whether they be citizens, city employees, policy officials or policy makers, in each of the three pilot regions of Athens, Pilsen and Flanders.
A recent output of 11 ‘what if’ scenarios (otherwise known in agile delivery as epics) describes how the DUET Digital Twin processes will support policy making process across the fields of transportation, environment and health. These were created by inviting a representative sample of end users from Athens, Pilsen and Flanders to informally tell their stories, e.g. “As a... , I want to… , with the goal of…” in relation to a given scenario.
Their feedback was captured in a simple template to ensure all this rich information was recorded in a consistent format. These collective user insights are now being used to ensure that goals of the project are truly aligned with the needs of the users.
The user stories together with a map of all the stakeholders enables the project to identify all the potentially relevant data sources needed for the Digital Twin pilots and estimate their availability. At this stage of the project the pilots need to keep an open mind as to other data opportunities that could be utilitised as the work progresses, as better ways forward may present themselves. Information on data availability is vital in determining the feasibility of the eleven ‘epics’ going forwards. Though much will depend upon the quality of datasets and their updates over the duration of the project. However, having early sight of the overall picture enables the project work to be focused on delivering the best solutions and value to users and stakeholders alike.
Where do we go next? Well this work enables the pilot regions to define the actual user cases for their digital twin and at the same time serve as input for the technical team so that they can build relevant technical solution. This collective effort results in the ‘final list of user and technical requirements for the DUET solution’. In order to whittle down to this level of detail, the user stories will need to be further refined so that an informed selection against an agreed number of criteria can be made around on which ‘epics’ to pursue. These decisions will need to weigh up factors such as feasibility versus level of ambition, availability and quality of data, overcoming any potential legal hurdles e.g. ownership, privacy and sharing of data, the level of sponsorship and engagement from key decision makers; as well as eliminating any duplication across the different pilot regions.
It’s still early days for DUET, but it is exciting to see the collective learning and synergy across each pilot and indeed each user story, which over time will enable best practices to be shared.