IAFT
ASSOCIATION’S ANTI-DOPING PLATFORM
The Project consisted in the implementation of the anti-doping platform of the association Athletes for Transparency (AFT). This platform for athletes in all disciplines and at all levels allows them to publish the results of their doping controls.
Total project duration: 10 months
The total cost of the project was 250 man-days.
Details of the project :
Problematic
The Association Athletes For Transparency financially supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Rhône-Alpes Region and the Drôme General Council is developing a research programme linked to a technical feasibility study of the biological passport desired by WADA.
This research program is articulated between the development of an open platform for high-level athletes (AFT Program) and a technical module for the biological passport.
The main objectives of the project were :
Enable the registration of athletes and the publication of their analyses
Manage doping control campaigns and results recording
Mission statement
Development of a complete system including :
- A public website containing athlete records with their analysis results.
- A private management platform allowing the creation and follow-up of control campaigns.
Organization
For the realization of the project, 4 persons have been allocated :
- 1 project manager and functional manager
- 3 development engineers
This contract was executed entirely with Tana Corp resources dedicated to the project.
Main characteristics of the client
The Athletes for Transparency programme was initially a research programme supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency and linked to the pilot study of the technical feasibility of recording biological parameters in an individual database for the indirect detection of doping. This research programme made it possible in particular to assist with the technical implementation of the biological passport.
Today, the AFT programme is designed to provide a forum for volunteer athletes who wish to show their active commitment to the fight against doping.
Conduct of the project
Advice and support role provided throughout the project
- A real force of accompaniment: The organization of the project gives a primordial importance to the quality of the accompaniment, to make the customer benefit from the expertise and the know-how capitalized by Tana Corp on its projects of the same type.
- Consulting strength : Working in close collaboration with the customer’s interlocutors during the design phase of the solution, as well as our experience in specific development projects have enabled us to propose the best technical and functional solutions to the customer’s various problems. Moreover, Tana Corp is a force of proposal in the highlighting of functional options likely to bring a strong added value.
- Expertise in web applications: The management and exploitation interfaces of the results have been realized in the form of web applications to facilitate collaboration and access to information. We used our expertise in this field to create ergonomic and easy-to-use screens to maximize the productivity of technicians using these applications.
Proposed methodology to validate the project steps from a client’s point of view
Proposed project reporting
A monthly steering committee enabled us to steer this long-term project in close collaboration with the client.
Tools chosen for the project management
Project Management: MS Project
Incident follow-up : BugX (based on Mantis) http://www.mantisbt.org/)
Version and configuration tracking: SubVersion (http://subversion.tigris.org/)
Features of the solution
Business processes covered by the solution
- Athlete registration and account management
- Management of analysis campaigns
- Recording and publishing analysis results
What were the most difficult features to implement?
The types of anti-doping analyses and the indicators evaluated in each analysis are very varied and may change even in the short term. In order to avoid having to carry out cycles of source code updates, unit and integration tests, and deployment each time an indicator is changed, we have made the definitions of these analyses and indicators dynamic and therefore easily modifiable.
Technical platform elements
Software package, software or development languages used
After analysis of all the constraints, Tana Corp proposed the realization of a custom application, based entirely on a hybrid solution Microsoft & CMS OpenSource :
- Microsoft .Net Framework, langage C#
- ASP .Net & AJAX
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
- IIS 6 Web Serveur
- CMS Joomla
- MySql 5
Reasons for the choice
- Microsoft .Net Framework avec C# : development platform allowing an excellent cost/delivery time/quality implementation ratio.
- ASP.NET et AJAX : scripting languages allowing the development of WEB interfaces with a high level of ergonomics.
- SQL Server 2005 Express: free, high-performance database server, perfectly adapted to the target data volume.
- IIS 6 Web Server : Microsoft’s web server for hosting ASP applications
- CMS Joomla : One of the market leaders in Open Source CMS (Content Management System), highly scalable and easily configurable.
- MySql : Database server providing an ideal balance between lightness and performance.
Share of pre-existing developments used on which the Supplier has capitalised to complete the project
Libraries of AJAX interface elements already developed internally by Tana Corp.
Challenges and key success factors
- Ergonomics : daily use of the application in a production context,
- Scalability : the application is perfectly capable of managing a very large number of athletes and analyses.
Business result