The Technical Standards Enterprise System (TSES)

 

The diagram below shows all components of the TSES. The components which are specifically in scope for the current change are enclosed within the red box, although the test strategy is common across the TSES programme.

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TSES components

All components are summarised below for information.

Collaborative Authoring and Review System (CARS)

CARS is an online, controlled documents collaborative authoring and review tool; specifically designed to:

  • aid efficient document development between dispersed authoring teams​
  • enforce defined drafting rules​
  • ensure consistency​
  • facilitate consultation, approval/authorisation
  • produce publishable PDF and accessible HTML outputs

See the CARS help page here: https://help.futuredmrb.co.uk/using-cars/

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Index Manager

An administrative tool used to publish authorised CARS documents into the Digital Library.

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Digital Library

An authoritative, read only store of published documents (current and archive). Currently, DMRB and IAN documents are published in the Digital Library, the archive goes back to Feb 2001.  The Digital Library incorporates the ‘Index’ (a graph data structure) as managed by the Index Manager; this is authoritative record of publications and the chronological relationship between published documents.

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Publication and Standards APIs

These APIs expose published documents, associated meta data and digitalised clause content to third parties.

The Publication API is for use solely by the Standards for Highways website, providing access to PDF and HTML versions of published documents with associated meta data.

The Standards API is intended for use by third party engineering design and construction software, product and supplier catalogues, contract compilers, requirements management, etc.  The Standards API will not provide access to PDF and full HTML versions of published documents, purposely enforcing the use of the Standards for Highways site as the source of published documents.

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Departure Approval System (DAS)

A cloud-based information and workflow system enabling users to collaboratively develop and process departures from standards or specifications, facilitating expedient determination.

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Departures API

A future development that will support the creation of new departure applications with DAS where need has been identified in external system, facilitating efficiency in the application process. (Please note, applications will still need to be reviewed by a person within DAS before submission to National Highways for review.)

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Specifier Tool

A future development that will allow specifiers to author scheme specifications based on a digitalised Manual of Contract Documents for Highways Works (MCHW) which is currently being refreshed using CARS.

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TSES Business Intelligence

Transforming information taken from all TSES components into structured data for analysis, presented via Power BI or fed back into the tools as real-time guidance

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