Entering Preliminary Compilation of Required Data.
1) Launch an Internet browser and enter the URL: e.g.,
https://MachineName/WIN911/. From here you can navigate to all other module GUIs using the navigation links located at the top of the page.
2) Input connection information for locating and notifying alarm responders. This information will include Email addresses, duty schedules and roles and is entered through the /Contacts/Connections link. Further details of connection data entry are suppressed for the remainder of this discussion in order to focus on the development of strategies and tactics that follow.
Development of Advanced Tactics
1) Design advanced tactics by clicking the navigation links
/notification/tactics/advanced tactics/. Click the add-create icon (+) at the bottom right of the tactics list to bring up a blank advanced tactic workspace in edit mode. Enter a unique name for the tactic and give it a brief description in the fields provided. The blank tactic is represented by a green circular start node (where the tactic begins) and red end node (where the tactic concludes) and directional link lines that represent the flow of tasking.
2) Drag and drop tactical instruction blocks from the right hand pane directly into the tactic design workspace. Blocks are chosen from the three categories
notification, decision, and miscellaneous. Position the block by dropping it on the link in the place where you want the block to execute.
For example: If you want the tactic to pause for 5 minutes before taking action, you would click on the Misc tab at the bottom right of the instruction block pane (which would bring up the Misc instruction block section) and drag the delay block to the middle of the tactic and drop it between the start node and the end node. The tactical display will adjust with the new block present. You would then need
the center of the edit form that appears. Select the minute’s unit and click the up arrow five times to set the timer.
The tactic can evaluate the acknowledgement condition of the alarm by the insertion of an Ack decision block. Click the decision tab at the bottom of the instruction block pane to display the desired section. Click the Decision block and drag and drop it in the tactic directly on the flow line beneath the delay block. The tactical display will adjust by including the block and will branch the tactical path into two separate routes. One route will branch off to the left representing the path to be taken if the condition (acknowledgement) is false. This is indicated by the letter F and a red color-coded corner. The right (unlabeled) path is to be taken if the condition is true. Both routes terminate in the end node.
The tactic will invoke remote notification procedures when arriving at a notification block, which can be selected from the notification instruction blocks section. A single person (or entire groups of people) can be notified in a single notification block, depending on the particular block selected. In this example, a notify single block will be dropped in the false path that will instruct the tactic to notify the designated contact. After the block is dropped in the path, the WIN911
administrator will click the block and select edit to designate the contact to be notified. The contact selector polls the Email notifier for its respective list of contacts to choose from and displays them in a scrollable selection list. The contact will have a duty schedule that determines when that person is on duty. The notify block has the option to ignore that schedule and notify that person regardless, which this example will use. By clicking the checkbox to the left of the contacts name and the checkbox below the selection list named "Ignore Duty Schedule", the notification block and the example tactic is complete. Click the save icon at the bottom right of the workspace and the tactic now appears in the tactics list box and is available for selection in the strategies workspace.
Development of Strategies
Create any number of strategies based on the desired notification rules. Each strategy will have a unique user-defined name and can optionally contain a description to elaborate on the function of the strategy. Then designate policies to define the behavior of the strategy under particular conditions. The strategy will manage the remote notification procedures by controlling the tactics based on the events that occur in the life cycle of the alarm. Typically the strategy will begin with a triggering event (or condition) like a new alarm, which will call an initial
beginning tactic (Action). Each strategy can have an unlimited number of interior policies that modify the notification rules as required by subsequent events such as state changes and elapsed time. Lastly each strategy should have a terminal condition that will end the strategy based on the end of the alarms life cycle.
Design strategies by clicking the navigation links /notification/strategies. Click the create icon at the bottom right of the strategies list to bring up a blank strategy workspace in edit mode. Enter a unique name for the strategy and give it a brief description in the fields provided. The strategy is configured by creating policies that contain a condition (which is an alarm event) and an Action (which will usually involve the invocation and/or modification of a tactic). In this example the WIN- 911 Administrator will create a new strategy by selecting an initial policy that begins execution when a new alarm event occurs. The policy condition is selected from the pull-down list by clicking the down arrow and highlighting "New Alarm". The action that the initial policy takes will be to start tactic 1 by clicking the down arrow in the pull-down list and highlighting the "Start Tactic" action. This will bring up and extra input button that the WIN-911 Administrator clicks to specify the desired tactic.
The example strategy will be terminated when the alarm event is both acknowledged and the value of the data returns to its normal range. Thus a second policy is added with the condition "terminal" and the action "end strategy" selected. When the strategy is saved it then becomes available in the alarms workspace where a particular alarm event can be assigned to the strategy.
After the strategy and its tactics are developed and tested they can be utilized by the runtime modules when the strategy is assigned to an alarm event. This is done by clicking the navigation links alarming/source/alarms and then selecting the desired item. Next click the edit icon followed by the alarms tab. The strategy pull-down selector is enabled and the WIN-911 administrator can click the down arrow and highlight the desired strategy. Once this is done the save icon can be selected, causing the strategy and its associated tactics to be written to the dispatcher module which will execute the updated configuration next time the alarm event occurs.
When editing an existing strategy or tactic the modification is written to the dispatcher whenever the save icon is clicked. If the existing strategy is in-progress when the save icon is clicked then the existing strategy is allowed to conclude before the modification is applied. Tactics are handled in similar but independent
to conclude before the modification is applied. A tactic can be modified during the execution of its parent strategy so long as that tactic is not in-progress when the save icon is selected. If it is then the modification will be applied at the tactic's conclusion, all of which is transparent to the user.