CAVI

Planned Activities

Manual Testing (CWMS 3.5)

In FY25, the team will invest significant effort into manual testing of the CWMS software. This includes testing throughout development as bugs are addressed in the software, validation tests of new features, and regression tests of the CAVI before a software release. Thorough testing is a labor intensive process and is critical to ensure additional bugs are not introduced into the software with each new version. Each new feature or bug fix must be demonstrated to behave as expected during development, and then confirmed once brought into the CAVI. Manual tests must also be performed for parts of the code that have been modified by the change to ensure other features are not negatively impacted. Performing robust testing of the CWMS software minimizes potential issues and bugs found by the field during water management operations, where the cost to address is much higher than during development. Testing and bug fixes are integral to cloud migration and CWMS implementation efforts.

Improvements to Overall Testing Procedures (CWMS 3.5)

In FY25, the team will continue work to improve the overall testing procedures for the CWMS software. A major component of this will be adding new features to the automated testing framework, such as the ability to test the extract of forecast data from a test database, improving reporting of test failures, and the investigation of speed profiling of the software. Additionally, work will be completed to add additional tests to the automated and manual suite of tests, expanding testing coverage of the software. By continuing to develop specific manual test plans that cover sections of the software, the CWMS team can be more efficient with testing and can systematically test areas of the software impacted by code changes. Investments in improving the testing procedures will help the team run tests more efficiently at greater scale. Adding additional automated and manual tests is labor intensive. Investing in the automated testing framework reduces the reliance on labor intensive manual testing, improves the reliability of each release, and reduces the amount of time dedicated to testing (which speeds up the release cycle). 

Improve Documentation and Develop Tutorials

The team will also be improving documentation and developing new tutorials throughout the year, as enhancements are completed and new versions of the software are released. 

CWMS Implementation Workshop

The MMC will fund a CWMS Implementation Workshop in FY25, where CWMS experts (HEC and field personnel) will support district water managers in their efforts to continue implementing their CWMS watersheds. Further information will be provided to the community once plans have been made for the date and location of the workshop.

Field Support

The team will provide support to the field on an as-needed basis when issues arise.

Software Maintenance

Software issues discovered during testing and field use will be fixed.

Regulation Assistance Tools

Regulation Assistance Tools could function as a plug-in/stand-alone feature(s) for the CAVI to assist Water Managers in their situational awareness of their rules and flood impacts while running CWMS. Currently, this activity is in the discussion phase. A call will go out to the field for those interested in participating in larger discussions to help inform designs for future tool development. The regulation assistance tools would provide a simplified way for water managers to review regulation rules and impacts while making operation decisions using CWMS. The tools would allow for flexibility in priorities of operational concerns by quickly illustrating which rules/regulations/guidelines are not being met with ongoing operations. It could also be used to train new employees by allowing them to visually compare their decisions with the rules they are working to implement. The tools could provide adaptability in modeling, something that is needed to ensure full implementation of CWMS software. 

Plugin Marketplace Implementation (Not Funded)

The team will implement a CAVI plugin called the Plugin Marketplace, which will allow users to check for and download newer HEC software (e.g. HEC-MetVue, HEC-HMS, etc.) that maybe available after official CWMS releases.

Impact Response Plugin Implementation (Not Funded)

The team will extract the Impact Response feature from HEC-FIA and implement it as a CAVI plugin. The new standalone Impact Response plugin will provide quicker access for post-processed impacts based on HEC-ResSim and/or HEC-RAS forecasted stages, removing the requirement to run a forecast through HEC-FIA to see the Impact Response data.

Ensemble Forecast Processor Enhancement (Not Funded)

The team will implement the capability for the Ensemble Forecast Processor to write HEC-DSS collections output.

Extract/Post Enhancements

The team will target feature improvements for the CAVI Extract and Post editor, including the ability to convert source/destination from Oracle to CDA. Other enhancements will include support for data exchange of versioned time series, stage/flow paired data, and location levels.

Forecast Skill Assessment Tool

The team will pursue a General Investigations (GI) funded activity to research and design a CAVI tool for evaluating the accuracy of forecast products.

Field Helping the Field Visits

Field Helping the Field is an initiative to provide CWMS implementation support (both technical and organizational) to Water Management offices by other CWMS users. Field Helping the Field efforts consist of a small team of CWMS experts, usually a mix of HEC and field staff, traveling to a office to work with the district to overcome CWMS implementation challenges.