System Evolution

The nature of this technological intervention needs discussion. Reclamation's projects in the past have had beginnings and ends. For example, in the past, the agency constructed a dam and then turned it over to the water users to pay for and operate. In the case of automation and Internet technologies, there is a continually evolving product. The technologies get more sophisticated and less costly with each passing day. As the technologies get more complex, so do the needs of the water users. With real-time technologies we are promoting a process more than a specific product.

How this process might work is described in Eric S Raymond's seminal monograph: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Raymond likens a traditional approach to product development to constructing a cathedral, an edifice carefully crafted by artisans working in inspirational isolation, with no beta released before its time. The process he envisions (the bazaar), however, is more promiscuous. No quiet, reverent cathedral building here, rather a noisy bazaar of differing agendas and approaches out of which a coherent and stately system emerges. The mantra becomes "Release Early, Release Often." It is this "bazaar" process that we have tried to emulate on the Emery Water Conservancy District automation/Internet project.

Traditionally, Reclamation had a fairly rigid product development process (cathedral). This approach was taken in the development and installation of large SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems. The problems with the cathedral process for small-scale automation systems are numerous: (1) it is too costly; (2) it takes too long; (3) hardware and software are frequently proprietary; (4) the customer does not always get what he or she needs; and (5) it is difficult for the product to evolve.

With the everybody-get-involved, bazaar-style development, the product evolves rapidly over time in concert with technological change and maturing water user needs. Prototypes (both hardware and software) are rushed to the field; feedback is critical. It becomes necessary for everybody involved in the project to interact, something the Internet facilitates.