The Digirail project participated in the Rata 2025 event held for the railway industry in Tampere Hall, where our specialists presented the key themes and progress of the project. We will be presenting the content of the speeches made by the Digirail people in our “Lessons learnt in the Rata 2025 event” article series.
With the Digirail project, Finland is moving to a modern common European radio-based train control system (ERTMS). This means significant changes to signalling systems, rolling stock control and traffic control systems. A key role in the reform is played by requirements engineering on which Pekka Mäkinen, a Digirail project specialist, shared his knowledge in the Rata event.
The importance of requirements engineering is highlighted at all stages of the Digirail project. Requirements engineering is crucial, as it guides the design work, forms the basis for supply contracts and lays the foundation for the testing and approval of systems. Digirail’s requirements engineering is guided by a requirements engineering plan, which covers, among other things:
- The structure, traceability and content of requirements: how requirements are formed and how their fulfilment can be ensured.
- Review and approval: validation of requirements as part of the project’s progress.
- Change management as part of contract amendments: how changes to requirements are processed and applied into practice.
- Collaboration with system suppliers: ensuring that all parties meet the requirements as agreed.
- Software support for testing and reporting: digital tools to support the entire lifecycle of requirements engineering.
Digirail operates according to the EN50126 standard, which sets requirements for the operational safety of railway systems. This standard ensures that the development work meets the highest safety and quality criteria.
“The future of the Digirail project’s requirements engineering will be influenced by a number of factors. The Digirail project will continue until 2040. Before that, the requirements for the approval of tracks, for example, are likely to change. Managing multiple factors requires a comprehensive and dynamic requirements engineering process that can adapt to changing circumstances and needs as the project progresses,” Mäkinen explains.
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