Incremental development

Whether on land or offshore, the principle of satellite development is the same. A new field is accessed with wells, and an export link is installed to the existing (host) facility. Development is not always easier on land, as environmental restrictions mean that some onshore fields have to be developed using directional drilling techniques (originally associated with offshore developments). A vertical well can be drilled offshore away from the host facility, and the well completed using a subsea wellhead. 

The role that a host facility plays in an incremental development project can vary tremendously. At one extreme all production and processing support may be provided by the host (such as gas lift and water treatment). On the other hand, the host may just become a means of accessing an export pipeline (if a production and processing facility is installed on the new field). 

The character of a satellite development has considerable implications for a mature field in decline, but will not always have a positive economic effect on the life of the host. The remainder of this section will address the advantages of incremental development from the perspective of managing decline. 

In such cases the development scheme for the original reserves may have to be modified to make processing capacity available for the new hydrocarbons. The economics of such a scheme can be affected negatively if substantial engineering modifications have to made to meet new safety legislation. For more background to ERD refer to Section 3. 

Handling production from, and providing support to, a satellite field from an older facility is at first glance an attractive alternative to a separate new development. However, whilst savings may be made in capital investment, the operating cost of large processing facilities may be too much to be carried by production from a smaller field. 

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Whatever form of incremental development is considered, the benefits to the host facility should not be gained at the expense of reduced returns for the new project. Incremental and satellite projects can in many situations help to extend the production life of an old field or facilities, but care must be taken to ensure that the economics are transparent. 

Figure 5.2 Iterative and incremental development (From C. Larman, Agile and Iterative Development A Manager s Guide, p. 10, Figure 2.1. Copyright 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pearson Eduction, Inc. All rights reserved.)...

The development methodology establishes detailed discrete work products, by phases and events, and by associated activities. The computer systems development approach must be consistent with the selected SLC the most common development methodologies are the Waterfall Model, the Incremental Development Model, the Evolutionary Model, the Object Oriented approach, and the Spiral Model. Sample SLC activities and work products are detailed in Appendix E. 

Systems are planned to go through a series of frequent, small, incremental developments (i.e., an increment every 1 to 4 weeks). 

The inchoate code must pass all its tests before further incremental development can take place. Programmers write their own unit test scripts. Customers write their own user test scripts. 

Systems are tuned rather than developed during hnal incremental development, leading to authorization for use in the live production environment. 

The most common development methodologies are the Waterfall Model, Incremental Development, Evolutionary Model, Object Oriented, and Spiral Model. 

Becker, S., Haase, T., Westfechtel, B. Model-based a-posteriori integration of engineering tools for incremental development processes. Software and Systems Modeling 4(2), 123-140 (2005)... 

Becker, S., Westfechtel, B. Uml-based definition of integration models for incremental development processes in chemical engineering. In Proceedings of the 7 International Conference on Integrated Design and Process Technology (IDPT 2003), Austin, Texas, USA, SDPS (2003)... 

On 2 October 2002, the EC published a Communication to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament entitled Towards a strategy to protect and conserve the marine environment (COM (2002) 539), which sets out objectives and related actions (European Commission, 2004a). The Commission Communication represents the first Step in the incremental development of the European Marine Strategy for the protection and conservation of the marine environment. The Environment Council Conclusions of 4 March 2003 welcomed the Commission Communication, endorsed the approach and the outline of its objectives and requested an ambitious Strategy by 2005. Currently a proposal for a directive establishing a Framework for Community Action in the field of Marine Environmental Policy (Marine Strategy Directive or MSD) is on the table awaiting final approval by the parliament and the Commission (European Commission, 2005). 

It is 9 years since the publication of the first edition of this book and in this period the discipline of NMR spectroscopy has continued to develop new methodology, improve instrumentation and expand in its applications. This second edition aims to reflect the key developments in the field that have relevance to the stmcture elucidation of small to mid-sized molecules. It encompasses new and enhanced pulse sequences, many of which build on the sequences presented in the first edition, offering the chemist improved performance, enhanced information content or higher-quality data. It also includes coverage of recent advances in NMR hardware that have led to improved instrument sensitivity and thus extended the boundaries of application. Many of the additions to the text reflect incremental developments in pulsed methods and are to be found spread across many chapters, whereas some of the more substantial additions are briefly highlighted below. 

B6rard, R, Azzaro-Pantel, C., Pibouleau, L., et al. (2000) Towards an incremental development of discrete-event simulators for batch plants Use of object-oriented concepts. Computers Chemical Engineering, 23, S565-S568. 

The engineering plan should reflect the contents identified in Annex B, which provides a generic outline and description of the contents for an engineering plan. If an evolutionary or incremental development strategy is to be pursued, the engineering plan should address the development strategy for initial product development and insertion of incremental technology enhancements. 

In 1998, DSTO supported the Project Definition Study (PDS) (Phase 2) for Land 125 (Hobbs and Chalmers, 2003) to further refine the project scope and to develop the supporting data to allow higher-level cost-benefit tradeoffs to be made. The DSTO recommendation in 1998 was not to acquire an Integrated Soldier System, as the technology was not considered sufficiently advanced. The report proposed a preferred path for SCS development as an incremental development involving a number of model-test-model cycles in order to fully understand the requirements for an optimised soldier combat system prior to Phase 3 of the project. 

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