INFORMATION SOCIETIES TECHNOLOGY (IST) PROGRAMME
STATUS
"Software Architecture for Usability"
WORKPACKAGE 1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DELIVERABLE D.1.4. PERIODIC PROGRESS REPORT
Version: 1.0
Submission Date: 4/6/2004
Authors: Ana M. Moreno
Partners: UPM
Stage:
Confidentiality:
[ ] Draft
[ ] Public - for public use
[ ] To be reviewed by WP participants
[ ] IST – for IST programme participants
[ ] Pending of approval by next consortium meeting
[ X ] Restricted – for STATUS consortium and PO
[X] Final / Released to CEC
STATUS
D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
DOCUMENT CONTROL
Registration of Changes
Date
Version
Author of Changes
Comments
May
2004
4,
0.1
Ana M. Moreno, Natalia Juristo
Initial draft
June
2004
17,
1.0
Ana M. Moreno, Natalia Juristo
English revision
List of Related STATUS Documents
IST – 2001 – 32298
Document Name
Version
Technical Annex
D.4.1. Architectural patterns for
e-commerce applications
D.4.2. Improved architectural
patterns
for
e-commerce
applications supporting usability
1.0
D.8.4. Exploitation Plan
D.6.1. Development document of
pilot project by industrial IHG
D.7.2.4. Dissemination Plan
Usability Evaluation Plan
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.8
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Acronyms and abbreviations
WP
STATUS
WL
TL
IHG
UPM
RuG
ICTSM
IST – 2001 – 32298
Meaning
Workpackage
Software Architecture for Usability
Workpackages Leader
Task Leader
Information Highway Group
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
University of Groningen
Imperial College
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOCUMENT CONTROL .................................................................................................................... 2
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. 3
1.
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 5
1.1 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
1.2 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE ...................................................................................................................................... 5
2.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................................ 6
3.
OVERVIEW OF STATUS PROJECT ......................................................................................... 7
4.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROJECT STATUS ................................................................................ 8
5.
ADHERENCE TO WORKPLAN .................................................................................................. 9
5.1 STATUS WORKPLAN FOR THE REPORTING PERIOD............................................................................................. 9
5.2 STATUS CHRONOLOGICAL PROGRESS ............................................................................................................. 10
5.3 STATUS TECHNICAL PROGRESS ...................................................................................................................... 10
5.3.1 Finished Workpackages................................................................................................................................................. 10
5.3.2 Active Workpackages..................................................................................................................................................... 11
5.4 RESOURCES USAGE ........................................................................................................................................... 12
6.
MANAGEMENT PROGRESS .................................................................................................... 14
6.1 STATUS PROJECT MEETINGS ........................................................................................................................... 14
6.2 PERSONNEL ON THE PROJECT............................................................................................................................. 14
7.
EXPLOITATION AND DISSEMINATION .................................................................................. 15
8.
PLANNED WORK FOR THE NEXT REPORTING PERIOD ....................................................... 16
8.1 WP 6. DEVELOPMENT OF APPLICATIONS IN THE E-COMMERCE DOMAIN .............................................................. 16
8.2 DELIVERABLES RELATED TO THE NEXT REPORTING PERIOD ................................................................................ 17
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose
This document forms D.1.5. “Periodic Progress Report” for Workpackage 1. “Project Management” of
the STATUS IST– 2001 – 32298 project. The purpose of the deliverables D.1.X is to provide
information about the technological, managerial and chronological progress of the project during sixmonth reporting periods. D.1.5, in particular, refers to the fiveth STATUS project-reporting period,
that is, months 24 to 30 (December 2003 – May 2004).
1.2 Document Structure
Before going into the actual technical content of D.1.4, this document starts with a brief introduction
explaining the purpose of the document, followed by section 2, which presents the executive
summary. Section 3 recalls the general description of the STATUS project, which serves to put the
main achievements of the project, specified in section 4, into context. Section 5 details the progress
made as regards these achievements, describing the work performed and the resources employed in
each workpackage (WP). Section 6 presents the results as regards project management during the
reporting period, specifying the meetings held, as well as the members of the partners who have
participated in the work completed. Section 7 briefly refers to the exploitation and dissemination
activities of the project results for the reporting period. Finally, D.1.5 concludes with section 8,
describing the planned work for the next reporting period.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following technical WPs have been active during this reporting period:

WP 4. “Proposal of architecture for usability in e-commerce”

WP 6. “Pilot projects in the e-commerce domain”
WP 4 started during the third reporting period and the final deliverable D.4.2. was presented in the
fourth review. However some changes where required in this review and they where fixed during the
beginning of the fiveth reporting period. The aim of this WP was to instantiate the general results we
got from WP 3 “Study of the usability/software architecture relationship” for one particular type of
applications, e-commerce applications, where usability is a crucial attribute. D.4.1, described the most
commonly used software architectures in the e-commerce domain and seleced some to incorporate
STATUS results. D.4.2. was also developed instantiating STATUS results for the improvement of the
usability of the chosen environments.
In WP 6, according to the “Usability Evaluation Plan” developed in February 2003, the data for the
usability evaluation of original industrial partner applications have been collected and analysed during
the fifth reporting period. Those data will be compared with the usability of the new applications
developed in WP 6 with status results. In that way we will be able to check the benefits of the
STATUS project results. Additionally, the second real development has been completed using
STATUS project results, by the industrial partner, LogicDIS.
Regarding the ongoing WPs, management and control mechanisms established during the first
reporting period have been continued for WP 1. “Project Management”. For WP 7. “Dissemination &
Documentation” and WP 8. “Exploitation”, both dissemination and exploitation activities have been,
respectively, detailed in D.7.1. “Project web site” (updated throughout the project), D.7.2.5.
“Dissemination Plan” and D.8.5. “Use plan”.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
3. OVERVIEW OF STATUS PROJECT
The aim of the STATUS project is to study and determine the connections between software
architecture and the usability of the resultant software system. The project will focus on explaining the
characteristics of software architectures that improve software usability. As there is a wide range of
different software architectures and the set of possible styles is still in the process of definition and
standardisation, the results of this project will be materialised particularly in e-commerce applications
(where usability is critically important) and their associated architectural styles.
In order to achieve this aim, it is necessary to decompose usability into different attributes and analyse
which of them might be affected by software architecture. For this purpose, we will first select
software attributes affected by software architecture, and this relationship will then be detailed,
defining what specific improvements can be made at the architectural level to improve usability.
As mentioned above, the project will be particularly applied to architectures used in e-commerce
applications. Thus, the industrial partners of the consortium will provide some typical e-commerce
applications architectures that they use, and the research partners, by applying the results of the
previous general study about the relationship between software architectures and usability, will
propose modifications to these architectures to promote the usability of the software systems built with
them.
An architectural focus in software development supports but cannot guarantee usability, since not all
usability attributes and factors can be promoted by software architecture. Therefore, the project will
also output the definition of a software development process complemented with usability techniques
to be employed in other activities apart from architectural design (primarily, requirements and
validation).
The resultant software process along with the resultant e-commerce software architecture for usability
will be used by the industrial partners to develop real applications in this domain, thus validating the
results of the project.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
4. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROJECT STATUS
The most significant achievements of the fiveth project reporting period are related to the application
of STATUS results to real projects in WP 6. These achievements can be summarised in:
1. Demonstration of the applicability of STATUS results to a real situation.
2. Development of practial recommendations to modify the architecture of an existing
application using STATUS results to make it more usable.
3. Definition of guidelines to incorporate new usability issues in coordination with the ones
proposed by STATUS.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
5. ADHERENCE TO WORKPLAN
5.1 STATUS Workplan for the Reporting Period
The Technical Annex specifies the STATUS workplan, composed of eight WPs. In D.1.1. Periodic
Progress Report, from the first reporting period, some adjustments where made to the starting and
ending months to make up for a one-month delay in project commencement. Table 1 presents the
STATUS WPs and their respective starting and ending months. The WPs active, irrespective of
whether or not they have been completed, during the fourth reporting period have been highlighted on
a dark grey background and the WPs ongoing throughout the whole project are on a light grey
background. WPs finished in s previous reporting periods are depicted on a striped background.
Workpackage
No
Workpackage title
Workpackage
leader
1
Project management
IHG
2
Usability attributes
architecture
software
ICTSM
3
Study of the usability/software architecture
relationship
RuG
4
Proposal of architecture for usability in ecommerce
IHG
5
Integrated development process with usability
techniques
UPM
6
Development of applications in the e-commerce
domain
LogicDIS
7
Dissemination & Documentation
8
Exploitation
affected
by
Start
month
End
month
1
36
1
4
5
16
14
27
4
12
6
34
UPM
4
36
IHG
1
36
Table 1. WPs identified for STATUS project
Table 2 shows the deliverables produced during this fiveth six month reporting period.
IST – 2001 – 32298
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STATUS
Del.
No
D.1.5.
D.4.2.
D.6.2.
D.6.3
(partial)
D.7.2.5
D.8.1.5
Deliverable name
Periodic Progress Report
Improved
architectural
patterns for e-commerce
applications
supporting
usability
Development document of
pilot project by industrial
partner LogicDIS
Analysis and comparison
of usability tests with and
without STATUS results
Dissemination plan
Use plan
WP
no.
Lead
participant
D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
Del.
type
Security
Delivery
(proj.
month
1
4
UPM
IC
Report
Report
Ist.
Rest.
30
27
6
LgicDIS
Rest.
30
6
UPM
Report
/Protot
ype
Report
Rest
30
7
8
UPM
IHG
Report
Report
Ist.
Ist.
30
30
Table 2. Deliverables related to the third six-month period
The milestone to be satisfied during this reporting period is M.6. Application of STATUS results to
real projects, related to WP6.
5.2 STATUS Chronological Progress
The fiveth STATUS reporting period started on 1 December 2003 and finished on 31 May 2003.
There has been no delay in the WP starting and finishing dates or the deliverables to be produced from
the WPs, with the exception of WP 4 and Deliverable D.4.2. that was resubmitted according to the
reviewers recommendations in February 2004 (this WP was scheduled to finish in November 2003).
5.3 STATUS Technical Progress
The progress that has taken place from a scientific/technical viewpoint in the fourth six months of
work on the STATUS project is specified below. For this purpose, we summarise the work performed
in the WPs related to the fourth reporting period, as well as the main results obtained.
We will start by describing the active WPs that have finished in this reporting period, and then detail
the WPs active beyond the reporting period, that is, WPs started during the reporting period and whose
ending date is scheduled for later reporting periods.
5.3.1 Finished Workpackages
5.3.1.1 WP 4. Proposal of an architecture for usability in e-commerce
Note that the results from WP 3 are general findings that could be used in different software domains.
WP 4 examines how these general results can be customised for the e-commerce domain. According
to the Technical Annex, this WP is organised as follows:

Task 4.1. Identification of architectural patterns for e-commerce applications.

Task 4.2. Evaluation of usability in architectural patterns.

Task 4.3. Improvement of architectural patterns according to results of WP3.
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STATUS

D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
Task 4.4. Synthesis.
And the following deliverables must be defined:

D.4.1. Architectural patterns for e-commerce applications (month 15, but resubmitted
according to reviewers comments in month 22).

D.4.2. Improved architectural patterns for e-commerce applications supporting usability
(month 23, resubmitted according to reviewers comments in month 27).
During the fiveth reporting period D.4.2. was redefined considering the comments that reviewers made
in the fourth review. Those adaptations focused mainly on the inclusions of industrial partners view
and possible adaptations of the research work done by university partners in the application of the
general findings about usability gathered during WP3 to the e-commerce domain in WP4. The new
version of D.4.2 was resubmitted in Februray 2004 and approved.
5.3.2 Active Workpackages
5.3.2.1 WP 6. Pilot projects in the e-commerce domain
The original objective of WP 6 was to implement, test and evaluate the STATUS results developed in
WP4 and WP5 into two real e-commerce situations. For this purpose, the following tasks were
described in the Technical Annex:

Task 6.1. Evaluation of usability in typical applications of industrial partners

Task 6.2. Development of real applications applying STATUS results by the IHG and
LogicDIS partners

Task 6.3. Evaluation of usability of the applications in which STATUS results have been
applied

Task 6.4. Analysis and comparison of the usability test results before and after the application
of the STATUS results

Task 6.5 Refinement of Task 3.4, Task 4.4. and Task 5.4. with the results of real experience
Related to the following deliverables:
D.6.1. Development document of pilot project by IHG (month 31)
D.6.2. Development document of pilot project by LogicDIS (month 31)
D.6.3. Analysis and comparison of usability tests with and without STATUS results (month 33)
D.6.4. Final results on the relationship between usability and software architectures (month 34)
D.6.5. Final results on the architectural pattern for usability (month 34)
D.6.6. Final results on the integrated software process (month 34)
At the 1st EC Review, the reviewers asked for a document specifying the planning of this WP to be
produced. This document was called “Strategy for STATUS Results Validation”. As detailed in this
document, the objectives of this WP have been extended in several ways. On the one hand, not only
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STATUS
D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
will the results of WP4 and WP5 be validated, the outcome of WP3 will be too. Furthermore, the
number of applications to be developed using the STATUS results has been increased to three instead
of the two specified in the Technical Annex. This will be carried out at three different times according
to the new philosophy designed for WP6, detailed in the “Strategy for STATUS Results Validation”
document presented for the second review:
-
Redevelopment of the Compressor application by IHG, from March 2003 to December 2003.
The results of WP3 concerning architectural design will be applied in this process.
-
Development of Wireless University application by IHG, from December 2003 to July 2004.
The results of WP 4 on the design and architecture stage and the results of WP 5 regarding the
development process to be followed, covering usability techniques and activities during the
different phases, will be applied in the development process of this application.
-
Redevelopment of new eSuite application by LogicDIS, from January 2004 to June 2004. The
results of WP5 concerning the development process to be followed will be applied in this
process, as will the results of WP4 regarding architectural design in the e-commerce domain.
So, during this third reporting period the redevelopment of the eSuite application by LogicDIS
according to WP 3 results has finished. Deliverable D.6.2. Development document of pilot project by
LogicDIS has been defined, detailing the redevelopment process and outputs so far. Also, IHG has
already started the second application to be finished by the end of the project.
On the other hand, according to the “Usability Evaluation Plan” presented in February 2003, the
usability evaluation of existing industrial partner applications considered in STATUS (Task 6.1.) has
continued during the fiveth reporting period, and we already have the usability data provided by users
of old eSuite. The STATUS consortium has analysed those data (Task 6.3.). This analysis has been
reported in D.6.1. which has also been presented to this fiveth reporting period, although only contain
partial results.
5.4 Resources Usage
The following section presents resource usage during this reporting period per WP and partner.
Table 3 shows the effort used per WP during this reporting period.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
Workpackage title
1
Project management
2
7
Usability attributes affected by software
architecture
Study of the usability/software architecture
relationship
Proposal of architecture for usability in ecommerce
Integrated development process with usability
techniques
Development of applications in the e-commerce
domain
Dissemination & Documentation
8
Exploitation
3
4
5
6
Effort used in
5th period
Cumulative to
date
3,5
18,3
29.5
0
29,3
34.5
0
34,7
32.5
3
35,2
23.5
0
22
67.5
12
34,5
31.5
11
21,6
11.5
1,5
7,2
253.5
31
202,8
Effort
planned
24
TOTAL
Table 3. Distribution of effort per WP
On the other hand, Table 4 shows the effort distribution per WP and partner during this fiveth
reporting period.
TOTAL TOTAL
WP
WP
UPM- UPM- Rug- RuG- ICTSM- ICTSM- IHG- IHG- LogicDIS- LogicDis- (MM)- (MM)
Plan Used Plan Used Plan
Plan Used Plan
Plan Used
Used
Used
WP1
8,5
0,3
1,5
0,2
1,5
0,3 11,0
2,5
1,5
0,2
24,0
3,5
WP2
7,0
0,0
6,5
0,0
9,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
3,5
0,0
26,0
0,0
WP3
9,5
0,0
13,5
0,0
9,5
0,0
0,0
0,0
1,0
0,0
33,5
0,0
WP4
5,5
0,5
5,5
0,0
7,5
1,5
8,0
0,5
6,0
0,5
32,5
3,0
WP5
11,0
0,0
2,0
0,0
6,5
0,0
0,0
0,0
1,0
0,0
20,5
0,0
WP6
6,5
2,0
3,5
0,0
6,5
0,0
24,5
0,5
26,5
9,5
67,5
12,0
WP7
12,0
5,0
5,0
3,0
7,0
3,0
5,0
0,0
1,5
0,0
30,5
11,0
WP8
0,5
0,0
0,5
0,0
0,5
0,0
6,0
1,0
4,0
0,5
11,5
1,5
60,5
7,8
38,0
3,2
48,0
4,8
54,5
4,5
45,0
10,7
246,0
31,0
Total
STATUS
(MM)
Table 4. Distribution of effort per WP and partner in the 5th reporting period
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
6. MANAGEMENT PROGRESS
6.1 STATUS Project Meetings
During the third reporting period, close co-operation among project partners has continued through
meetings, but mainly as communication via conference call, e-mail and other traditional means.
One consortium meetings has been held during the reporting period in order to co-ordinte the activities
of WP 4 and WP 6. Table 5 summarises information about these meetings.
Nature of meeting
Venue
Technical Meeting WP 4 and WP 6
Date
Athens, Greece
January, 2003
Table 5. STATUS project meeting
The main tasks accomplished at the Athenks meeting were:
-
Discussion and implications of fourth review results
-
Redefinition of strategy for incorporating in D.4.2. review results
-
Discussion of strategy for WP 6.
6.2 Personnel on the Project
During the reporting period, the key people who have participated in the project are similar to the ones
listed in the Technical Annex and involved in the first reporting period. They are shown in Table 6,
along with other additional people who have worked on the project during this reporting period.
Partner
IHG
UPM
RuG
ICTSM
LogicDIS
Person
Dr. R. Pous
R. Vogel
Miriam Castellon
Dr. Natalia Juristo
Dr. Ana Moreno
Xavier Ferre
Dr. Jan Bosh
Eelke Former
Lisette Bakalis
Dr. Jeff Magee
Dr. Jeff Kramer
Robert Chatley
George Marks
Dimitris Tsirikos
Dr. Manolis Chrysostalis
Function
Technical/scientific tasks
Technical/scientific tasks
STATUS administrative tasks
STATUS scientific coordination; partner leader;
technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
partner leader; technical/scientific tasks
technical tasks
technical tasks
partner leader; technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
technical/scientific tasks
Partner leader, technical/scientific tasks
Table 6. List of people involved in the STATUS project
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
7. EXPLOITATION AND DISSEMINATION
Deliverables D.8.X. “Use Plan” describe the main exploitation guidelines for the STATUS project.
For this reporting period, D.8.5. outlines a fiveth version of the exploitation activities to be carried out
during the project. They include both exploitation activities to be carried out by the consortium as a
whole and exploitation activities to be executed by each of the STATUS partners.
Regarding dissemination, the planned activities for project results dissemination and the results of this
dissemination are addressed in deliverables D.7.2.X., which are prepared for each reporting period.
Deliverable D.7.2.1. “Dissemination Plan” presented a strategy for dissemination activities for the
project, including both external dissemination activities, designed to present the project results to the
international community, and internal dissemination activities, designed to disseminate these results
among the partner organisations. During this fiveth reporting period both kinds of activities have been
performed as is detailed in D.7.2.5.
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report
8. PLANNED WORK FOR THE NEXT REPORTING PERIOD
Table 7 shows the active and ongoing WPs for the next reporting period (June 2004 – November 2004).
Workpackage
No.
Workpackage title
Workpackage
leader
1
Project management
2
Usability attributes
architecture
software
ICTSM
3
Study of the usability/software architecture
relationship
RuG
4
Proposal of architecture for usability in ecommerce
IHG
5
Integrated development process with usability
techniques
UPM
6
Development of applications in the e-commerce
domain
LogicDIS
7
Dissemination & Documentation
8
Exploitation
Start
month
End
month
IHG
affected
by
2
36
2
5
6
16
14
23
4
12
6
34
UPM
4
36
IHG
2
36
Table 7. Active and ongoing WPs for next reporting period
The achievements planned for the next reporting period are:

Development of the third applications with results of WP 4 and WP 5

Improvement of STATUS results derived from real empirical applications

Get a measure of software usability for existing software applications developed by the
industrial partners to be compared with software usability measured when the project results
are applied.
To achieve these objectives, the active WPs will be structured as follows.
8.1 WP 6. Development of applications in the e-commerce domain
The objective of WP 6. “Pilot projects in the e-commerce domain” is to implement, test and evaluate
the STATUS methodology developed in WP3, WP4 and WP5 in three real e-commerce situations. For
this purpose, the following tasks were described in the Technical Annex:

Task 6.1. Evaluation of usability in typical applications of industrial partners
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D.1.4. v.1.0 Periodic Progress Report

Task 6.2. Development by IHG and LogicDIS partners of real applications applying STATUS
results

Task 6.3. Evaluation of usability of the applications where STATUS results have been applied

Task 6.4. Analysis and comparison of the usability test results before and after the application
of the STATUS results

Task 6.5 Refinement of Task 3.4. Task 4.4. and Task 5.4. with the results of real experience
The document “Strategy for STATUS results validation” details the individual planning of each task in
this WP. According to this plan, Task 6.2 will continue with the development of real applications
considering STATUS results, that is, IHG will finish the development of the Wireless application. On
the other hand, according to the “Usability Evaluation Plan”, the data from the usability tests on
existing applications will be analysed for comparison with the usability data gathered from the new
applications (Task 6.3).
8.2 Deliverables related to the next reporting period
Furthermore, the following deliverables correspond to the above-mentioned reporting period:
Del.
No
Deliverable name
WP
no.
Lead
participant
Del.
type
Security
Delivery
(proj.
month
D.6.1.
Development document of
pilot projects by IHG
6
IHG
Report
Rest
31
D.6.3.
Analysis and comparison of
usability tests with and
without STATUS results
Dissemination plan
Periodic progress report
Use plan
6
UPM
Report
Ist.
33
7
1
8
UPM
UPM
IHG
Report
Report
Report
Ist.
Rest.
Ist.
30
30
30
D.7.2.6
D.1.6.
D.8.1.6
Table 8. Deliverables planned for next reporting period
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