The feedback from airline mechanics is an increasingly valuable resource for IT developers in generating efficiencies from MRO software, especially where safety-critical elements are concerned. 

It starts with knowing the end user and their needs and challenges—and this goes for any software company, suggests Nauman Saeed, chief operating officer at SkySelect. “If you are not building with user empathy and understanding the dynamics of your industry, you are building towards failure so by talking to the end users, software developers can identify functionality gaps and required integrations,” he says. 

Peter Mortimer, sales director at Rusada Aviation Software, reckons this should be a huge focus for software developers. “It is very easy to design and develop a module, or a piece of functionality without considering the real-world scenarios," he says. "This often results in reworking and hours of wasted development, or in worst cases, the mechanics just refuse to use the software because it does not suit their requirements.”

Vital interactions with mechanics help to mitigate the risk and often provides fresh, different perspectives. “At Rusada, we have several ex-mechanics working for us, and this helps us remain in touch with the practicalities of the industry to ensure that our software if as efficient as it can be,” says Mortimer.

Upon successful completion of implementation projects, MRO software provider TRAX often collaborates with operators to conduct a case study, which allows them to draw lessons on how to make their software products, eMRO and eMobility, more efficient and usable. 

“We recently had a customer gaining an AOC certification using the TRAX technical logbook solution. The client was the first truly digital carrier in U.S. history using end-to-end digital and completely paperless logbooks and maintenance processes from day one of its operation,” says Omar Santos, vice president of global services and support at TRAX. 

Santos explains that through the combination of subject matter expert business process workshops and end user training and testing, TRAX found it useful to modify various data entry windows within the program for usability and to be more functionally intuitive.

“In the ensuing case study, the head pilot described the process of introducing some modifications but the program as designed had a prominent field on the screen that wasn’t applicable to the tasks of the pilots, but rather more useful to mechanics,” says Santos.

At WinAir, too, they feel that users in the field are a critical resource for understanding changes that are occurring in the industry. “Mechanics provide a direct link to the hangar floor where we can learn what they need to operate efficiently,” says Patrick Micacchi, client advocate at WinAir. He says much of the success from this strategy is derived from the design of the user interface, which was developed using a more ‘from the floor up’ approach in the hangar.

Micacchi indicates that ease-of-use and practical workflows within WinAir have encouraged mechanics to interact with the company in real-time. He says these are reviewed by the technical team and presented to programmers to help aid the production of new features based on the demand of the aviation industry.