Individual Rosters
Rule checking
Each modification of an individual roster triggers a rule check. Rosters that violate one or more rules are displayed with a one-way sign. A one-way sign does not prevent from recording a modified roster.
Rules are contract-dependent. A crew-member's contract can change over time: for instance, a crew-member can work full-time until the end of May, then switch to a part-time contract starting in June. Contract configuration is controlled by the railways's system administator.
Operational Simulation / User Workspaces
Roster modifications are not immediately recorded into the common database. Instead, they are applied to a separate individual User Workspace. Each planner of dispatcher has his/her own workspace.
User Workspaces enable the planner or dispatcher to prepare complex modifications involving several crew-members, to check whether the modifications amount to a complete solution, and to decide whether the modifications should be recorded into the common database, or whether they should be discarded.
Until roster modifications are recorded, they are invisible for the other planners and dispatchers, who can then work without being disturbed by a colleague recording tentative changes into the common database. On the other hand, as soon as modifications are recorded into the common database, they automatically and immediately become visible to all planners and dispatchers.
Operational simulation is a pre-condition to deploying an automatic rostering tool: it enables a planner to review the results of an optimizer run before deciding whether they can be recorded as they are, or whether they need some adjustments, or whether they should be discarded (the results of another optimizer run, done under different parameters or rules, would then supposedly be used).
Concurrent roster changes
Rosters are divided into two periods: a dispatching period including the current day and a planning period starting in the future. A planner can modify the planning period of a roster while a colleague is working on the dispatching period of the same crew-member.