4  Case Study:  An Automated Street Opening Permit System 

4.1  Introduction to the System 

4.1.1  Overview and Purpose 

The Street Opening Permit System was developed for the Engineering Division of the 

Department of Public Works of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, to improve the process of 

applying for, issuing of, and administering of permits for street openings. Moving from a manual 

process to a computer supported approach promised good time savings both on the applicant's 

and the town's side. The system was implemented as an n tier Web application consisting of a 

browser based user interface, business logic programmed in Java, and a database backbone. 

The core part of the system is an application form that is processed automatically right at 

submittal time, and makes an immediate decision whether a permit can be granted or not. To 

make this possible, the engineering department is given extensive administrative functionality to 

configure the behavior of the system. Furthermore, a database is used to archive all issued 

permits, as well as all other system critical information. 

The system distinguishes two different user profiles: External users, which are the contractors 

and utility companies that apply for permits, and internal users, which are the town's employees 

that manage the system. 

Typical tasks for external users with the system are: 

   Applying for permits 

   Searching for, displaying and printing permits that have been issued to them 

Typical tasks for internal users with the system are: 

   Viewing, editing, deleting, or searching for issued permits 

   Configuring the behavior of the automated application approval system 

   Administering external users (contractors and utility companies) 

   Generating reports or billing information 

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