Context

Astando (now Norconsult Astando, following acquisition by Norconsult) is one of Sweden’s leading companies in the GIS domain and a key contributor to the Local Road Database (LV) concept — the national foundation for applications related to road networks, traffic, and road‑user information.

In 2008–2009, I joined Astando as a consultant from Avega Group AB to contribute to the continued development of a client/server application used by Stockholm and Gothenburg for importing, processing, and presenting traffic measurement data.

Problem

Municipal traffic departments needed a reliable way to import large volumes of traffic measurement data from various sensors and systems, normalize it, and present it in a way that supported analysis and operational decision‑making. The existing application was already in use but required ongoing development, refinement, and new capabilities.

Approach

Application Development

• Contributed to the continued development of a WinForms‑based client application for visualizing and working with traffic measurement data
• Extended backend components and Windows Services responsible for data import, transformation, and processing
• Implemented data access using Oracle and NHibernate

Architecture & Engineering Practices

• Used Spring.NET for dependency injection and modularization
• Applied Test‑Driven Development to improve reliability and maintainability
• Participated in early Continuous Integration workflows to ensure stable builds and predictable delivery

Domain Integration

• Worked with the Local Road Database (LV) model to align traffic measurement data with the national road network
• Ensured compatibility with municipal data formats and operational workflows

Outcome

• Strengthened and extended a production system used by Stockholm and Gothenburg for traffic data import and presentation
• Improved data processing reliability through automated services and structured data handling
• Enhanced code quality and delivery consistency through TDD and CI practices

Reflection

This engagement combined desktop application development, backend processing, and GIS‑related domain modeling. It was an early opportunity to work within an established codebase, contribute to a complex data‑driven system, and apply disciplined engineering practices — experience that later helped shape my long‑term relationship with Norconsult Astando.