On November 10, 2016 CO-LaN Management Board approved the launch and the funding of COBIA Phase II.

On October 6, 2016 the Methods & Tools SIG issued a memo to the Management Board on COBIA Phase I. The memo provided an overview of the review and testing of COBIA conducted by the Methods &Tools Special Interest Group, as well as findings and recommendations for moving the COBIA project forward.

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group developed a Phase I review checklist based upon the objectives of the Phase I project. The completed review checklist indicated the consensus of the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group regarding the suitability of the Phase I deliverables to meet the design objectives for the Phase I COBIA demonstration project.

The goal of the COBIA Phase I development effort was to demonstrate the functionality through prototyping the implementation of a COBIA compliant thermodynamic package and a corresponding socket. A second goal was to demonstrate COM/COBIA interoperability by showing that a COM property package can be utilized from a COBIA PME, and vice versa.

The M&T SIG found that the Phase 1 deliverables meet the requirements specified in the statement of work.

As part of the review of the Phase I deliverables, the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group identified code maintainability as a key consideration for ongoing development. Code maintainability will be addressed as part of the forthcoming updates of the Methods &Tools Integrated Guidelines.

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group recommended that the Phase I source code be made publicly available for download.

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group recommended that Phase II development of COBIA be initiated by the Management Board.

Based on these recommendations, the Management Board decided to go ahead with Phase II of the COBIA project.

Phase II, when completed, will allow development of both PMEs and PMCs relying on COBIA. The IDL parser and stub code generators will simplify development in the pure C++ environment on the Microsoft Windows operating system by allowing developers to create and implement custom interfaces. As part of this phase, the IDL for the interfaces identified as of primary importance will be formalized and available for use in fully-functioning PMEs and PMCs.