Goals and Approach
--------------------------

Discuss the following and include references.  Each can be pretty short.

High-level goals and approach
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Requirements (mathematical modeling document)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

High-level design
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
short discussion reference design document

Quality Assurance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The development of Amanzi is following a risk-based graded approach to
meet its Quality Assurance requirements (NQA-1).  This graded approach
will use three phases of development in conjunction with an agile
test-driven approach to maturing capabilities through a series of
site-based demonstrations and automated hierarchical testing.
Specifically, the Research and Development branch (R&D) corresponds to
the NQA-1 “Basic Phase”, while the “Community Code” phase requires
additional rigor in support of the NQA-1 “Applied Research” and
broader use in the community. Finally, application of appropriate QA
rigor will support the “Development Phase” and release of ASCEM as a
tool for regulatory work, which is targeted for late 2015.

To ensure that new advances in algorithms, geoscience, computer, and
computational science can advance quickly to future regulatory
releases, all three phases of development will co-exist in the future.
However, at this early stage only the R&D code branch (Basic Phase)
exists.  This release of Amanzi is from the R&D branch and is intended
to open communication and build collaborations with potential users at
DOE waste sites, universities and industry.

