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Software Development Metrics & Information Summary for C2 2007

16 Feb 2007 through 31 Mar 2007

The Plan of Record used for this cycle can be found at PlanOfRecordC22007.

Overview

9 SDD members worked ~2442 hours in C2 2007 over 31 days (8% division administration and planning, 58% cycle commitments, 3% preventive maintenance, 4% GBT operations and user support, 7% overhead, and 20% excused absences).

overvieweffortC22007.jpg

Project Allocation

The cycle commitments were allocated over 7 major projects: Dynamic Scheduling, PTCS, Business Office System, Spectrometer, Software Continuing Maintenance and Enhancements (CM&E), e2e, and Future Pulsar Backend. In the chart below, "other" is used as a catch-all for those cycle commitments which are not associated with a major project.

projecteffortC22007.jpg

The projects are further broken down into the individual commitments in the next section.

Cycle Commitments

The cycle commitments for C2 consisted of 25 commitments. A summary of each major commitment is discussed later in its own section. Of the 25 commitments, 24 were met satisfactorily (of these 19 were part of larger efforts which will continue into future cycles). 1 was not completed as expected and continued over into the next cycle.

The commitment not met was the documentation of the Spectrometer cross-polarization changes. We expect completion of this item to happen soon after the start of C3.

commitmentsoverviewC22007.jpg

Operational and User Support

The items listed below pertain to time spent supporting GBT operation. These tasks usually involve helping users, fixing/troubleshooting system problems, and fixing/troubleshooting lab test environment problems. Note: Effort estimates reflect total time elapsed, i.e. how long did it take to fix the problem start to finish - not the sum total of each person's time.

Items:

Key:

Commitment Highlights

Evolve Dynamic Scheduling Proposal

Information on the Dynamic Scheduling project can be found at the Dynamic Scheduling Project Page and Dynamic Scheduling Web Home. The effect of weather conditions, both wind and opacity, on high frequency astronomy is well known. Currently, the GBT is using a fairly basic dynamic scheduling system which neither allow for rapid changes in the weather nor for long spells of good or bad weather. To maximize our use of good weather, we need to implement a true dynamic scheduling system on the telescope. The design and implementation of such a system is the goal of this project. This task was allocated ~451 person-hours of effort, of which ~296 were actually used. The discrepancy between allocated and actual effort is due primarily to conference attendance and partially to higher than expected excused absences. This task will be continued into next cycle and throughout 2007.

Upgrade PTCS Pointing Model Pre-Processing Software

The focus of this task is to upgrade the PTCS Pointing Model pre-processing software, currently written in Glish. The software for this task was successfully deployed this cycle. Two other tasks were identified from this task and will be scheduled next cycle: (1) Update Pointing/Focus code to Handle Old Data Sets and (2) Modify Peak Finding Algorithm for Pointing/Focus Code.

We allocated ~223 person-hours of effort for this item and only expended ~160 to complete the task.

Extract Sampler Information from Log Files & Create an Antenna Characterization Database

The process of creating new GBT pointing models involves the processing of astronomical observations (e.g. pointing runs), an integration of various log file data. The analysis program requires auxiliary data from various log files. This task and associated ModificationRequest specifies a utility which will be able to construct a single file which contains the log data re-sampled to a common time-interval, collated into a single binary format file. The software for this task was successfully deployed this cycle.

We allocated ~96 person-hours of effort for this item and only expended ~27 to complete the task.

Inclinometer Improvements

There have been reports from the PTCS group of problems with the recorded inclinometer data, which are noted as: (1) The device data timestamp is either duplicated for two different data samples, or filled in as NaN values, (2) the device data fields are filled as NaN values, (3) increased accuracy of time-tagging is desired, and (4) decreased error rates are desired.

We allocated ~96 person-hours of effort for this item and expended ~137. The primary reason for the discrepancy was that we initially underestimated the extent of the issues present with the inclinometers; much time was devoted to simply characterizing the issues and simulating possible resolutions. Incremental improvements to the inclinometers were released as patches to the M&C software this cycle, but we have not fully resolved all of the issues. We expect this task to continue into next cycle at a minimal level.

Complete GBT Spectrometer Cross-Polarization Documentation

The GBT Spectrometer records correlation data for both auto-correlation (correlations between the same sampler) and cross-correlations (correlations between different samplers). Only half the correlation is produced (positive lags). The correlations are transformed from the lag (time) domain to the frequency domain. The treatment is correct for the auto-correlation case, but incorrect for the cross-correlation case. Cross-correlation is also referred to as cross-polarization because the two samplers come from the two polarizations of the same feed and IF (e.g. X and Y or R and L).

We allocated ~37 person-hours of effort to complete this task and expended ~30 person-hours of effort. This task was continued from last cycle and will continue into next cycle. There is a small amount of documentation yet to be written and was not completed this cycle due to unanticipated excused absences.

Business Office System

The creation of an NRAO-wide reservation system is aimed at consolidating the disparate systems used in Green Bank and Socorro for visitor accommodations and support. The name of the system has been changed to the BusinessOfficeSystem because the project now involves more than just reservations.

This cycle, we started implementation of five Modification Requests which capture all of the changes necessary to deliver a viable Business Office System for both the Socorro and Green Bank Business Offices. We are aiming for deployment of the final system mid-May.

We allocated ~297 person-hours of effort for this task and expended ~288.

Conferences & Colloquia

This cycle three representatives of the Software Development Division attended PyCon 2007. After the conference, we held a series of "mini-conferences" with all members of the division where the conference attendees shared their information with the rest of the group.

We allocated ~182 person-hours of effort for this task, but expended ~323. Part of the underestimate was due to the fact that travel time was not considered when making the initial estimate, nor did we allocate time for each division member to attend the internal "mini-conferences."

Green Bank Strategic Planning

As part of the NRAO-wide Strategic Planning process, Green Bank is conducting it's own strategic planning. Our planning process includes both identification of important site-specific strategic goals which are aligned to the NRAO's goals and budget management. We allocated ~76 person-hours of effort for this task and expended ~114.

Data Analysis Planning

The goal of this activity is to evaluate the current effectiveness of the GBT data reduction package, GBTIDL, identify its current deficiencies, and to plan for the future of GBT data reduction. We expect this effort to continue into the coming cycles and evolve into an effort to implement the recommendations which sprout from the analysis. We allocated ~186 person-hours of effort for this task and only expended ~23. Not much was done on this effort due to unanticipated excused absence.

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