NRAO Home  >  Green Bank  |  Wiki Topic:    GB > Software > SddMetrics > MetricsC62006
   Changes | Index | Contents | Search | Statistics | Go

Software Development Metrics & Information Summary for C6 2006

The Plan of Record used for this cycle can be found at PlanOfRecordC62006.

Overview

7 SDD members worked 1642.4 hours in C6 2006 over 33 days (71% cycle commitments, 5% GBT operations support, 24% overhead incl. vacation/sick/holiday time). Note that the 1 FTE spent on management of the division is not included in the previous numbers nor the subsequent numbers.

overvieweffortC62006.jpg

Project Allocation

The cycle commitments were allocated over 5 major projects: Dynamic Scheduling, PTCS, Penn Array, e2e, and Zpectrometer. In the chart below, "other" is used as a catch-all for those commitments which are not associated with a major project.

projecteffortC62006.jpg

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

Cycle Commitments

The cycle commitments for C6 consisted of 21 commitments. A summary of each commitment is discussed later in its own section. Of the 21 commitments, 19 were met satisfactorily. 2 were not completed as expected and continued over into the next cycle.

The commitment on the C6 POR entitled, "Zpectrometer config tool changes," was put on hold pending more information. We realized that we need more information on the configuration of the Zpectrometer before we can effectively code this.

The commitment on the C6 POR entitled, "Modify SDFITS to correctly show Spectrometer cross-polarization data," was continued into the next cycle. This was due to larger than expected support for the Zpectrometer, which involved BobGarwood.

A relatively major item came up, which was not allocated time - the Future Instrumentation Workshop.

commitmentsoverviewC62006.jpg

Operational 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 ~120 person-hours of effort, of which ~4 were actually used. The preparation for upcoming Zpectrometer commissioning and participation in the Future Instrumentation Workshop diverted resources normally assigned to this task. The project was put on hold this cycle.

Implement Spectrometer "Bad Lags" Fix

The GBT Spectrometer suffers from drop-outs in the values for some of the lags. While this problem is being fixed in hardware (see http://www.gb.nrao.edu/GBT/spectrometer/index.html), that fix will not be complete in the near future. To help observers with this problem, we are working on a fix in the AIPS++ and SDFITS fillers to allow users to replace the bad lag values with values which closely represent reality. The effort required to complete the item was overestimated. We allocated 39.6 person-hours of effort and only expended 8. This task was a carryover from last cycle and is now complete.

Incorporate OOF Holography Zernike models into Active Surface

The purpose of this activity was to incorporate the Out-Of-Focus (OOF) Holography results directly into the Active Surface Manager similar to how the Finite Element Model (FEM) works. That is, before a subscan starts the Active Surface will determine the expected elevation at the midpoint of the subscan and set the Zernike coefficients appropriately. The effort required to complete the item was underestimated. We allocated 138.2 person-hours of effort and instead expended 118.8. This task was completed successfully.

GBT Antenna Servo Test Support & Analysis

This task is in support of the servo testing and analysis activities of the PTCS group for C6. The effort required to complete the item was grossly overestimated. We allocated 92.4 person-hours of effort and expended only 11.1!

Implement Linux Quadrant Detector Manager

The Quadrant Detector (QD) is required for upcoming PTCS activities and has been reconfigured to support these activities. More information on the Quadrant Dectector is available at QuadrantDetectorUsage?. Although a QD M&C Manager currently exists, it needed to be updated/replaced to support the current state of the QD hardware. The QD Manager is one of the main tasks listed as part of the PTCSProjectPlan and is the impetus of this MR. This task is now complete. The effort requested for this activity was fairly accurate. Only 52.8 person-hours of the allotted 65 person-hours were used.

Learn PTCS

To support the revitalization of PTCS, we have allocated the project our newest employee, RonGrider. Because he is new to the NRAO, this task was simply to become familiar with the PTCS project and with the GBT. Two specific items have emerged as a result of this activity. The first involves upgrading the PTCS Pointing Model pre-processing software, currently written in Glish. The second involves resolving where apparent offset value discrepancies are arising between the Glish pre-processing software and a Python application which provides similar functionality.

Penn Array Receiver (PAR)

Details on the Penn Array Receiver can be found on its project page. The focus of our work this cycle was to support the commissioning of the PAR on the GBT. We slightly overestimated the effort required for the support task. We allocated 158.4 person-hours of effort and expended 146.4.

Zpectrometer (Manager, SDFITS, GBTIDL, LO1, Ka Manager changes, IF Manager changes, Meetings)

A description of the Zpectrometer Project can be found at ZpectProject. Zpectrometer software development can be tracked at the ZpectSoftwareDevelopment status page.

We implemented a ModificationRequest (MR) which specifies the changes needed to SDFITS and GBTIDL for Zpectrometer data reduction when the Zpectrometer is being commissioned. The writing of this MR began last cycle. This MR generated more work than expected and was the primary source for the discrepancy between expected versus actual time expenditure.

Additionally, the Ka Manager and IF Manager underwent modification to accomodate the new backend. This work began last cycle and is now complete.

Finally, for Zpectrometer calibration routines, the university-supplied software requires direct control of the GBT LO1 test tone signal. Modifications were made to the LO1 Manager to support this functionality. This work is now complete.

We underestimated the work involved in bringing the Zpectrometer online. We allocated 369.6 person-hours of effort and expended 415.9 person-hours.

Business Office Systems (formerly: Create NRAO-wide reservation system)

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

Green Bank currently uses a system called CRAINS and Socorro currently uses a system called BARS. This project is currently in stage 3. A history of stages can be found at: ReservationsStageOne, ReservationsStageTwo, and ReservationsStageThree. The current aim of the project is to seamlessly transfer reservation information and basic business transactions performed by the respective business offices into PeopleSoft where fiscal can access the information. Most of the work this cycle focused on updating the project charter with this new information. We need further information from the MIS department in order to be able to finish the charter and to generate a series of MRs, which will describe the work needed to achieve scenario 3.

Virtual Observatory School

MelindaMello attended VO school. The NRAO has been looking into VO-compliancy and we sent a representative to the school to learn about the VO and its software. She will present what she learned at the school in an upcoming software lunch talk and upcoming technical seminar.

Future Instrumentation Workshop

Most of the SDD attended the Future Instrumentation Workshop. The purpose of the meeting was to assemble a group of engineers and scientists to help guide GBT development priorities for the coming years. This effort will also be relevant to NRAO's long term involvement with astronomy in the cm-wavelength band.

Topic MetricsC62006 . { Edit | Attach | Ref-By | Printable | Diffs | r1.5 | > | r1.4 | > | r1.3 | More }
Revision r1.5 - 07 Nov 2006 - 13:46 GMT - AmyShelton
Parents: SddMetrics 		Content copyright © 1999-2007 by the contributing authors.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.