CASA Coordination Team - 08 February 2018 10:00 ET/8:00 MT/16:00 CET
Rooms: ER-245, SOC-280 Hub: 192.33.117.12##8110
Phone: 434-817-6524
Agenda
Starting point observations:
ALMA
- Regimented yearly observation cycles, with specific needs that must be developed, tested and deployed prior to the start of each cycle
- Once a cycle is underway, the operational code is mostly frozen until the next yearly cycle (barring major problems that must be patched)
- Requirements can (maybe??) be defined more broadly as scientific objectives and refined/implemented over a longer period of time
- This fits nicely with a traditional spiral development model at 6month or 12month intervals
VLASS
- Operations and development are tightly coupled with new builds accepted whenever they provide new/needed improvements
- Requirements are defined as specific implementation items, with errors or missing features rapidly iterated on with new development builds until solved
- This fits nicely with an agile development model at ~1month sprint intervals, requirements list is really the output of a scrum defining the next sprint
Challenge
Both models are equally valid and can be very successful, but they are somewhat mutually exclusive and difficult to do simultaneously.
CASA process currently in play fits with the ALMA model, not the VLASS model.
Strawman Idea for Discussion:
- Keep CASA development process as is defined here:
https://open-confluence.nrao.edu/display/CASA/CASA+Development+Process
- Fork Pipeline development processes for each telescope - create separate ALMA and VLA pipeline development / release paradigms
- Produce single shared CASA underpinnings to two different tailored pipelines with their own release schedules and versioning
- Probably requires decoupling CASA and Pipeline release packages
Meeting Minutes (RR 02/09/18)
Widespread disapproval of the strawman idea and desire to keep everything as common and integrated as possible. However the original observations and challenge do continue to stand with no alternatives presented. The general belief seems to be that we are doing both development models simultaneously already and no change is needed.
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RyanRaba - 2018-02-08