The OMP has been fully deployed!

Those of you who have been kindly looked upon by your TAGs in the last couple of semesters will have come across the many software changes introduced to JCMT and UKIRT as part of the JAC Observation Management Project (OMP for short). I am pleased to report that no software engineers were (permanently) harmed in the making of this software. In this article you'll find a cheat sheet to the more important project terminology, and the Unofficial And Only Slightly Expurgated History of the project.

The OMP in a nutshell

Learn to use the OMP lingo! You will amaze your friends and confuse your enemies.

The OT

Based on the old ORAC-OT, the OMP Observing Tool is a Phase II preparation tool that allows PIs to fully specify MSBs (Minimum Schedulable Blocks) for upload into the OMP database for observing. Although a single body of code, the OT is configured to come up in a different configuration depending on which telescope you want to use it for so as not to alarm people. These incarnations are referred to as the JCMT-OT and the UKIRT-OT for obvious reasons.

The QT

The query tool is used at the summit to query the OMP database for MSBs that are suitable for the weather, the national queue, and a host of other allocation restrictions. Again, this is a single piece of software that runs up in UKIRT and JCMT incarnations.

The Web Project Feedback system

This matrix of software tasks allows staff and PIs to access all information the OMP knows about, including the status of the project, access to the data, metadata about the observing conditions, logs, faults affecting the data and commentary by staff and observers about the the project. I hope I don't need to flog the "it's one piece of code for both telescopes" horse by now.

Project Manager's Log

2001 January

The OMP, a previously conceived JCMT project is reborn as a JAC project and gets going with a new team. Unfortunately, we're stuck with the old name, which irritates me by having no word indicating that it is a software project, and by having no obvious mascot opportunities. I will continue to wistfully wish (read: whine) for a cooler name for the next 3 years and probably beyond.

Time passes

We have a design, we have a review, we tweak the design some more, we have a mountain of dead whiteboard markers, we change our minds a few million times, we drag in anybody willing to help, we have large head-shaped dents on the walls. Then there was Infrastructure, and we saw it was Good.

2002 June

Some of the systems are starting to come together. Given the upcoming marriage of the new OMP software system to the old JCMT instruments, the control room gets a dowry of shiny new kit, including top-of-the-line Linux PCs, flat panel monitors (much easier to carry up the stairs than the old 21-inch beasts), a Polycom unit for telecon over IP, a new colour fax/coper and a thorough dusting. Luckily the JCMT is closed due to heavy engineering, so we have plenty of time to set everything up.

2002 July

The first and largest OMP release containing the SCUBA JCMT-OT, the QT, the new SCUBA queue and the project feedback system hit the JCMT summit. Hard. At the same time, the SCUBA JCMT-OT is released to the external community. The software corridor is full of exhausted software engineers alternatively pulling their hair out, wondering when the last time they went home was, yelling "It's all totally broken!" at each other and holding off staff that seem to be in a state of shock. I only mention this because in this very same newsletter there is an article by Nick Rees suggesting we dealt with this "calmly". I assume the word "calmly" means something else in Australian.

2002 August

Semester 02B kicks off with a nice set of commissioning shifts to launch SCUBA observing under the OMP. The tau promptly shoots up in order to prove that the Mauna Kea weather hates software engineers as much as astronomers. It will in fact be six weeks before everything is commissioned and all staff are trained.

2002 September

We've been running on a commissioning schedule for what seems like centuries. I keep the team in Hilo by using the new summit support systems to telecon in to the summit, in order to stop the altitude from claiming too many software neurons as victims. The system is starting to bed in, and we've had some successes with some of the new functionality, including transparent support for orbital elements, which gets us a nice image of Pallas.

2002 December

The new, web-based fault system is launched across JAC. This allows the fault reporting to be integrated with the end-of-night accounting, removing much duplication, and introduces the useful ability to assign a status to filed faults. Unfortunately, the cunning ploy of trying to confuse users with a new interface fails thanks to the intuitive design; everybody finds the new system ok and the fault rate does not go down. Must try harder.

2003 January

We decide to keep use of the JCMT-OT for DAS observing internal for 03A, by getting external users to submit old-style templates and have the local support scientists use the OTs to create MSBs for observing. This works great for the software team as it gives us a nice long period to bed the software in and get everyone up to speed, but it means extra work for the already overworked support science staff. I am surprised I'm not getting more dark glances when I walk down the corridor, but maybe this is because everybody is busy mumbling at their screens?

2003 February

Semester 03A sees the dawn of flexible scheduling on UKIRT with the full deployment of the OMP at our second site. Everybody copes remarkably well with the transition, mostly thanks to the thorough preparations by the science staff and TSSs. The software seems to hold well under the UKIRT operational model too, to our great relief. Not that I had any doubts, you understand.

2003 June

Busy PI! Tired of all the e-mail the OMP sends you? Despair not! Contact information is now configurable through your project web pages, allowing you to designate one (or more) co-Is as the recipients of OMP updates.

2003 July

In anticipation of Semester 03B, the JCMT-OT with Heterodyne/DAS support is released to the community. The final block is in place - all UKIRT and JCMT common-user observing is now under the auspices of the OMP. Doughnuts all around. (I'd buy them beer but half the team doesn't drink - where did I find these people?)

2003 August

We deploy OMP-WORF, which allows PIs and co-Is to eavesdrop on any of their JCMT and UKIRT data as it is being taken through their OMP Web pages. This immediate effortless access to the reduced data is hoped to increase PI involvement and allow early detection on any problems with the programme. (Note to PIs: Don't dash our hopes).

2003 August

We successfully test OMP/ORAC-DR integration into the e-Star network of intelligent agents during a UKIRT engineering night. This technology (scheduled for full deployment later this semester) will allow us rapid detection or follow-up on time critical and transient events, such as gamma ray burster alerts and dwarf novae monitoring programmes. It's also very, very cool.

2003 September

The OMP project draws to a close, and support of the delivered systems will soon pass to normal JCMT and UKIRT operations. I promptly vow never to get involved again in a project that has the word Project in its name, so as to avoid agonising for hours on how to write sentences that read "The Observational Management Project project draws to a close".

Although a cast of thousands (well ok, about two dozen, but they seemed like more thanks to their endless dedication and wizzy special effects) has contributed directly and indirectly to the success of the OMP, I would like to thank the outstanding individuals in the starring roles who tirelessly toiled through nights, weekends and holidays on Yet Another Feature Request and shepherded the project through the long arduous stretch of commissioning and deployment:

• Tim Jenness (The World Is Not Pedantic Enough)
• Kynan Delorey (Pirates of the Web: The Curse of the Black Perl)
• Shaun de Witt (The Man Who Knew Too Much Java)
• Brad Cavanagh (The Search for WORF)

If only we'd given it a cooler name.

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