Software for telescopes surges ahead

Software for telescopes surges ahead

BY ANIM VAN WYK (SKAO)

Awarding 41 contracts worth approximately €151.7 million, the SKA Observatory (SKAO) has leaped out of the blocks since the approval of construction just over a year ago.

Among others, the SKAO’s tender subcommittee most recently endorsed the first part of the management and integration of the SKA-Low telescope’s field stations (€1 million) as well as both telescopes’ synchronisation and timing activity management (€1.5 million). Major contracts for the manufacturing of the SKA antennas and dishes should be awarded soon.

Software procurement received the bulk of the contracts (23) and money (nearly €100 million) committed so far. Under these contracts, at least 130 software developers from nine countries are working to ensure the SKA telescopes deliver world-class science.

The SKAO recently signed its two final software contracts with India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics and Swiss company Cosylab. Their developers join those from the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Australia, Italy, China, and the United Kingdom working on the project.

“Concluding the contracting of all our software suppliers is a big moment, but at the same time, it is only an intermediate step to the ultimate goal,” says the SKAO’s software project manager, Maurizio Miccolis.

Credit: Snehal Valame

This goal is to enable the SKAO community to achieve transformational science. The software’s first significant trial awaits in 2024 when four telescope dishes and six low-frequency antenna stations are due to come online. By then, the software must demonstrate a basic ability to control the telescopes, including the capacity to combine signals from several antennas.

When construction concludes at the end of the decade, each telescope’s software must process an average of 8 terabits of data per second before distributing it to science users worldwide.

Populated by trains & planets

Though the SKAO finalised its software procurement in a speedy nine months, the groundwork for it was laid years ago. From 2013-4, two different international consortia steered the design of the SKA software as part of the telescopes’ pre-construction phase.

One consortium – consisting of members from seven countries led by India – designed the Telescope Manager element. The other consortium brought together almost 40 institutions from 11 countries to plan the Science Data Processor, with the United Kingdom in charge.

The consortia passed their critical design reviews in April 2018 and May 2019, respectively. The Observatory then started planning for construction by prototyping software development processes.

“We realised that we didn’t want to maintain the separate consortia but merge efforts to build the software in a single organic way,” explains Nick Rees, head of computing and software at the SKAO.

The software leadership adopted a tailored version of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). The framework is a set of workflow patterns widely used in industry.

In September 2018, the SKAO started implementing SAFe processes with four development teams. Labelled PI0 (Programme Increment Zero), more teams joined with each following PI, including ones from other design consortia with software responsibilities.

Eventually, two Agile Release Trains – team-of-teams made up of three to nine people each – emerged: one for Science Data Handling and Processing (SDH&P) and the other for Observation, Monitoring, and Control (OMC). Later, a Services train was added.

The Services train consists of enablers that carry out activities in support of the other trains’ work, such as setting up the software repository and testing system. Team Planet (an amalgamation of “platform” and “network”) is an enabler that provides the hardware, platforms, as well as the networks that connect them.

The SAFe way of working is inherently flexible.

“Three trains may not be our configuration forever,” says Rees. “In future, we may transform them into two trains, one dedicated to each telescope. Currently, this is unnecessary as both telescopes require most of the software under development.”

Working as trusted partners

Along with the SAFe methodology, relational contracts form the backbone of the SKAO’s software development. The Observatory uses the fourth version of a suite of standard contracts called New Engineering Contracts 4, or NEC4. These aim to reduce the complexity and time involved in managing contracts.

“By using the NEC4 suite, we set up contracts in a mutually beneficial way, rather than as a mere exchange of goods and services between parties,” says Miccolis.

Software leadership found that combining an NEC4 framework contract and professional services short contract best suited the SKAO’s needs for flexibility. To further ensure the parties work as trusted partners, the Observatory follows the Vested methodology of relational contracting (see box) developed by academics in the United States.

How it works is that each contract includes a shared vision developed with all the suppliers. The agreement further stipulates the guiding principles (such as reciprocity and honesty), intended behaviours (inclusion and respect, for instance), high-level objectives, and the expected rules of engagement – but not the exact tasks or deliverables required.

Characteristic of the SKAO’s Programme Increment (PI) planning meetings, these doodles by software engineer Snehal Valame illustrate key SAFe concepts, such as the fruits of quality (above) and onboarding teams on Agile Release Trains (below).

Credit: Snehal Valame

Credit: Snehal Valame

Miccolis explains that the SKAO software engineering team could have spent years defining what precisely each supplier had to deliver. Instead, they contract skilled developers and ask them to use their expertise and creativity to help provide an even better solution. However, the responsibility for delivering the final product stays with the SKAO software engineering team.

“What we ask for from suppliers is a set of experts, and then the SKAO steers this workforce to develop the software product we have to deliver,” says Miccolis.

“Skilled workers are motivated by stimulating work. You don’t need to police their work – on the contrary; you can leverage their skills and positive attitude. We don’t want working for the SKAO to be just a job, but a chance to do something fun, interesting, and challenging for an important project.”

‘HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP’ BETWEEN SKAO AND SUPPLIERS IN THE MAKING

Results from a recent survey reveal that SKAO’s approach to software contracting is bearing fruit.

Academics from the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, USA, quizzed key personnel at the SKAO and its suppliers. They based the survey on the Vested methodology, endorsed by SKAO and its software suppliers, which focuses on five elements that indicate compatibility and trust in a trading relationship: trust, innovation, communication, team orientation, and focus.

The Vested faculty asked the SKAO and its suppliers to rank statements about the five elements on a scale. Participants assessed themselves as well as their counterparts. The results showed minor differences in the SKAO’s self-view and the partners’ perception of the SKAO and vice versa, signifying a promising level of compatibility and trust. Such results are “indicative of a healthy relationship”, Vested reported.

Open-ended questions in the survey’s final section elicited comments such as: “The relationship we have with SKAO is much better than any other clientsupplier relationship we had before”.

The results “show organisations such as ours can achieve a relational way of working”, said the SKAO’s project manager for software, Maurizio Miccolis. “The results are especially encouraging given it was the first assessment and that the relationship is still in its early days.”

The Observatory expects to repeat the survey once a year, said Miccolis. “We want to keep investing in the health of the relationship with our suppliers.”