AG2 SCHEDULE

Proposal from Andy Lawrence for AGLI approval, March 8th 2004. The schedule should evolve from the aims and constraints, so first some general points.

(1) GENERAL POINTS

1.1 We have already agreed the general approach at Jan meeting :

• all institutions have re-affirmed their involvement
• SSVO merge with AG2
• resource allocations deferred until after design study
• design study already underway and also Forum topic : Tony to report

1.2 Personnel management :

• agreed to extend contracts for PM, PS, TL
• has been verbally agreed with PPARC, formal arrangements underway.
• other AG1 staff : announce late enough not to encourage early departures
• but early enough to give people a chance to find other jobs
• some staff contracts end October : need warning by August
• informal preliminary staff ranking exists
• proposal for additional effort from Pye : project assistance

1.3 PPARC expectations

• preliminary plans described to GSC in February
• committed ourselves to showing them Project Plan in "late summer"
• they will want to see clear evidence of organised plan of work
• but won't care about resource distribution : up to us.

1.4 Project Psychology

• PPARC thinking of us "continued AstroGrid"
• but we should think of distinct projects
• AstroGrid-1 MUST DELIVER : AG2 not an excuse to delay
• descope AG1 as necessary to deliver product
• want clear set of additional goals for AG2
• also want clear fresh-start planning without disturbing AG1 work.

(2) DOCS TO PRODUCE

2.1 Design Study

• informal documents for internal AG debate
• three parts :

(a) Technical scope (TL leading)

(b) Science scope (NAW leading)

(c) AG1 stock taking (AL to lead)

• needs to be done pretty soon so we can iterate

2.2 Project Plan

• this is the bit that needs to re-assure PPARC
• so needs to be done by summer
• but can also be a document we circulate publicly
• parts needed are :

(a) AG2 vision document : including top-level goals

(b) Architecture overview

(c) Management Plan : deliverables, milestones, risk table staffing plan, hardware plan budget

2.3 Design Reference Architecture

• arch overview in summer project plan
• real architecture evolves continuously of course
• but we commit to having something in place that developers can seriously work against
• done by October ?

(3) TIMETABLE

Later dates need revising when we know GSC date.

Jan 31 : agree membership, initial approach

March 8 : AGLI telecon

: agree doc plan and schedule

March 28 : first draft Design Study

April 2 : debate at NAM

April 15 : final Design Study

: outline Project Plan

Apr 21 : AGLI telecon

review of AG2 development

May 15 : draft Project Plan

June 1 : AGLI telecon

review Project Plan

June 7 : AGLI telecon

sign-off final project plan

sign-off revised milestone plan

send to PPARC

mid-June : GSC review project plan ?? + feedback

July 1 : revised Project Plan

July 15 : final AGLI review

Aug 1 : announce staffing plan to staff

Oct 1 : Design Reference Architecture

-- AndyLawrence - 08 Mar 2004