[alma-config] Tucson meeting

[Al Wootten]

John Conway writes:
 >  Who in the configuration working group is effected with the
 > conflict with the receiver CDR  on March 20th/21st?, I would have
 > thought that receivers and configuration were fairly orthogonal
 > (I guess there might be some overlap for cal purposes but surely 
 > the receiver CDR will be focussing on very fairly detailed 
 > hardware questions of mixers, HEMT vs SIS etc etc). Maybe we could 
 > get the people organising the receivers CRD to move their meeting 
 > instead  (joke)?
I talked to Bob Brown and Richard Simon about what a CoDR should be, 
since I know of no definition.  Here is what I understand.

Fine point of bureaucracy--Conceptual Design Review = CoDR
                           Preliminary Design Review= PDR
                           Critical Design Review   = CDR
                           PreProduction Review     = PPR
These occur in this order, usually, though no CoDRs have been held, to
my knowledge.  In contrast to a PDR or CDR, a CoDR need not have outside
referees invited, and rather than scrutinizing a single plan, studies
several alternatives to define the path that the PDR will examine. A
PDR invites close scrutiny of a chosen path, to approve it or recommend
changes.

Rules for a PDR (MMA) have been defined.  Interestingly, the rules, as
well as the published results of the PDRs which have been held, are
in a private section (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/mma-only/) of the MMA WWW site.  
They should not be, but no wonder no one knows what the rules are!  To quote:
--------------------
PDR, CDR, and Pre-Production Review Guidelines Version 2 - 98November09 
P. J. Napier Preliminary Design Review (PDR) 
To be held early enough in the D&D Phase so that a change in direction is still possible if the need for such a change is identified by the review. The purpose of the PDR of an MMA Subsystem is principally to review 3 questions:

1) Are the top level performance requirements for the subsystem
complete and adequate?

2) Have the correct design solutions been selected for study and
development during the MMA D&D phase?  Are there important alternate
solutions that are not being studied?

3) If a major procurement is required for the subsystem during the MMA
D&D phase, is the procurement plan correct?

 The PDR will be organized and chaired by the MMA Division Head responsible 
for the subsystem. The Review Board will include the following: 
  (a) At least 2 experts from outside the MMA Project. In the event that 
the Review cannot be scheduled because of difficulty in arranging the 
attendance of a second expert, it will be acceptable to solicit the 
opinions of the second expert in writing after his/her review of all 
of the materials presented at the Review. 
(b) The Project Manager and/or the Project Systems Engineer. 
(c) The Project Scientist or his/her designee. 
(d) At least one representative of any MMA Division potentially impacted 
by the design of the subsystem. Critical Design Review (CDR) To be held 
before expenditure of significant funds on the construction of field 
equipment which will be incorporated into the test interferometer. 

  Review Documentation (All Reviews) 
(1) Minutes will be kept of the Review. 
(2) As the last activity of the Review all Review Board members will be 
asked to answer the key questions and to identify any important Issues. 
(3) The responsible Division Head must arrange for written responses 
to all Issues within one month of the Review. These responses will 
become part of the Review documentation package. 
(4) It is the responsibility of the MMAProject Manager to determine 
what further action is required as follow-up to the Issues and Responses.
--------------------
These rules have not been adopted for the ALMA project, but have been
guiding e.g. the correlator PDR by default.

For a CoDR we might alter these:
1) Are the top level performance requirements for the choices of subsystem
design complete and adequate?

2) Have the correct design solutions been selected for study and
development during the MMA D&D phase?  Are there important alternate
solutions that are not being studied?

3) If a major procurement is required for these subsystem design choices
during the MMA D&D phase, is there a procurement plan correct?

I'll suggest that the Division Heads examine this issure next Monday.

Under existing rules, Stephane and I would have conflicts.  
There are no ALMA rules for
CoDR, PDR or CDR yet, a fairly serious problem in my opinion.  There
are ALMA/US-MMA rules, however, which require Project Scientist and
each relevant division head to be
present or to send a representative to all DRs.  I can try to find a
representative for the receiver CoDR since planning has already proceeded
so far.  It is unfortunate that despite the fact that the Joint Receiver 
Discussion Group set this date in early December in Grenoble, the minutes
of that meeting still have not been circulated, nor did this date appear
on any WBS for the project.  I apologize for the confusion, which will
reign in ALMA until our leaders get their act together.  This is imminent,
as the ALMA WBS is finally just about to be born, along with the project
costing, a preliminary version of which is due 11 Feb.  Since plans seem
to have been made, let's keep to the 20-21 March schedule.

 > P.S. What is a CDR (Conceptual Design Review) anyway?, is it just a 
 > fancy name for a meeting, or does it mean we expected to produce 
 > some joint report?
Good question.  There are exact guidelines for a PDR, but I don't know
of those for a CoDR.  I suggest we use the fuzzy PDR guidelines I
outlined above.

I apologize for the confusion.  It won't be the last time it occurs, I'm
afraid, but I do hope the confusion level diminishes.

Clear skies,
Al
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