Supporting the coordination of a software work-package of the Cherenkov Telescope Array via model-driven methodologies

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray observatory. CTA will be deployed as two installations, one in the Northern and the other in the Southern Hemisphere, containing telescopes of three different sizes, for covering different energy domains, with varying designs. The CTA Observatory (CTAO) is building a complex and distributed software system for the efficient operation of the arrays and the management and scientific exploitation of the CTA data. The largest fraction of the construction budget of CTA will come as in-kind contributions (IKCs) from CTA Shareholders (participating countries and research centres), with the prominent IKC example of the telescopes themselves. Most of the effort to build the CTA software will be provided by IKCs as well, with CTAO personnel managing the coordination between partners, ensuring common development practices, and facilitating that the requirements, integration, quality level, and deadlines are properly met. This contribution presents the management plan of one of the main CTA software work packages, the Array Control and Data Acquisition (ACADA). The ACADA software will be responsible for the coordination of the control and data acquisition of telescopes, as well as many auxiliary instruments. The ACADA team will be composed of about 30 developers distributed in eight IKC teams, CTAO personnel, and company contracts. The contribution shows how model-driven software architecture practices are essential for the management of such a distributed team, which is predominantly composed of IKCs