Paper
14 July 2008 The software development process at the Chandra X-ray Center
Janet D. Evans, Ian N. Evans, Giuseppina Fabbiano
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Software development for the Chandra X-ray Center Data System began in the mid 1990's, and the waterfall model of development was mandated by our documents. Although we initially tried this approach, we found that a process with elements of the spiral model worked better in our science-based environment. High-level science requirements are usually established by scientists, and provided to the software development group. We follow with review and refinement of those requirements prior to the design phase. Design reviews are conducted for substantial projects within the development team, and include scientists whenever appropriate. Development follows agreed upon schedules that include several internal releases of the task before completion. Feedback from science testing early in the process helps to identify and resolve misunderstandings present in the detailed requirements, and allows review of intangible requirements. The development process includes specific testing of requirements, developer and user documentation, and support after deployment to operations or to users. We discuss the process we follow at the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) to develop software and support operations. We review the role of the science and development staff from conception to release of software, and some lessons learned from managing CXC software development for over a decade.
© (2008) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Janet D. Evans, Ian N. Evans, and Giuseppina Fabbiano "The software development process at the Chandra X-ray Center", Proc. SPIE 7019, Advanced Software and Control for Astronomy II, 701917 (14 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.790524
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Cited by 1 scholarly publication.
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KEYWORDS
Software development

Space operations

X-rays

Data archive systems

Data analysis

Calibration

Observatories

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