A. Götz, R. Bourtembourg, D. Lacoste, N. Leclercq
ESRF, Grenoble, France
G. Abeillé
SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
B. Bertrand, V. Hardion
MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
G. Brandl
MLZ, Garching, Germany
T. Braun
byte physics e.K., Berlin, Germany
P.P. Goryl, M. Liszcz
S2Innovation, Kraków, Poland
A.F. Joubert, A.J. Venter
SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa
C. Pascual-Izarra, S. Rubio-Manrique
ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
L. Pivetta
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
The Tango Controls collaboration has continued to grow since ICALEPCS 2019. Multiple new releases were made of the stable release V9. The new versions include support for new compiler versions, new features and bug fixes. The collaboration has adopted a sustainable approach to kernel development to cope with changes in the community. New projects have adopted Tango Controls while others have completed commissioning of challenging new facilities. This paper will present the status of the Tango-Controls collaboration since 2019 and how it is helping new and old sites to maintain a modern control system.
Adaptations to COVID-19: How Working Remotely Has Made Teams Work Efficiently Together
550
R. Lacuata, B. Blackwell, G.K. Brunton, M. Fedorov, M.S. Flegel, D.J. Koning, P. Koning, S.L. Townsend, J. Wang
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
Funding:This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s largest 192 laser beam system for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) experiments. The NIF’s Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS) team conducts quarterly software releases, with two to three patches in between. Each of these software upgrades consists of deployment, regression testing, and a test shot. All of these are done with the team members inside the NIF control room. In addition, the NIF ICCS database team also performs the Database Installation and Verification Procedure dry run before each software upgrade. This is to anticipate any issue that may arise on the day of the release, prepare a solution for it, and make sure that the database part of the upgrade will be completed within the allotted time slot. This talk is about how the NIF ICCS software teams adapted when the LLNL workforce began working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These adaptations led to a better and more efficient way of conducting the NIF ICCS software upgrades. LLNL-ABS-821815
Agility in Managing Experiment Control Software Systems
553
K.V.L. Baker, F.A. Akeroyd, T. Löhnert, D.E. Oram
STFC/RAL/ISIS, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
Most software development teams are proponents of Agile methodologies. Control system software teams, working at science facilities, are not always just developers, they undertake operations work, and may also be responsible for infrastructure from computer hardware to networks. Parts of the workflow this team interacts with may be Agile, but others may not be, and they may enforce deadlines that do not align with the typical agile implementations. There is the need to be more reactive when the facility is operating, which will impact any development work plans. Similarly, friction can occur between an Agile approach and more familiar existing long-standing risk-averse organisational approaches used on hardware projects. Based on experiences gained during the development of IBEX, the experiment control software used at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon source, this presentation will aim to explore what being Agile means, what challenges a multi-functional team can experience, and some solutions we have employed.
