July 9^th, 2001 APT Visit Planner Meeting at 3:00pm in N310

Jesse, Ron, Andy, Steve, Tricia, Rusty, Leslie

• Phase 1 vs. Phase 2 Proposals

  Conceptually, there are not any differences between phase 1 and phase 2 proposals from the visit planner's point of view. The things that might be considered differences are:

  • A phase 1 proposal doesn't allow for fully specifing all the scheduling constraints.
  • Names of some scheduling constraints are different between phase 1 and phase 2 proposals.

  These differences are not issues because we want to allow users to check schedulability on partial phase 2 proposals anyway, so phase 1 proposals with partial scheduling constraints doesn't add any complexity.

  The names used to access scheduling constraints will be table driven, so having different names does not add complexity either.

• Bigger Picture
  • Are there use cases that illustrate how the visit planner fits in to the APT? [[[After the meeting, Rusty and Jesse couldn't find any good ones in the APT use cases. Jesse will try to come up with a couple or three]]]
  • The requirements group intends that APT should not direct the user in their proposal developement. Rather, APT should allow the user to prepare their proposal in the way that best meets their needs.
  • But, there should probably be some sort of guide document that let's the user know about the tools and how they are used for preparing proposals.
  • For our visit planner discussions, it would be good to have a feel for what the user might do to get to the point of needing to use the visit planner.
  • Is the orbit planner needed before the visit planner? (Not necessarily. A target visibility can be assumed or adjusted with the SCHED parameter.) [[[Jesse will check into the specifics of the mechanisms for sharing data between tools. ]]]

• 7/09 Discuss Use Cases and Issues
• 7/13 Draft Requirements for phased releases (by Jesse)
• 7/16 Wrap Up Discussion on Use Cases and Issues
• 7/23 Start Ironing Out Requirements with emphasis on first release phase
• 7/30 Wrap Up Requirements

Jesse is out 7/23. Andy has volunteered to takes notes that day which should just be modifications to the requirements draft.

• The definition of a link as a relationship among 2 or more visits is fine. It will be added to the top level requirements web page.
• Input visit status:
  • There is a distinction between finishing a proposal vs. working on an incomplete proposal in a tool.
    [[[I don't remember well the context of this point and its significance. But, it was important enough at the time in my mind to write it down.]]]
  • The user will get updated scheduling info only upon request, i.e., after pushing an update button.

• What the user wants to know:
  • Under the first bullet about culprits, it was noted that the culprit depends on the time of year.
  • The user also wants to know which visits are schedulable or not or if the schedulability is unsatisfactory.

    It was noted that just because a visit is schedulable, the schedulability may not be satisfactory after the user has chance to look at the scheduling windows.

  • When giving users advice about how to improve the schedulability, it is also important to tell the user when the constraints are too complicated to offer advice .

We'll continue with the agenda next time.

http://ra.stsci.edu/apst/apt/apt-visit-planner/

• Check Schedulability of Visits
• Modify Visits Until Schedulable

[We should look at how the orbit planner (OPT) deals with some of these issues.]

Issues from use case handout at last meeting ( http://ra.stsci.edu/apst/apt/apt-visit-planner/meetings/meeting-2001-07-02.html#usecases )

• Status of input visits (How does the OPT handle this?)
• Information user needs after checking schedulability.
• Modifying constraints
• Context changes (How does the OPT handle this?)

• What happens when a visit is modified either when the VP is the current tool or not? (How does the OPT handle this?)
• Would the user like to select which constraints to check?
• What happens if the orbit structure is modified?

http://ra.stsci.edu/apst/apt/apt-visit-planner/