SciOp

EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY

La Silla Observatory

SCIENCE OPERATION DEPARTMENT

SciOp 







Re-Engineering Project:

Staffing Plan

LSO-PLA-ESO-9000-6/1.0

















Prepared Olivier Hainaut 2002-06-01
Released Jorge Melnick 2002-06-13
.

Revision History

0.1 2002-06-01 first draft
0.9
2002-06-11 internal review version
1.0
2002-06-13 review comments included

CONTENT























1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1- PURPOSE AND SCOPE

This document discusses the staffing plan of the SciOp Department,

1.2-  STYLISTIC CONVENTION AND DEFINITIONS

In this document, "he" and "his" refer to the position described. In practice, these position can be occupied by people of any gender.

"Transition period" refers to Jul. 1, 2002 (SciOp starts) until Dec.31, 2003 (end of WFI operation).
"Steady-state period" refers to the period after Jan.1, 2004, until the end of the current Long Range Plan.

1.4- DOCUMENTS AND REFERENCES

[1] LSO-SPE-ESO-90000-1 SciOp Job Titles and Job Descriptions
[2] LSO-PLA-ESO-90000-1 SciOp General Operation Plan
[3] LSO-PLA-ESO-90000-3 SciOp Astronomy Operation Plan
[4] LSO-PLA-ESO-90000-4 SciOp Documentation and Communication plan

1.5- ABBREVIATIONS and ACRONYMS

FTE: Full Time Univalent
LED: La Silla Engineering Department
LRP: Long Range Plan
MET: MEdium size Telescope
NTTT: NTT Team
OpA: Operation Astronomer
SciOp: La Silla Science Operation Department
TIO: Telescope and Instrument Operator
WFI: Wide Field Imager

2- CURRENT STAFFING SITUATION

SciOp will merge the 3 optical telescope teams, i.e. NTT T, 360Cat and MET. The current (as of 2002-Jul-01)  staff of these teams are composed as following (post numbers to the best of my knowledge, job titles uniformised according to [1]).
This totals to:

3- SCIOP STAFFING PLAN

3.1- INTRODUCTION

The ESO Long Range Plan is the main constraint on the SciOp Staffing Plan. It dictates the following:
The LRP FTEs from the ESO budget are listed in Table 1, exactly as in the 2002 budget (i.e. some names are already obsolete).

The second constraint on the SciOp Staffing Plan is the optimization of available human resources, putting the emphasis on using the currently available resources to prepare the steady-state period.

Finally, Paranal will recruit 2 TIOs and 1 Astro for VST operation. SciOp will aim at training the TIOs to a level superior to the VLT requirements, i.e. impeccable night operation (VLT requirement), impeccable day operation, and excellent "background" skill, in such a way that SciOp TIOs would be by far superior to any external candidate.

Table 1: LRP according to the Budget

WP               PerID   Personnel Name  GRP-DIV Post ID Post    2002    2003    2004    2005    2006

Astronomers   (50/50%)                                                                         
WP633 3p6op      MKU     Kuerster, M.    CFT-LSO CSO402  Astro   0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP633 3p6op      STM     Sterzik, M.     CFT-LSO CSO401  Astro   0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP634 METop      MER     Mendez, R.      MET-LSO CSO502  Astro   0       0       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      MER     Mendez, R.      MET-LSO CSO502  Astro   0.5     0.5     0       0       0
WP642 NTTMaint   OHA     Hainaut, O.     LNT-LSO CSO301  Astro   0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1
WP643 NTTop      LVA     Vanzi, L.       LNT-LSO CSO302  Astro   0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP643 NTTop      OHA     Hainaut, O.     LNT-LSO CSO301  Astro   0.4     0.4     0.4     0.4     0.4
WP644 METMaint   MER     Mendez, R.      MET-LSO CSO502  Astro   0       0       0       0       0
WP694 NTTupgr    oha     Hainaut, O.     LNT-LSO CSO301  Astro   0       0       0       0       0
Total FTE Astro:                                                 2.5     2.5     2       2       2
Total People Astro:     (Conversion: 0.5FTE/Person)              5       5       4       4       4

Fellows   (50/50%)                                                                    
WP633 3p6op      BRK     Brooks, K.      SCV-ODG FDG106  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP633 3p6op      RAT     Athreya, R.     SCV-ODG FDG101  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP634 METop      ISA     Saviane, I.     SCV-ODG FDG117  Fellow  0.5     0       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      HJO     Jones, H.       SCV-ODG FDG105  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      LGE     Germany, L.     SCV-ODG FDG110  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0       0       0
WP643 NTTop      MBI     Billeres, M.    SCV-ODG FDG103  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
WP643 NTTop      MBI     NN to be hired  SCV-ODG FDG10x  Fellow  0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5     0.5
Total FTE Fellows:                                               3.5     3       2       2       2
Total People Fellows:   (Conversion: 0.5FTE/Person)              7       6       4       4       4

OpAs  (80%/20%)                                                                         
WP633 3p6op      NAG     LoCurto G.      CFT-LSO PSO003  Astro   0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8
WP634 METop      JPR     Pritchard, J.   MET-LSO PSO006  OpA     0.8     0       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      JSE     Selman, F.      MET-LSO PSO004  OpA     0.8     0.8     0       0       0
WP643 NTTop      PLE     Leisy, P.       CFT-LSO PSO005  OpA     0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8
Total FTE OpAs:                                                  3.2     2.4     1.6     1.6     1.6
Total People OpAs:      (Conversion: 0.8FTE/Person)             4       3       2       2       2
                                                                               
TIOs (100%)                                                                          
WP633 3p6op      EAR     Araya, E.       CFT-LSO LSO404  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP633 3p6op      EWE     Wenderoth, E.   CFT-LSO LSO414  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP633 3p6op      GOA     Gonzalez, A.    CFT-LSO LSO405  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP633 3p6op      GRO     Roman, G.       CFT-LSO LSO413  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP633 3p6op      MAE     Matamoros, E.   CFT-LSO LSO407  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP633 3p6op      N.N.    Replacement     CFT-LSO LSO412  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP634 METop      ATO     Torrejon, A.    MET-LSO LSO508  TIO     1       0       0       0       0
WP634 METop      RVE     Vega, R.        MET-LSO LSO513  TIO     1       0       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      FLA     Labraña, F.     MET-LSO LSO509  TIO     1       1       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      RCA     Castillo, R.    MET-LSO LSO507  TIO     1       1       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      COJ     Cortes, J.      LNT-LSO LSO511  TIO     1       1       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      FSA     Sanchez, F.     MET-LSO LSO510  TIO     1       1       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      MMR     Martinez, M.    LNT-LSO LSO512  TIO     1       1       0       0       0
WP637 WFIop      JAR     Araya, J.       MET-LSO LSO506  TechEng 1       1       0       0       0
WP643 NTTop      ASA     Sanchez, A.     LNT-LSO LSO314  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP643 NTTop      DCA     Castex, D       LNT-LSO LSO310  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP643 NTTop      JMI     Miranda, J.     LNT-LSO LSO308  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP643 NTTop      KAU     Aubel, K.       LNT-LSO LSO309  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP643 NTTop      MAP     Pizarro, M.     LNT-LSO LSO313  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
WP643 NTTop      MOC     Castillo, M.    LNT-LSO LSO312  TIO     1       1       1       1       1
Total TIOs:                                                     20      18      12      12      12

Operation Engineers (100%)
WP633 3p6op      EBA     Barrios, E.     CFT-LSO LSO406  OpEng   1       1       1       1       1
WP642 NTTMaint   PLS     Le Saux, P.     LNT-LSO CSO303  OpEng   0.2     0.2     0.2     0.2     0.2
WP643 NTTop      PLS     Le Saux, P.     LNT-LSO CSO303  OpEng.  0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8     0.8
Total OpEngineers:                                               2       2       2       2       2




3.2- OPERATION ENGINEERS

Two Operation Engineers are needed; their duties are described in the SciOp General Operation Plan [2].

3.3- ELECTRONICS

The 6 Electronics will not work on the SciOps staff, but will be integrated into other teams and departments. This section is therefore only for information, and is not formally part of the SciOp staffing plan. The current agreement with LED is that it will include a "Telescope Support" sub-department, lead by R.Parra, and including J.Vilaza on a long term (> 1yr) bases, and other Electronics technician to be trained and certified by the current Teams' Electronics. This training and certification process is critical in the concept of the ISO-9001 documentation and training, in order to ensure that their in-depth knowledge is not dispersed.  In that framework, J.Santana will remain full time in LED/Telescope Support till October, and J.Fluxa ~50% in LED/Telesc.Support until October (the other ~50% in APEX). R.Olivares will move to APEX project, but he shall complete his job on the FEROS project. H.Kastowsky will retire in 2002.

3.4- ASTRONOMERS STAFFING PLAN

The steady-state staffing level required to operate the 3 telescopes is 4 staff astronomers, 3 OpAs and 3 Fellows, implying the transfer of one of the Fellow FTEs to an OpA FTE  (i.e., instead of 4 Fellows and 2 OpAs as planned in the original La Silla 2000+ long range plan).

This ensures that SciOp will operate with an average of 2.7 astronomers per night, including training, which is considered to be the minimum to provide support to the 3 remaining telescopes, provided that the schedule recommendations outlined in the Astronomy Operation Plan [3] can be implemented (in summary, an increase of the mean length of the "Visiting Astronomer" observing runs to >3n, a more strict control of the programs that are accepted in Service Mode for the NTT and 3.6m, and, as often as possible mount instruments of the same instrument force simultaneously on the different telescopes). If these recommendations cannot be implemented, the staffing level will have to increase, or the services provided decreased.

For the transition period, the strategy is not to cut any contract and to reach the number of FTEs available by renewing only selected contracts. As of today, all the SciOp-to-be astronomers have fixed term contracts.

The table below summarizes the current contract situation, as well as the staffing plan.
The section "Actual Nr" counts the positions of each type, and "FTEs from LRP" is the LRP budget.

Table 2: Astronomer staffing plan, transition period and beyond

ASTRO LRP


 This plan is balanced (i.e. using the allocated number of FTEs) when considering complete years. For instance, in 2003, there is an excess of OpAs during the first half of the year, which is compensated by a deficit of Fellows during the 2d half.

3.5- TELESCOPE & INSTRUMENT OPERATORS

3.5.1- Steady State

The Long Range Plan considers 12 TIOs for steady state SciOps. Considering that full coverage of a position corresponds to 2.4 FTE, this ensures 5 fully covered positions. Following the Operation Plan [2], these will be distributed among day, night and background operation. The actual distribution will depend on the daily operation needs, with 2 day TIOs, 2 night TIOs and 1 background TIO being the typical distribution.

This implies that

3.5.2- Transition period

The current staff (as of Jul.1, 2002) consists of 20 positions, 18 of which being actually manned.

For the transition period:
Therefore, a total of 17 positions until Sep.30, 2002, and 15 till Dec.31, 2003 (end of WFI operation). These positions are strictly for telescope/instrument operation, so their number relies on

3.6- RE-ENGINEERING POSITIONS

3.6.1- Introduction

In order to optimize human resources use during the transition period, the vacant TIO positions will not be filled with TIOs, as hiring and training a TIO for a period of 1.5yr would be a waste of resources. These positions will be used in the framework of restructuring as a Documentation and Web specialist, and a Data Handling Operator, in order to enable the optimal use of the TIOs as described in 3.5.2.

3.6.2- Documentation and web specialist

SciOp's documentation is largely complete, the majority of which in electronic form. However, each Telescope Team has developed its own standards for archiving, leaving no unique repository. All these standards have two points in common: they all require considerable manual handling of files from one machine to another and none have acceptable version control system. These points are addressed by the  SciOp Documentation and Communication Plan [4], which describes a uniform standard to handle documentation based on the VLT Software Documentation System and the currently available Remedy Documentation Database. Creating that documentation repository will be a time consuming task, but, when completed, it will stand alone without further support.

Similarly, each Telescope Team's Web site contains an enormous amount of well organized information. However, the unification of the teams in SciOps will require a large amount of systematization and rationalization of the current pages to bring them into a common framework.

A Documentation and Web specialist will be hired for the restructuring of the SciOp documentation and web system. At the end of the transition period, this work will be fully completed, leaving SciOp with a uniform documentation and web system that will be maintainable during the Steady State period.

3.6.3- Data Handling Operator

The Telescope Teams currently prepare all the "Data Packages" for the visiting astronomers, and all programs in Service Mode  (except WFI SM programs, which are dealt with by the Archive/Garching). For Visitor Mode programs, data packaging is done entirely by the TIOs, while for service mode, the data selection is performed by the staff astronomers, with the actual packaging (CD production) is performed by the TIOs.  

Data packaging is a time consuming and critical task. At Paranal, the Data Flow Back-End (Archive) software has  tools to prepare these data packages, with CDs and DVDs routinely distributed to the visitor. We propose to implement these tools at La Silla. ensuring an improved quality and reliability of data packages compared to the current situation.

We shall therefore hire a Data Handling Operator to prepare these Data Packages for visiting astronomers, thereby removing a large workload from the TIOs. In order to provide continuous data packaging services, the SciOp Data Handling Operator will work closely with the La Silla Archive specialists (Anton Schmerll and Saul Vidal), participating in the archiving of the data, while the Archive specialists will also participate in data package production. It is noted that the production of data packages for the NTT and 3.6m Service Observation will still be performed by SciOp, as an astronomer is needed to assemble and check the completeness of these packages.

Considering the rate of development of Archive tools over recent years, we expect that, by the end of the transition period, these will have progressed sufficiently so that data archiving and data package production for visitors can be dealt with by the Archive Specialists alone.


----oOo----