**Notes for**

**Dark Energy Survey (DES) DECam Project**

**Small Group - Working Group Meeting (WGM)**

**Friday, October 27, 2006**

**1:00 -- 2:00 PM in the Comitium**

*Attending: Ed Temple, Jim Strait, Douglas Tucker ,Dean Hoffer, Brenna
Flaugher, Wyatt Merritt*

1)  HQ Interactions: Feedback on Discussions with Headquarters
    \[Brenna\]

*Kathy Turner and Mike Procario said that they were not really
interested in the CD1 documents until the joint DOE/NSF proposal has
been submitted. Paul met with Kathy on Tuesday to talk about the PEP and
the Acquisition Strategy. The PEP and the Acquisition Strategy are
basically finished. The cost and schedule have been included with a
range of \$24.0-26.6 million. It was commented that this range might be
a bit narrow. On the other hand, Mike Procario does not like a wide
range and wants a "story" (justification). It was noted that even lower
end of this range contains contingency, and that labor tasks are
pro-rated across tasks.*

*The date on which on-project R&D funding starts is January 1, 2007;
this is the date on which we start the transition from generic R&D. The
cost range assumes all tasks transition over on January 1, but actually
the transition will be smoother/more gradual.*

*It was noted that FY06 is off the books. All the tasks will start on
Oct 1, 2006.*

*There is now a third funding type: in addition to Generic R&D and
Project R&D, there is also Equipment.*

*Brenna and others have started learning how to use the Earned Value
Management software.*

2)  Project Timeline \[Ed/Dean\]

-   *DOE CD-1 review: February 20, 2007*

-   *Transition from Generic to Specific R&D -- starts in January and
    done by April*

-   *So far, the timeline for CD-2/3a has not been moved*

***ACTION \[Dean\] -- move Directors' CD-2/3a Review to June 2007 and
the DOE CD-2/3a Review to July 2007.***

-   *EVMS (Earned Value Management System) reviews*

    -   *Directors' Review: January 2007? DOE Review: March 2007?*

    -   *Their purpose is to verify that a 20-100 million project meets
        ANSI 32 criteria via an independent review.*

    -   *Another purpose is to determine that the L2 managers understand
        and are using EVMS.*

    -   *There are usually at least some external reviewers.*

    -   *Do Peter Doel and Tim Abbott need to be present?*

        -   *L2 manages are generally interviewed for 30-45 min.*

        -   *Could be done over telephone or video, if necessary.*

    -   *An EVMS review is typically about 1.5 days long*

    -   *The above bullet points apply to both the Directors' Review and
        the DOE Review of EVMS.*

***ACTION ITEM \[Dean\]-- Review ANSI 32 criteria at a DES Working Group
Meeting in January 2007.***

*Are we looking to submit CD-1? We have available the CDR,
Resource-Loaded Schedule, PEP, and Acquisition Strategy now. Up to Paul
and Kathy if this is what they want or if they need revisions. The
tables we have in the PEP and CDR are consistent with each other and
will be put into the December joint proposal. We will post on our
webpage for DOE this month and declare victory (for now). The idea is to
finish what we have now and not to continue updating in the
October-December timeframe; we might wish to make updates again in
January. We can tag what we have in docdb as the official CD-1 version.
No need to work on stuff until there is feedback. The PMP hasn't been
updated (i.e., we don't have the new cost schedules in the PMP).*

3)  Status DES-DECam's responses to Director's CD-1 Review
    recommendations. \[Brenna\]

*See Item 5e below.*

4)  DES-DECam's Progress Report \[Wyatt/Brenna\]

    a.  Status on CD-1 Documentation

*See handout, available on meeting website at:
http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/OPMO/Projects/DES/WGM/2006/10_27/DES-CDP-100306.pdf*

*Items with a green background are essentially finished.*

*Items with a yellow background are nearly finished (and, every few
days, another item's background changes from yellow to green).*

*Items with a red background still need work.*

b.  Status of Preparations for CD-2/3a Documentation

*Nothing much yet. Started practicing earned value recording and making
monthly reports in November in preparation for CD-2.*

*The TDR is un-begun. This is a major deliverable.*

*How should we deal with preparing for the joint proposal and for the
CD-2/3a simultaneously? Kathy feels that we should finish off the PEP
and Acquisition Strategy, but she is not so interested in talking even
about CD-1 until after the joint proposal is finished. DOE HQ is acting
as though that CD-1 will not proceed until joint proposal is successful.
This could be taken as advice not to proceed with CD-2 at the moment.*

*We need an assessment of the reality of an FY08 construction start; if
there is a chance for FY08, it is worth proceeding with the CD-2/3a
preparations; otherwise, maybe not.*

*Brenna's prediction: there will be a CD-2/3a review in July 2007 and
CD-2/3a acceptance a couple months later.*

*Through December, there should be strong emphasis on finishing the
joint proposal.*

*We should find out by the end of February whether or not we are in the
FY08 budget.*

*How much time do we need to prepare for the Directors' CD-2/3a review?
Would it be possible to write the TDR in 3-4 months? This might be a bit
tight. We already have a "bucket" of documents on the optics that can be
incorporated into TDR, which will help.*

5)  Status of Action Items \[Brenna/Wyatt\]

> [New]{.underline}:

a.  Delete one quarter of Labor from the project budget schedule.
    \[Brenna/Wyatt\]

*DONE.*

b.  Highlight those sections of the review comments that were
    particularly difficult to understand, so Kron will have a better
    idea what to address. \[Brenna\]

*DONE. Wyatt has talked with Rich regarding this, and John was going to
write some e-mails. We will have a meeting with Rich on November 8.*

> [Carryover]{.underline}:

c.  Status progress on the determination if a Preliminary Security
    Vulnerability Assessment Report (SVAR) is applicable to the
    DES-DECam project. \[Paul\]

*DONE.*

d.  Status on proposal for the start date which R&D is to be tracked and
    reported on as part of the TPC. Need to determine prior to final
    submittal of the CD-1 documentation to DOE. \[Brenna/Wyatt\]

*DONE. See item 1 above*

e.  Complete response to recent Director's Review and send to the
    Associate Director. Make it available on the OPMO website for Kathy
    to access if she so chooses. \[Brenna\]

*A complete response has been prepared. We are checking with John if
there are any concerns, and we will send to collaboration afterwards.
Response contains both items describing actions that have been done and
items that remain to be done.*

f.  Give latest PPMP to OPMO (Ed/Dean), Jim Strait, and Greg Bock to
    review and feed back any recommended changes prior to CD1
    documentation submittal to DOE. \[Brenna/Wyatt\]

*Current version needs to be updated a bit more regarding project
engineering costs.*

g.  Inform the DECam project on the final decision regarding the format
    of the DOE CD-1 review (paper review or otherwise). \[Paul\]

*Retain this action item.*

Other items?

*Current plans: We are well along on the CD-1 documentation, we will
work on joint proposal, and we will not put much emphasis on CD-2/3a
till January. A warning: Minerva had a Directors CD-1 Review and CD-2/3a
Review before DOE had a combined CD-1+2/3a Review.*

**NEXT main meeting: Friday Nov 3.**

**Next Small Working Group Meeting: Nov 10? TBD.**