This repository contains the manuscript for the proceedings of my contribution (O4.4, title above) to ADASS XXVII (2017) in Santiago.

This version will be submitted to the arXiv as pre-print. Please, remember that the ADASS submissions have a copyright transfer to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP).

J. Santander-Vela (SKA Organisation)

The SKA has been defined in many places as a software telescope, due to the fact that enormous amounts of computing hardware and software are necessary to perform the data reduction: currently, each of the SKA1 telescope Science Data Processors will sport more than 100 PFLOPS, which is higher than the current TOP#1 supercomputer in the world. Systems Engineering is the set of processes and documentation required for managing and successfully realising large-scale engineering projects. Classical System Engineering is not a good fit for software-intensive projects, especially when the needs of the different stakeholders can change, and requirement priorities might be missing. Those cases tend to be best served by Agile software development practices, but given the integral role of software in the realisation of many modern systems’ functions, Agile Systems Engineering is also required. In this talk we will give an overview of the system and software engineering processes in the SKA1 development, and the tension between classical and agile systems engineering, and how that tension actually helps progressing the design, and ultimately the successful construction, of the SKA telescopes.

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