Alma Release Management: a Practical Approach

The ALMA software is a large collection of modules, which implements the functionality needed for the observatory day-to-day operations. The main ALMA software components include: array/antenna control/correlator, submission/processing of science proposals, telescope calibration and data archiving. The implementation of new features and improvements for every software subsystem must be coordinated by considering developers schedule, observatory milestones and testing resources available to verify new software. This paper describes the software delivery process adopted by ALMA since the construction phase and its evolution until these days. It also presents the acceptance procedure implemented by the observatory for validating the software used for science operations. Main roles of the software delivery and acceptance processes are mentioned on this paper by including their responsibility at the different development and testing phases. Finally, some ideas are presented about how the model should change in the near future by considering the operational reality of ALMA Observatory.