Applying EVM principles to Tevatron Beam Position Monitor Project
At Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Tevatron high energy particle collider must meet the increasing scientific demand of higher beam luminosity. To achieve this higher luminosity goal, U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored a major upgrade of capabilities of Fermilab's accelerator complex that spans five years and costs over fifty million dollars. Tevatron Beam Position Monitor (BPM) system upgrade is a part of this project, generally called RunII upgrade project. Since the purpose of the Tevatron collider is to detect the smashing of proton and anti-protons orbiting the circular accelerator in opposite directions, capability to detect positions of both protons and antiprotons at a high resolution level is a desirable functionality of the monitoring system. The original system was installed during early 1980s, along with the original construction of the Tevatron. However, electronic technology available in 1980s did not allow for the detection of significantly smaller resolution of antiprotons. The objective of the upgrade project is to replace the existing BPM system with a new system utilizing capabilities of modern electronics enhanced by a front-end software driven by a real-time operating software. The new BPM system is designed to detect both protons and antiprotons with increased resolution of up to an order of magnitude. The new system is capable of maintaining a very high-level of data integrity and system reliability. The system consists of 27 VME crates installed at 27 service buildings around the Tevatron ring servicing 236 beam position monitors placed underground, inside the accelerator tunnel. Each crate consists of a single Timing Generator Fanout module, custom made by Fermilab staff, one MVME processor card running VxWorks 5.5, multiple Echotek Digital Receiver boards complimented by custom made Filter Board. The VxWorks based front-end software communicates with the Main Accelerator Control software via a special-purpose network called ACNET. New software algorithms are designed to decouple antiproton signals from the mixed proton and antiproton signals. Along with many technical challenges, it was necessary to meet various project management challenges as well. Since 1999, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has taken various measures to improve project management of the acquisition of capital assets. U.S. National Laboratories, with their charter of driving scientific efforts of DOE, have put into place project management methodologies recommended by DOE. One of the outcomes of such measures is the deployment of a formal project management system for large projects. This recommendation is detailed in the DOE order M 413.3. The Tevatron BPM Upgrade project, as a part of the Run II Upgrade project, used the methodology prescribed in the DOE order. Particular attention was concentrated on the performance management since the accelerator complex will be in operation for several years in the future. Because of the cost and schedule constraints on the project, it was also important to deploy Earned Value Management (EVM) methodology recommended by the DOE orders. In this paper, we discuss how the earned value project management methodology was implemented using a work breakdown structure based on system life cycle phases. Tevatron BPM upgrade project, now nearing completion, has been a significant learning experience for the organization. We discuss important lessons learned from the phase-dependant earned value management project model. Hardware and software co-design along with simultaneously developed high-precision algorithm was a major challenge. Since formal project management process is not fully ingrained into the cultural environment of the laboratory dedicated to high-energy physics research, we also gained significant experience with the planning for schedule and cost in this environment. We also present a set of earned value project management data that may serve as a baseline for future projects.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03000
- OSTI ID:
- 15020251
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-CONF-05-358-CD; TRN: US0605056
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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