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The primary aim of the Review was to allow the Review Panel to consider all aspects of the AIPS++ Project and provide firm suggestions and guidance to the Project where needed. All aspects of the Project were considered in the review, including organization and management of the project, tactical decisions and strategic choices made by the project, and the design and technical details of the project.
The primary reason for building AIPS++ is to improve the research productivity of the Radio Astronomy Community. The AIPS++ vision is very bold. It represents a unification of new astronomical algorithm and software ideas with state-of-the-art computing technology. One of the strengths of this project is its aggressive adoption of both object-oriented methodologies and distributed computing. We believe that success of the AIPS++ Project is critical for the mid- and long-term future of radio astronomy research and that technical expertise is available in sufficient quality and quantity to assure this success.
Our most important observation is that leadership at the Project level is largely absent, and that technical leadership is informal and ad hoc. Despite this, the technical direction of the AIPS++ project has been forward-looking, sometimes aggressively so, unafraid of complex computing technologies, and abreast of or even ahead of the state of the art. The AIPS++ project has not been, and is not, managed in any conventional sense of the word, despite the existence of a project manager. The project is essentially anarchic in character and out of control, driven in the main by egos, private agendas, and personal chemistry. There are no meaningful schedules, milestones, resource allocations, or understanding of dependencies. There is a remarkable lack of definition, in terms of functionality, of what actually is being built.
The Steering Committee has been ineffective in providing clear technical and management guidance to the Project Manager and the development teams. The minutes of the Steering Committee contain evidence of many good intentions that have ultimately failed in their execution. The Steering Committee needs to formulate a clear and agreed strategy for achieving the AIPS++ mission statement, that is then communicated to the Project Manager as an unambiguous determinant of his/her role.
Finally, the AIPS++ Project lacks strong and vital connections to the astronomical community to motivate and guide development in specific areas. A similar lack of connection to the Computer Science community is also evident. The Project would benefit greatly from establishing such connections as soon as possible.
In summary, the Review Panel firmly believes that the AIPS++ Consortium should move rapidly to make changes in three key areas if the project is to survive, start to flourish, and eventually to be the source of an innovative set of research tools for the radio astronomy community. These areas are effective Steering Committee guidance, project management, and collaboration with the astronomy and computer science communities.