ESAR updates from ESA ITS Director Tom Hornburg:

Greetings,

Wishing you and your family the best during this holiday season.

Thank you all for your continued involvement and engagement in re-hosting (the “lift and shift” of the ACES application software and components from the mainframe to an open hardware platform.) Re-hosting is a tremendous body of work with a lot of moving parts. 

I want to express my appreciation to ITS staff and contractors for the time and effort you have put in so far. Here are a few thoughts since last month:

January’s release

The January ACES release is large. This release includes the needed changes for our customers before we take a 6 months break from our regular release cycle while completing the move of the ACES complex from the mainframe to servers. Since you are all really busy, please be patient and responsive to requests and questions as we complete this critical work to ensure the quality delivery for this release.

Risks and Issues awareness

Need to get a re-hosting concern off your chest? Have you noticed a flaw in the re-hosting effort nobody seems to be talking about? Talk to your team lead and if they agree, they can document it at the weekly risks/issues meeting.

Every Tuesday and often on Wednesday, leads, chiefs and project managers meet to discuss re-hosting concerns with a goal of recognizing and resolving risks. This means your concerns will be raised and leaders discuss them with the support of decision makers. Not all risks are solved, as some are accepted, but it’s the best way to get it on the radar.

SharePoint Site

The ESAR re-hosting SharePoint site has tons of great information and can be overwhelming to first time visitors. Depending on what you are looking for, it can take a while to find what you need. Here are some interesting links for learning what is going on and happening next:

• Status report – Published every month, a quick and easy to read report with recent accomplishments, decisions, risks and next steps is available for you
• 30-60-90 day plans – Find out what specific work-streams are doing for re-hosting over the next month to three months.
• Documents – Dive into documents and read about work streams or density testing or so much more. Find great lunch time reading by visiting this regularly updated page.

When you access for the first time you might need to request permission by following directions provided. Don’t let it hold you back, take time and get connected!

More communications

These messages are general updates on the ESAR project. For more detailed information, your team leads can provide it or know who to ask.

Are there topics you want to know more about or have something to share? These messages are for you, so provide feedback to Chad Pearson and we can cover topics important to you.