How Galileo Planning became automated

Abstract

Galileo is one of the four worldwide Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Being a programme of the European Commission (EC), the Galileo Service provision is under the responsibility of the GNSS Service Agency (GSA), who in turn contracted the Galileo Service Operations (GSOp) to Spaceopal GmbH. The Spaceopal Planning Team is in charge of coordinating all Galileo operations and infrastructure activities. In July 2018 the team took on the task to automate all GSOp internal planning processes. Galileo planning involves three timelines: a Short-Term plan (STP), two Mid-Term plans (MTP), one for the Operational (OPE) and one for the Validation (VAL) Chain, and a Long-Term plan (LTP). The activities in these timeframes cover all entities working on Galileo. The three planning levels are interlinked and dependent on each other. But the original set up had these four plans handled not only by different tools, but also by different teams, complicating or even preventing resolution of interdependencies between the planning processes and plans itself. This paper describes how the different plans and timelines were taken over by the Spaceopal Planning Team and moved into the Galileo Planning Tool (GPT). An interface to the GPT was developed to allow all MTP actors to provide inputs via a standard planning input sheet directly into the activities of the current timeline, which are then sent to the SPO Planning Team. These inputs are automatically imported into the GPT eliminating any human error or additional intervention. For this process, a transitioning period was necessary and new processes had to be set up and documented. The result is that now the plans are interlinked: not only via communication channels, but also via automatic linking of the activities within the tool. Also the processes and output from the weekly planning meetings are now identical every week. But these were only the first steps to fully complete the automation and this paper will also give an outlook of what else is to come.