Software engineering for the Keck II Telescope Control System

The Keck II telescope control system is a completely new design from the Keck I system. The entire software project, design, implementation and commissioning, has taken 16 months from inception in January 1995 to completion of all major subsystems in April 1996. First light took place in January 1996, and scientific quality images were taken in April 1996. Full operations are planned for October 1996. This paper focuses on the management and software engineering practices and the software tools that made it possible to complete a project of this magnitude with the limited time and resources at our disposal. Areas of potential software sharing and collaboration with other observatories are also discussed.