Discovery Channel Telescope software progress report: addressing early commissioning and operations challenges

The Discovery Channel Telescope is a 4.3m astronomical research telescope in northern Arizona constructed through a partnership between Discovery Communications and Lowell Observatory. In transition from construction phase to commissioning and operations, we faced a variety of software challenges, both foreseen and unforeseen, and addressed those with a variety of solutions including, isolation of the control systems network, development of an Operations Log application, extension of the interface to instrumentation software, improvements to engineering data analysis, provisions to avoid failure modes, and enhanced user experience. We describe these solutions and present an overview of the current project status.