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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is the largest solar telescope in the world; it has and continues to provide the sharpest views ever taken of the solar surface. The telescope has a 4m aperture primary mirror, however, due to the off-axis nature of the optical layout, the telescope mount, enclosure, and observatory have proportions similar to an 8-metre class telescope. The integration of the primary mirror cell to the telescope mount in 2018 was the start of the integration, testing, and commissioning phase of observatory construction. From this point onwards, the integration was a staged process of assembling/integrating sub-systems into the overall observatory system followed by commissioning and verification testing at both the subsystem and system level. DKIST first light initiative was carried out in 2019 with the public release of images in Jan 2020. The observatory officially finished construction in Nov 2021 and moved into the Operations Commissioning Phase which is currently ongoing. This paper provides an overview and discussion of the integration, testing, and commissioning (IT&C) phase of the construction project and the first years of the operations phase. The paper’s perspective is that of the site-based team coordinating the reception and integration of subsystems at the observatory and managing the integration schedule, staff, and budget; this team subsequently transitioned to become the site Technical Operations team at the conclusion of the formal NSF major research infrastructure construction phase. The challenges from logistical, management, and technical perspectives will be highlighted along with strategies that worked and those that did not. Also where appropriate there will be discussion on lessons-learned and what would be done differently. Topics covered in the paper will include (but not be limited to) system incremental capacity relating to staged commissioning, balancing campaign style work patterns of travelers and contractors with local staff, multi-instrument integration, testing time estimation, Band-aids and Bypasses, construction to operations culture and management style.
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