March 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7 1 Controlling and Coordinating Large, Complex, and Distributed...
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Transcript of March 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7 1 Controlling and Coordinating Large, Complex, and Distributed...
March 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7 1
Controlling and Coordinating Controlling and Coordinating Large, Complex, and Distributed Large, Complex, and Distributed
Scientific Research CollaborationsScientific Research Collaborations
GENI Engineering Conference 7GENI Engineering Conference 7
Laurie J. KirschProfessor
Information Systems
Katz Graduate School of Business
The University of Pittsburgh
Sandra A. SlaughterProfessor
Information Technology Management
College of Management
Georgia Institute of Technology
March 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7 2
Who are we and why are we here?Who are we and why are we here?
• Management scholars
• Conduct research on the management of information technology and systems projects
• Prior and current NSF-funded studies to examine the management of large scientific research projects with a “cyber” component (“Cyber-infrastructure projects”)
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Examples of Large Collaborative, Examples of Large Collaborative, Cyber-infrastructure ProjectsCyber-infrastructure Projects
• NEES – George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
• Teragrid / XD – High-performance network of super computers proving cyber-infrastructure for open scientific research
• iPLANT – cyber-infrastructure collaborative for plant sciences
• GENI – Global Environment for Network Innovations
March 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7
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Research Objectives for our Research Objectives for our Study of GENIStudy of GENI
• Identify mechanisms that are needed to effectively structure, govern, and manage projects like GENI
• Understand communication and interaction patterns (who is communicating and collaborating with whom)
• Suggest control / coordination techniques
• Get feedback from the GENI community
• Note: we are NOT reviewing projects as part of the GPO's performance assessment. We keep all identities anonymous.
Our progress to dateOur progress to date
• We have conducted interviews with several GENI stakeholders across different roles
• We have collected publicly available archival data capturing interactions between GENI stakeholders and have conducted a social network analysis of the data
• Would like to share our initial results from the social network analysis of GENI…
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A Social Network Analysis of GENIA Social Network Analysis of GENI
• Social network analysis identifies the communication and interaction patterns of individuals in a community
• Identifies the most “central” (e.g. influential) individuals and those who are the information brokers (e.g., boundary spanners).
• Patterns of communication and interaction reflect how information, knowledge and ideas are exchanged in a community
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A Social Network Analysis of GENI A Social Network Analysis of GENI (Cont’d)(Cont’d)
• Social network analysis can identify sub-groups and cliques and signal the potential for conflict
• Patterns of interaction and communication relate to performance, innovation and other project outcomes
A social network analysis of GENI was conducted to determine the structure of the interactions between GENI stakeholders in Spiral 1
Possible Social StructuresPossible Social StructuresFully Connected Classic Organizational Hierarchy
Nearest Neighbor AutonomousMarch 17, 2010 Presentation @ GEC7 8
Possible Social Structures Possible Social Structures (Cont’d)(Cont’d)
Core-Periphery or “onion” (Open Source communities)
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Why is the type of social Why is the type of social structure important?structure important?
• Different parts of the network can coallesce into “cliques” or sub-groups that differentiate themselves from other sub-groups and this can cause conflict
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Left cluster:Affiliation: IndustryExpertise: Management Right cluster:
Affiliation: AcademiaExpertise: Biology
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So what is the social structure So what is the social structure of GENI?of GENI?
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The Social Structure of GENIThe Social Structure of GENI
• Based on:– publicly available data collected from 2007 to 2009 (from
GENI website)
– people who participated in GENI events during that time period (PIs, GPO, NSF, Working groups, others)
– projects (Spiral 1) and clusters during that time period.
– "events" occurring during that time period that connect those participants (e.g., attendance at GEC 1-6, meetings, milestone completion, email exchanges)
– 667 individuals who participated in 1,195 events during that time period
The Social Structure of GENI: 2007The Social Structure of GENI: 2007
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PIsGPONSF
The Social Structure of GENI: 2008The Social Structure of GENI: 2008
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PIsGPONSF
The Social Structure of GENI: 2009The Social Structure of GENI: 2009
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PIsGPONSF
Initial ObservationsInitial Observations• The GENI community has the social structure most similar
to an open source (e.g., core-periphery) community
• There are some isolated individuals and groups but over time, the core of GENI is expanding to include many participants
• Some participants are influential throughout, others emerge as leaders, and others lose influence – reflects the changing pattern of stakeholder participation in GENI
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Next StepsNext Steps• We analyzed the social structure of GENI based on archival
data – but, we are missing interactions between PIs
• We are sending Spiral 1 PIs a link to a communication survey – please complete the survey so we can finish our analysis and present the results at an upcoming GEC
• We are interested to talk with GEC attendees about their experiences in GENI – please contact us if you would like to talk with us or if you would like to know where you are in the GENI social structure!
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Thank you!Thank you!
• Our contact information:
– Professor Laurie Kirsch• The University of Pittsburgh
– Professor Sandra Slaughter• Georgia Institute of Technology
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Additional SlidesAdditional Slides
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MotivationMotivation• Challenges we observe in managing cyber-
infrastructure projects:
• Large and complex
• High uncertainty and risk
• Volatile and emergent requirements
• Constrained by budget and schedule
• Distributed knowledge and collaborators across institutions
• Diverse collaborators with different motives and incentives
• Difficulty of communication and coordination
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Research ApproachResearch Approach• Qualitative analyses
– Develop timeline of GENI, including key events and decisions
– Conduct targeted interviews of GENI stakeholders to understand their experiences in the project
– Synthesize recommendations for communication, coordination and commitment
• Quantitative analyses– Social network analysis of patterns of communication
and interactions between GENI stakeholders
Presentation @ GEC7
Why is the type of social Why is the type of social structure important?structure important?
• Different structures have different advantages and disadvantages:
• Traditional hierarchy – efficient but inflexible
• Fully connected team – effective but time consuming
• Autonomous – no information transfer
• Nearest neighbor – convenient, but slow and information distorted as passed along
• Core-periphery – brings in many perspectives, but depends on boundary spanners
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The Social Structure of GENI: 2007The Social Structure of GENI: 2007(including “independents”)(including “independents”)
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PIsGPONSFOther
The Social Structure of GENI: 2008The Social Structure of GENI: 2008 (including “independents”)(including “independents”)
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PIsGPONSFOther
The Social Structure of GENI: 2009The Social Structure of GENI: 2009 (including “independents”)(including “independents”)
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PIsGPONSFOther
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Critical Dimensions for Critical Dimensions for Managing Cyber-Managing Cyber-
Infrastructure ProjectsInfrastructure Projects
CommunicationCommunication
CommitmentCommitment
Control/Control/CoordinationCoordination
Presentation @ GEC7
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CommunicationCommunication Challenges Challenges
• Distributed communities of stakeholders• Must have effective mechanisms for distributed
communication (not face-to-face) between team members• Common, shared infrastructure for project management
and technical development is helpful
• Diverse groups of stakeholders• Requirements determination processes are critical• Need for communication and requirements discovery
mechanisms to foster collaboration across stakeholders• Stakeholders who span across multiple groups are needed
to facilitate communicationPresentation @ GEC7
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Control / Coordination Control / Coordination ChallengesChallenges
• Constraints on schedule, budget, quality• Extensive project planning, monitoring and reporting is
needed• Formal oversight is required
• Iterative development (innovation) process• Must manage “incubation” or “experimental” process• Need to facilitate technical integration which can be very
complex• How to reconcile need for flexibility in development process
with need for formality in project management
Presentation @ GEC7
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Control / Coordination Control / Coordination ChallengesChallenges
• Funding• Funded by external agencies and must report to them
• Complex project funding arrangements must be managed
• Different stakeholder communities• Control is indirect, complex and difficult to exert (i.e.,
different cultures, organizations)
• Project Director plays an especially critical role in bridging
Presentation @ GEC7
CommitmentCommitment Challenges Challenges
• Community-based instead of formal organizational roles
• Stakeholders need to have clearly defined roles, standards and codes of conduct
• Self-regulation mechanisms (reputation, trust, etc.) are required
• Shared vision and consensus-based decision making processes are vital for commitment
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