Project Management
The management of the DEISA project is the responsibility of the DEISA Executive Committee and the Project Coordinator who, as the chairman of the Executive Committee, represents the DEISA project. The Project Coordinator is responsible for the day-to-day management tasks and is assisted by the Project Management Team. He receives support from a Technical Coordinator.
The management of DEISA concerns the coordination and integration of all the work packages with the aim to operate a persistent distributed research infrastructure. Conceptually, the management of DEISA is equivalent to the management of a continental virtual supercomputing centre involving operations, new technologies support, high-level application support, dissemination and research activities.
Objectives of the Project Management
- Efficient coordination of the integration of all the work packages using an up-to-date communication infrastructure in a collaborative environment
- Establishment of the management infrastructure for the efficient operation of a large distributed HPC infrastructure
- Efficient collaboration within the consortium
- Coordination support for the scientific management of resources
- Communication with the European Commission
- Quality assurance of the technologies employed and the services offered, and a proper implementation of the work packages
- Control of the financial budget.
Management Structure
The management structure has been adapted with regard to the advanced objectives of DEISA2, particularly concerning the integration of European Virtual Scientific Communities, the Associate Partners and the relation between DEISA and PRACE.
The following definitions describe
the constituents of the management structure, their roles and relationship in
DEISA2:
| Principal Partners | project members with a strong commitment to DEISA2. Principal Partner sites are deeply integrated into the DEISA HPC infrastructure. They are
identical to the DEISA partners from the previous FP6 project. |
| Associate Partners | in general the coordinators for HPC activities in European countries and Russia. In particular PRACE members, not being principal partners of DEISA will be Associate Partners. All the Associate Partners have HPC expertise and express their intention to collaborate and integrate into the DEISA European HPC infrastructure. |
| DEISA Executive Committee (DEC) |
the principal project management authority. This committee is constituted by representatives of each of the Principal Partners which have full voting rights. In addition, the Associate Partners delegate a member to the DEC to make sure that their interests are taken into consideration. The Committee deals with all higher level project management issues: reassessment of project objectives, financial issues, technology strategies, scientific management of the computational resources of the infrastructure, relations with the user communities, relations with other organizations and European projects, relations with the management of the supercomputing centres. |
| Extended DEISA Executive
Committee (EDEC) |
is constituted by representatives of the Associate Partners and of the Principal Partners. This committee will act as a consulting board on technical, political and scientific issues focusing on the integration of the centres represented by the Associate Partners in DEISA2. |
| Technical Board (TB) |
is constituted by all the work package leaders and the Technical Coordinator (see below) who chairs this board. Purpose of the TB is to guarantee the proper performance of the project. It is the highest authority for the deployment and operation of
the distributed DEISA HPC infrastructure. |
| Advisory Scientific
Committee (ASC) |
is acting as an external consulting board on scientific issues. |
| Project Manage- ment Team (PMT) | supports the Project Coordinator in the day-to-day management of the
project. |
| Project Coordinator (PC) | is the person responsible for the execution of the project plan in fulfilment of the contract with the European Commission. The PC is designated by the DEISA Executive Committee acting as the official representative of DEISA. He has overall responsibility for the project, heads the PMT and chairs the DEISA Executive Committee.. |
| Technical Coordinator (TC) |
ensures the proper performance of the technical implementation of the project. The TC has operational authority and arbitration competences
regarding the daily operation of the overall facility. He acts in close
collaboration with the work package leaders and collaborates with the project coordinator
and the DEC. |
| Quality Assurance Coordinator (QAC) | is concerned with quality assurance aspects of the performance
of the project. |
| Presentation Team | consists of senior experts from DEISA who give regularly presentations at important international workshops, forums and symposia. |
DEISA Management Structure and communication paths between the instances
Quality Control
The internal assessment of project progress is a principle management task. A hierarchical communication structure is put in place that ensures an efficient project progress control. This structure involves the Work Package leaders that are organized in the Technical Board, the Technical Coordinator, the Project Coordinator, and the DEISA Executive Committee. Work Package leaders provide regular progress reports. The essential parts of the reports concerning the progress towards the objectives will be part of the regular management reports to be provided as deliverables.
Internal Operational Authority Scheme
The Project Coordinator (DEC chair) collaborates closely with the Technical Coordinator.
The Technical Coordinator, together with the Technical Board, takes decisions concerning technical affairs.
The Work Package leaders coordinate their tasks via standard communication procedures.
External Operational Authority Scheme
The external operational authority scheme takes into account:
- the cooperation with the complementary FP7 project PRACE. Both HPC projects collaborate via the joint DEISA - PRACE working group.
- the pan-European scientific scope, particularly
the relations to Virtual Science Communities. These relations are managed
by WP1 in conjunction with WP2.
The following general
relations have to be managed by WP2 (External Relations):
Scientific Management of Computational Resources
DEISA2 is continuing the scientific management procedures established within DEISA1. The scientific management of computational resources is currently implemented by means of National Scientific Evaluation Committees which perform the scientific evaluation of the DECI proposals based on a ranking of scientific priorities.
