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

[email protected]

Sandra A. SlaughterProfessor

Information Technology Management

College of Management

Georgia Institute of Technology

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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”)

3

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


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…


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



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)


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


Left cluster:Affiliation: IndustryExpertise: Management Right cluster:

Affiliation: AcademiaExpertise: Biology


So what is the social structure So what is the social structure of GENI?of GENI?


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


PIsGPONSF



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


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!


Thank you!Thank you!

• Our contact information:

– Professor Laurie Kirsch• The University of Pittsburgh

• [email protected]

– Professor Sandra Slaughter• Georgia Institute of Technology

• [email protected]




Additional SlidesAdditional Slides



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


The Social Structure of GENI: 2007The Social Structure of GENI: 2007(including “independents”)(including “independents”)


PIsGPONSFOther

The Social Structure of GENI: 2008The Social Structure of GENI: 2008 (including “independents”)(including “independents”)


PIsGPONSFOther

The Social Structure of GENI: 2009The Social Structure of GENI: 2009 (including “independents”)(including “independents”)


PIsGPONSFOther

March 17, 2010 26

Critical Dimensions for Critical Dimensions for Managing Cyber-Managing Cyber-

Infrastructure ProjectsInfrastructure Projects

CommunicationCommunication

CommitmentCommitment

Control/Control/CoordinationCoordination

Presentation @ GEC7

March 17, 2010 27

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

March 17, 2010 28

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

March 17, 2010 29

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


march 17, 2010 presentation @ gec7 1 controlling and coordinating large, complex, and distributed...

Documents

social structure of

gec7 slide

core of geni

geni stakeholders

geni events

study of geni

geni community note

biology slide