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Difference between revisions of "EGI-InSPIRE:Requirements gathering details"

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[[Category: Community Engagement]]
= Introduction =
= Introduction =



Revision as of 10:28, 20 December 2012

Introduction

The evolution of the European Grid Infrastructure is driven by the users. Therefore capturing and communicating feedback from users to the infrastructure as well as technology operators and providers is a key goal for NA3 and for the project as a whole. The page linked below describes the channels, processes and bodies that the User Community Coordination activity established and runs in order to collect, capture, process, and report requirements and recommendations of users. Input from users are collected by NA3 through various electronic channels and face-to-face communication mechanisms. The User Community Board (UCB), the group of representatives of user communities, then prioritises the collected input with the help of the EGI.eu User Community Support Team (UCST) and the User Services Advisory Group (USAG). The prioritised, weighed requirements prepared by these groups provide direction for the evolution of middleware services as well as the user-oriented technical services provided by EGI. This page provides an overview of the requirement gathering and processing workflows and provides links to technical pages, where details about the Requirement Tracking (RT) tool, used to implement these processes, are described.

The page still includes links to documents that keep captured requirements and recommendations. The transfer of requirements from documents into the RT tool is ongoing. The links will be removed/updated when the transfer is done.


The requirement gathering and processing workflow - What happens with requirements?

  1. Feedback, requirements and recommendations are collected by the User Community Support Team of EGI.eu from user communities. Several channels are available to communicate your requirements.
  2. The collected information is normalised by the UCST (i.e. the completeness and correctness of the data is checked; format is changed; requirements are grouped).
  3. The data is evaluated by the UCST and if possible the team provides solution.
  4. UCST invites other members of the EGI.eu organisation and the EGI-InSPIRE project, it invites user support teams from NGIs and VRCs to provide solution if they can. EGI Helpdesk is used for involving the experts from a respective product teams those are affected by a requirement to provide their expertize.
  5. The OMB is chaired by the Chief Operations Officer of EGI and has representatives from the operational staff from each of the resource providers. The OMB can help the UCST resolve issues that relate to service configurations and resource allocations. For example the setup of community-specific SLAs between sites and VRCs is a requirement that UCST can resolve only with the OMB’s assistance.
  6. The remaining, unresolved requirements are discussed, prioritized and endorsed by the User Community Board to assure that the user communities' interests are correctly represented at the Technology Coordination Board. EGI Catalogue of user requirements is submitted to TCB, 2 weeks before the TCB meetings. You can find the document template here.
  7. The Technology Coordination Board (TCB) incorporates the endorsed requirements into the UMD (Unified Middleware Distribution) roadmap. Latest status of TCB CoR can be found here.
  8. External technology providers develop new technologies, new features in EGI software.
  9. EGI operators validate and install new tools on the infrastructure.


Requirement channels - How to communicate requirements to EGI?

The User Communty Support Team (UCST) of EGI already opened several channels through which users can communicate their requirements to EGI. These channels are:

  1. EGI RT: This steplist describes the process of submitting a requirement to EGI through the EGI Requirement Tracking system. This is the preferred way to communicate requirements to EGI.
  2. RT gadgets for submitting and listing the requirements. User communities can request RT gadget for submitting the requirements using a simple web form dedicated for their user community or listing the requirements from their community.
  3. Documents written by communities: Communities are encouraged to send any document that describes their requirements to the User Community Support Team (ucst@egi.eu). The team is aware of the following documents and already captured requirements from (most of) these files. Captured requirements are available in the Requirement Tracker system.
  4. UCST uses questionnaires and surveys to collect feedback from NGIs, VRCs, HUCs and VOs on well defined topics. These surveys and the received responses are available here.
  5. Events: Representatives of the EGI.eu UCST attend user-centric events that are organised by grid and scientific communities (DECIDE workshop, NEERI 2010, NDGF Strategy Workshop). These events provide excellent opportunities to identify emerging user requirements and/or to further discuss needs that are already known but are not detailed enough yet to be ratified by the UCB. Please let us know about events where the UCST could capture requirements (community-support@egi.eu). Requirements captured at past events are available here.
  6. Using this online form any scientific community, possibly through a use case scenario, can give evidences of the needs from the infrastructure. It is assumed that only those communities will live with this option who are not yet formally engaged with EGI (as a VRC or a VO).

Available requirements - What do EGI communities want?

Pre-defined queries, "RT Dashboards" are provided for VRCs, NGIs and other members of the EGI collaboration to browse and monitor progress with requirement tickets. These dashboards are listed and linked to the page where the Requerement Tracking system is described. Also RT gadgets are available for the user communities for easier submitting and tracking of their requirements.

Status of requirements

The first set of user requirements have been reviewed by the User Community Support Team during autumn 2010 and the relevant technical requirements have been categorised according to the EGI Capabilities defined in the UMD Roadmap. The recurring Technology related requirements have been presented alongside prioritisation at the 1st User Community Board meeting in November 2010. The recurring Technology related requirements alongside prioritisations have been endorsed by the EGI User Community Board and were communicated in a formal report (accessible with EGI SSO) to external technology providers through the Technology Coordination Board on 6th December 2010.

List of requirements based on UCB key topics

Sources of requirements

Public documents

These documents are collections of requirements and recommendations provided for EGI by the user communities. The User Community Support Team of EGI.eu processes these documents, captures e-infrastructure requirements from them then merges with inputs from other sources before forwarding to the User Community Board.


General Documents

Title Provider Link to document Processing status
SHARE Roadmap Healthgrid community [1] Processed by UCST
ESFRI project requirements for Pan-European e-infrastructure resources and facilities European E-Infrastructure Forum [2] Processed by UCST
Production Grid Infrastructure - Use Case Collection v1 Open Grid Forum [3] Processed by UCST
Request for Enhancements of gLite to support bio-NMR applications; Updated Request for Enhancements of gLite to support bio-NMR applications Deploying and unifying the NMR e-Infrastructure in System Biology (e-NMR) [4], [5] Processed by UCST
gLite requirements collected by the EGEE Project Technical Forum EGEE project [6] Out of date
User requirements European Grid Initiative Design Study [7] New
Deliverable D2.2: Results of questionnaires HMR DRIHMS - Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Metereology Study [8] Processed by UCST
Deliverable D3.2: Results of Questionnaires GRID DRIHMS - Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Metereology Study [9] Processed by UCST
D7.7.3 - Description of Data Collection Requirements, Application Integration & Scientific Gateway DECIDE [10] Processed by UCST


Training and Education Documents

Title Provider Link to document Processing status
Computing Education "Distributed Computing Education, Part 5: Intellectual property Rights" Elizabeth van der Meer, Malcolm Atkinson and David Fergusson,, IEEE Distributed Systems Online, (2008), [11] Processed by UCST
Training and Education "Strategies and Policies to Support and Advance Education in e-Science" Malcolm Atkinson, Elizabeth Vander Meer, David Fergusson, Clive Davenhall, and Hamza Mehammed

"Curricula Development for e-Science: Meeting the Challenges" By Malcolm Atkinson, David Fergusson, and Elizabeth Vander Meer

"Distributed Computing Education, Part 1: A Special Case?" David Fergusson, Elizabeth van der Meer, and Malcolm Atkinson • National e-Science Centre, Edinburgh Diego Romano University of Naples Federico II

"Distributed Computing Education, Part 4: Training Infrastructure" David Fergusson, Roberto Barbera, Emidio Giorgio, Marco Fargetta, Gergely Sipos, Diego Romano, Malcolm Atkinson, and Elizabeth Vander Meer

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

Processed by UCST
Strategies and Policies to Support and Advance Education in e-Science "Distributed Computing Education, Part 7: Policy Frameworks" Elizabeth van der Meer, Malcolm Atkinson and David Fergusson,, IEEE Distributed Systems Online, (2009), [16] New
Policy Supporting Grid Education and Training OGF [17] [18] New
Policies in Cooperation on t-Infrastructure OGF [19] New
Curricula Development for e-Science "Distributed Computing Education, Part 6: Curriculum Development" Elizabeth van der Meer, Malcolm Atkinson and David Fergusson,, IEEE Distributed Systems Online, (2009), [20] New
Certified Grid Engineer Curriculum OGF [21] New
Professional Grid Certification OGF [22] New
e-Infrastructure Education and Training eIRG ETTF [23] New
Grid Education and Training OGF under ICEAGE [24] New
Training OGF [25] New
Training modules OGF [26] [27] [28] New
t-Infrastructure OGF [29] New
Engaging industry in Grid Computing OGF under E&T [30] New

Surveys for user communities

Surveys and questionnaires are best suited to collect input from known users and user groups on well defined topics. The User Community Support Team of EGI.eu performed the following surveys in order to receive feedback from user communities on particular topics:

Name of the survey Topic of the survey Format of the survey Sent to Sent (date) Deadline to answer Number of responses Response rate Link to survey and to collected responses Processing status
NGI User Support Questionnaire Discovering the services of NGI User Support Teams; Their capabilities for serving international collaborations; Collecting feedback from NGIs on existing user services and for their improvements Email with attached doc Main contacts of every NGI User Support Team 25.09-05.10/2010 Continuous collection of responses 12 (out of XX) Received answers in multiple files, Answers in a single spreadsheet Processed by UCST
VO questionnaire on EMI middleware transition and features How does the transition of gLite services from v3.1 to v3.2 affect user communities; What enhancements user communities require in the ARC, gLite and UNICORE middleware by April 2011 (foreseen release date of EMI middleware 1.0) Email Administrators of every registered EGI VO; Coordinators of Heavy User Communities 07/10/2010 18/10/2010 23 (out of 223) 10.3% VOs XLS file in EGI.eu Humyo and HUCs XLS file in EGI.eu Humyo Processed by UCST
NGI User Support Team Survey - February 2011 The survey aims to gather information from NGIs regarding the collaborative work between their ‘User Support Teams' and their scientific communities; it will also gather data on the utilisation of technical services operated by the EGI-InSPIRE project for the NGI User Support Teams. Data collected will help EGI.eu to upgrade delivered services. Wiki based Gergely to insert 09/02/2011 21/02/2011 TBA TBA NGI UST Survey Feb 11 and Results To be processed by UCST

List of questions that need to be answered by the user communities and will be circulated to them in the near future: Questions for user communities.

(User) Events

Event Session (if relevant) Provider of requirements Processing status
EGI Technical Forum ESFRI sessions ESFRI projects Processed by UCST
EGI Technical Forum HUCs sessions HUCs Processed by UCST

Other methods

Requirements collected from GGUS tickets, Savannah tickets, emails or other sources.


Requirements by BIOMED VO:

1) use of GlueSEStatus BDII attribute: Link to doc

2) dCache's grid-mapfile is cleared when VOMS is not online: Link to doc

3) establishing a strong site decommissioning procedure: Link to doc


Requirements for GGUS by UCST, Life Sciences, HUC:

1) extra button at GGUS to delegate a ticket as a requirement to EGI UCST Link to doc


Requirements by HealthGrid:

1) VO management tools Link to doc


Requirements for EGI-InSPIRE:

1) Link to doc

Our partners in capturing requirements

EEF - European E-infrastructure Forum

EEF homepage - http://www.einfrastructure-forum.eu/

EEF Work documents - https://documents.egi.eu/public/ListBy?topicid=1

2010, ESFRI Projects requirements report by EEF - https://documents.egi.eu/public/ShowDocument?docid=12

2008, ESFRI Projects requirements report by EEF - http://www.einfrastructure-forum.eu/documents/EEF-report

Members:

ESFRI Projects

Requirements of Communities observed at EGI TF 2010 Summary

Reasearch Infrastructures (RIs) - http://ec.europa.eu/research/infrastructures/index_en.cfm?pg=projects

List of ESFRI Infrastructures



Next TCB

  • Next TCB F2F meeting is on 23rd of November Agenda
    • UCB representative should prepare Catalog of Requirements (CoR) document and attach to TCB Agenda 2 weeks before the meeting. Needed information for Catalog of Requirements document is described in this TCB requirements process document