Virtual Team guidelines

EGI Activity groups

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Virtual teams

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EGI Virtual teams:

Main •

Active Projects •

Closed Projects •

Guidelines

Establishing a new Virtual Team

1. The request to form a Virtual Team can come from any NGI or EGI.eu. The request must be sent to the vtc@egi.eu email address and it must describe:

• the title of the project
• the goal of the project (What is its expected output?)
• the resources being requested (What skillset does the Virtual Team aim to gather from NGIs?)
• the potential value of the project to EGI
• the expected duration of the project and effort required
• dates for the final and any intermediate outputs

2. The request is reviewed by the EGI-Engage project Activity Management Board members based on clarity, completeness and achieve-ability. The request is sent back for refinement if it is not clear, not complete or not achievable. The technical content is not reviewed at this stage. Rejected requests can be resubmitted after modification and/or improvement.

3. After a project is accepted it gets an entry in the "Active Virtual Teams" section of this site and a request to join the project is circulated to the NGI International Liaisons (NILs). The NILs make sure that the NGI as a whole or appropriate individuals or teams within the NGIs respond to the participation request. The NGI decision process is treated as a black box. Some NGI International Liaison may decide on their own on participation, others may need approval from NGI Coordinator or from NGI members. Note that because Virtual Teams have a relatively short lifetime, the window of opportunity for NGIs to respond is expected to be short too.

4. The positive answer from at least two NGIs is enough to run a Virtual Team. Virtual Teams with one NGI cannot be active within this framework. The leader of the Virtual Team must be an individual from an NGI or from EGI.eu. If the team is lead by an NGI member then an "EGI.eu buddy" is provided for the team to facilitate the integration into the EGI ecosystem.

Running a Virtual Team

• The Virtual Teams need to run themselves and can choose management and meeting structure, methods and tools that are most suitable for them.
• The leader of the Virtual Team must be an individual from an NGI or from EGI.eu with support from his/her hosting organisation. If the team is lead by an NGI member then an "EGI.eu buddy" is provided for the team to facilitate the integration into the EGI ecosystem.
• Each Virtual Team has an entry in the EGI Wiki where - following a pre-defined template - the team must provide information about its goals, members and progress.
• Each Virtual Team is provided with an email list under the mailman.egi.eu domain. The Virtual Team leader(s) can subscribe and remove members.
• Virtual Teams can use the EGI Requirements Tracker, Applications Database, Indico, Training Marketplace, Helpdesk, Audio/Video conference system and other user-facing services to track issues, applications, events, organise meetings, etc.
• Virtual Teams are reported in the EGI-Engage progress reports (towards the European Commission and the general public).
• Virtual Teams are expected to provide monthly updates to the EGI Engagement board during the board's monthly teleconferences.
• Virtual Teams are expected and will be invited to contribute to EGI Newsletters, Leaflets, Workshops or other dissemination and marketing materials and events.

Templates

• Virtual Team Project Initiation Document template: https://documents.egi.eu/public/ShowDocument?docid=1991
• Template to create a Wiki page for a new VT project: Template:VirtualTeamProject. See this page as an example of how to use the template: VT EGI Compendium
• Template for VT final reports: https://documents.egi.eu/public/ShowDocument?docid=1991

References

• The New NA2: Engaging with new user communities