Report for November 2016

Report Date: November 2016

Report by Muriel Mewissen on behalf of David Perry and Anthony Davie (MVMRes Programme Managers)

for Brian Walker and Paul McGuire (MVMRes Portfolio Owner)

and Paul Clark (MVM Portfolio Manager) and Catherine Elliot (MVM Portfolio Owner)

Section One: Programme Commentary, RAG and Resources Update

Commentary:

Five on-going projects in MVM Research Programme are in progress. However the sheer volume of work combined with higher priority and urgent work in this programme has meant that work on the MVM304 Electronic Lab Notebooks has stalled. The decision has been taken to suspend the project until stakeholders are able to fully engaged, later next year. The start of any additional project has also been delayed until March 2017.

Four of these projects are GREEN and progressing well. These are:

One project, MVM302 Compute and High Performance Compute Strategy, is experiencing issues due to underlying Eddie service stability problems within CMVM. As a consequence, this project is effectively on hold until such times as Eddie service stability resumes (projected February 2017).

The overhaul status is RED.

Please note that the project RAG status is following the revised guidelines: A one-page summary of the IS RAG status indicators is available on this page.

Resources to end November 2016

Forward Look - November 2016

NB: The chart below only shows IS Apps resources.

Section Two: Projects Not Started

The start of any new project has been delayed until March 2017 because current, higher priority projects have taken over existing resources and stakeholder engagement.

Project Info	Programme Manager's Commentary
MVM303 Data Management Plans	To start in Mar 2017
MVM305 Flexible Server Hosting	To start in Mar 2017
MVM306 Network Infrastructure Strategy	To start in Mar 2017
MVM307 REF readiness	To start in Mar 2017
MVM308 Research Computing Induction	To start in Mar 2017
MVM309 Scientific Administration Process Enhancements	To start in Mar 2017
MVM311 Storage Strategy	To start in Mar 2017
MVM313 Research Teaching Strategy	To start in Mar 2017

Section Three: Projects in Progress

Project Info

Project Managers Commentary

MVM301:

College Software as a Service (SaaS) Strategy

Category: Discretionary

Milestones

06-Apr-17

Closure

RAG Status

GREEN

Report by David Perry for November 2016

MVM302:

Compute and High Performance Compute Strategy

Category: Discretionary

Milestones

05-May-17

Closure

RAG Status

RED

Report by Anthony Davie for November 2016

Achievements

Revised first draft IT Project application planning submission based on feedback from Research Programme Business. Holding off on sending to Programme Business and IT owners due to on-going issues (see below).

Issues

Project effectively on hold, until serious Eddie service stability issues resolved; see next steps for timeline.
Eddie service stability concerns, relating to primarily:
- uptime
- general performance issues
- integrity of data post data staging
- problematic and complex file permissions
  
  Highlighted as serious concern from both CMVM partners (IGMM and RI), with RI escalating business disruption, impact on projects and potential impact on grant revenue to Gavin MacLachlan (15/11/16).
Service stability undermined by Eddie technical architect component (AFM), with frequent (weekly) loss of service, increasing in frequency from Oct ’16.

Next steps

Initial service review meetings held in late Nov ’16. Called by Tony Weir (Director IT Infrastructure Division), as outcome of escalations to Research Services. Held with principle investigators at IGMM and RI, with plan of action agreed.
General plan of action:
- Eddie service owners (Research Services) primary focus on continuation of on-going work with IBM to stabilise Eddie service and underpinning technology stack. This has improved since mid Nov ’16.
- Increase transparency and communication to CMVM Research community, with regards to on-going remedial work, planned outages, next steps, support for managing impact of change etc.
- AFM usage to be removed across CMVM where problematic, with Eddie storage used by RI to be rebuilt afresh without AFM by late January ’17.
- Research Services working with CMVM IS and researchers to manage expectations re impact of changes to Eddie service through festive period and January ‘17.
- New implementation of data staging within Eddie being implemented through Dec ’16 and Jan ’17.
- Additional support for CMVM researchers being set-up through Dec ‘16, Jan ’17 and going forward with regular clinics held at Western General and Easter Bush campuses
Once service stability and performance reviewed in Feb ’17, project will be re-initiated

Carried forward from Nov ’16:
- Arrange follow up meeting with Research Computing Programme business owner and IT Programme Manager to review revised planning submission, make a decision as to whether to approve and proceed, and if proceeding to score and prioritise the project proposal.
- Subject to project approval, scoring and prioritisation, to move to assigning a project manager and scoping project resourcing, including budgeting and timescales and determining if a project board is required.
- Assuming this project is approved and the previous step is completed, move to creating a project brief for stakeholder consideration, sign-off and project initiation.

MVM304:

Electronic Lab Notebook

Category: Discretionary

Milestones

04-Mar-17

Closure

RAG Status

GREEN

Report by David Perry for November 2016

MVM310:

Information Governance Standards

Category: Discretionary