Information societies technology

C5. Project management

Role of the Management

The management techniques considered for CATEGORIES are well known to all partners and have been used successfully for previous international projects. Experience with previous projects suggests that a simple and dependable management organisation can facilitate the success of the CATEGORIES project. The aim of this work package is to ensure effective decision making, efficient project control (technical - administrative), useful and satisfactory internal communication and clear external communication. Light management processes, non intrusive nor costly, has been chosen as most of the partners already know each other from previous projects.

Communication strategy and flow

Among the six participants, four have already participated in the EC funded Asthma project. The co-ordinator will use all the existing tools to ensure the best transparency and make the co-operation between the partners and the different work packages consistent. A kick-off meeting with all partners will be organised within the month following the project start. Regular and interactive management meetings and technical meetings will be organised in order to keep all partners fully informed of the project progress and activities. Internet and Web technologies will be used as the principal tool for the information management of the project mostly to exchange and archive of internal documents, calendar of internal activities (Collaborative tools), diffusion of information (published articles, conferences, web, etc). All documents will conform to a common editorial style.

Project Management Committee (PMC)

The PMC consists of one representative of each partner and of all the Work Package leaders. The project manager represents the Co-ordinating partner, and chairs the PMC. The PMC has full authority for taking decisions for the technical, financial, administrative and exploitation aspects of Categories. The PMC members will meet at regular intervals to control and review technical work, policy and strategies of exploitation carried out in the Tasks. At the end of every six months a report will be produced.

Leading roles

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  Scientific Project Manager (Mrs Monique Thonnat),
  
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  Administrative and Financial Project Manager (Mr Bruno Le Dantec),
  
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  Workpackages leaders
  
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  Exploitation Manager (Mr Thierry Daniel)
  
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  Dissemination Manager (Mr Rémi Ronchaud)
  

Scientific Project Coordinator (SP)

The Scientific Project Manager is appointed by INRIA, one of the seven statutory members of ERCIM, and will be accountable to the PMC. She will support the project with all of her possibilities. The SP will be responsible for the quality of the project’s contents and results.

Administrative and Financial Project Coordinator (AFP)

Bruno Le Dantec, the ERCIM deputy manager, has a long experience as administrative and financial European contract project manager. He will be accountable to the PMC. The AFP will be responsible for the preparation and validation of the documents to be produced and also for the relation with the EC.

Exploitation Manager (EM)

Thierry Daniel, CEO and R&D manager of TIMEAT, will be nominated as Exploitation Manager (EM) to co-ordinate the individual strategies of the participating institutions in order to maximise the transfer of the results within the consortium and on the market. The EM has to prepare a common strategy for creating market opportunities for sub packages and the entire framework at the end of the project.

Dissemination Manager (DM)

Mr. Ronchaud from ERCIM will fulfil the role of a Dissemination Manager. The DM will co-ordinate the dissemination activities of the partners. The strategy is to have wide presence to support the penetration of the framework into the development of the wide spectrum of potential applications.

Workpackages leaders (WPL)

The project is organised in 9 work packages, each of them being lead by a partner responsible of the good achievement of the planned work. All institutes will nominate, before the official commencement date of the project, a responsible making sure that this person will have the background to perform the work and allocated time to dedicate to the project. The project manager and the Workpackage leaders will work together to co-ordinate the whole project.

Project Controlling

The following methods are defined to monitor and control project progress. The co-ordination and follow-up procedures for monitoring progress and responding to changes are set and executed regularly, every 3 months, by the PMC. The figure below, shows the cyclical monitoring process as it is implemented in the proceeding of the project.

1. Planning Work contents Schedule (Milestones) Capacity/budget		2. Execution Acquiring information on work progress Preparation and consolidation of reports
4. Revision Adaptation of workplan Initiation of corrective actions		3. Analysis Work contents and progress Detection of deviation from plan : contents, milestones, resources

For each WP a fall back procedure has been defined. Additionally the partners will set up a co-operative space (BSCW) on the internet to support rapid exchange of information. Since the R&D work is pre-competitive, most information is public to generate the awareness of the new possibilities.

Management tools

The Project File will contain all documents related to the management and progress of the project and in particular: (a) correspondence with the CE, (b) minutes of all meetings of the Project Management Board, (c) technical reports, (d) software produced by the project and associated documentation. Privates pages will be accessible through the web, http://www.ercim.org/categories to the CATEGORIES partners.

Dispute Resolution

All conflicts will be resolved as locally as possible (i.e. within the workpackages). At the last resort, the Project Management Committee will call an exceptional meeting so as to resolve the conflict. There will be a democratic vote, one vote per member partner. The Co-ordinator vote can be used to break ties. In case where for any reason a partner wants to withdraw from the Consortium, or if a conflict cannot be solved, then the EC will be informed.

Deliverables (Reports)

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  Progress reports, every 6 months, progress made, resources employed, results obtained, deviations from the work schedule and planned modifications to the work schedule for the next reporting period.
  
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  Edited annual reports for publications
  
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  Cost statements: There will be a cost statement each 6 months from the commencement date.
  
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  Final Project Report: month 36 to the EC, will summarise the overall achievements of the project.
  

Quality insurance measures

The Scientific Project Manager and the Administrative and Financial Project Managers will:

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  establish the overall organisation for the Project within the IST Programme requirements. They will formalise the procedures defining the main processes;
  
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  formalise and up-date the Project’s database : main information features, reports, working documents, ...
  
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  sets up a communication environment dedicated to the Project which will include all the necessary elements for the management of the project.