Studies of large-scale information technology (IT) development projects that include multiple groups of stakeholders have found that such projects are prone to conflict escalation and eventual project failure if care is not taken to repair intergroup conflict as it erupts or even to avoid it entirely. This project aims to understand what triggers intergroup conflict, or, more precisely, what the researchers call ?faultlines,? among stakeholders engaged in cyberinfrastructure development projects and, more specifically, in GENI, a virtual laboratory currently being prototyped to explore future internets at scale. Early identification of potential faultlines and their mitigation or repair are central to achieving positive stakeholder interactions and project success.
The research will consist of an in-depth longitudinal study of the social networks emerging in the GENI development and prototyping community over the next three years, using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Social Network Analysis (SNA) will be used to understand the communication patterns among stakeholders, primarily based on electronic communications, e.g., email and wiki postings. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) will be used to discern patterns in qualitative data, for example, from interviews, meeting minutes or project documents. The GENI social network will be studied at two levels, within development teams and across them ? at the larger GENI community level.
The management of large-scale IT development projects is challenging, in large part due to their sheer scale, scope and complexity. As a result, this research could have broad applicability. Understanding how conflict can be anticipated, avoided or mitigated has the potential to positively impact project stakeholders as well as the broader society, which is the ultimate beneficiary of the innovations that GENI may stimulate.
