This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SBER) proposes new techniques and tools to effectively manage projects that are especially difficult to execute, especially those that are large, complex, dynamic and distributed such as GENI (Global Environment for Networking Innovations). GENI is a major initiative planned by the Computer and Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Division of the National Science Foundation. GENI is an experimental facility that has a highly ambitious goal: to invent and demonstrate a global communications network and related services that will be substantially superior to today's Internet. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand how a project of this nature can be managed effectively. The goals of the research proposed are twofold: 1) to explore the extent to which both traditional and novel project management tools and techniques can be applied effectively to projects like GENI, and 2) to understand how existing project management tools and techniques may be tailored or enhanced to fit the needs of a project like GENI.
Although the literature on project management has identified specific tools or techniques that may be suited to address a particular problem or challenge, there is relatively little knowledge on how to configure a set of these techniques for projects that face multiple challenges. In addition, there is relatively little knowledge on how to effectively tailor particular processes and techniques to meet the needs of specific projects. Thus, research that considers how to put together a portfolio of practices that will be effective for a particular project context is valuable. This is especially true in the case of GENI. The scale, scope and complexity of GENI are large, as the effort will ultimately affect many areas of computer science and engineering research in addition to networking and distributed systems. GENI will also impact the broader computer science community and will need to meet the high expectations of that community as well as of numerous other stakeholders. Given the magnitude and importance of GENI, understanding how a project of this nature can be managed effectively has the potential to positively impact the project's many stakeholders as well as broader society, the ultimate beneficiaries of the innovations it stimulates.
