Rationale

The Idea

Track and document PDP projects in a lightweight and uniform fashion.

Background

The PDP group executes a rather large number of projects. The projects are started in various ways. Alignment with the PDP strategy, cost/benefit analysis, and alignment with other running PDP projects, is carried out in an ad-hoc fashion if at all. The progress, completion, and result of projects is often not documented.

How it works

Projects are started via a one-page memo that clearly states what the project entails, the context, the benefits, and defines the initial steps. The page you are now reading is an example of such a one-page memo.

Once per quarter, a one-page document is produced that indicates the progress since the last quarter, the current state of the project, an evaluation of whether it makes sense to continue and if so, the resources expected to be needed in the coming quarter.

At project end, a short document is produced explaining the results of the project, and if any, recommendations of further actions based on those results. Detailed technical documentation may be required in some cases, this is however to be included as appendices to the results document, the body of the results document should be readable as a standalone document by anyone in the PDP group.

These documents will be collected in a single place and accessible by all PDP staff. Note the focus is on maximum information content with minimum of additional work; a requirement of this policy is that the added value to the PDP group has to outweigh the overhead of producing the documentation.

Key Benefits

At any moment, the current set of documents will provide an up-to-date snapshot of the PDP group activities. This information is extremely valuable in several aspects:

• tracking and improving alignment between current activities and PDP strategy
• motivating adjustments of PDP strategy based on activity outcomes
• motivating manpower and funding requests inside and outside Nikhef
• as input for jamboree / jaarverslag / platformgesprekken / FUBO gesprekken with PDP/CT staff

Given the current climate of limited resources, the alignment and motivation are critical in sustaining and/or expanding the funding and manpower allocations we have. At the moment most of the tracking takes place on an ad-hoc basis and relies heavily on email archeology.

Next Steps

JT will construct documentation in the PDP wiki for a trial implementation of the system. JJK has agreed to be the first guinea pig for this implementation. The system itself is now a PDP "project", this page serving as the one-page starting memo, and will be evaluated once per quarter following the "How it works" section above.