The GNOSIS test case was remarkable for the high degree of involvement and
commitment on the part of all partners, and for the few problems in its
operation. This section documents the main problems that arose and how they
were resolved.
Problems were caused by the slow startup due to funding delays, limited
resources, and short timescale of the project. The solution was to focus the
working groups on a small number of tasks critical to the objectives of GNOSIS
and representative of the central activities expected in a long-term program.
This was achieved successfully, itself a major indicator of the degree of
collaboration in GNOSIS since many partners had to forego major individual
objectives in the interest of the best use of resources to achieve the
objectives of GNOSIS as a whole. Another consequence was that less researcher
exchange took place than had been planned. Fortunately, many partners have
extensive experience of personnel exchange and expect no problems in the
long-term GNOSIS program.
Due to the short time scale, problems occurred in the planning phases when the
time needed to introduce partners, their interests and capabilities limited the
time available for detailed task allocation decisions. The solution in one case
was to hold another meeting, but in others the situation was retrieved by
partners acting flexibly and cooperatively to focus the meeting. This has been
a major strength of GNOSIS, that the management structure has been open enough
for such initiatives to occur, and that individual partners have been prepared
to take up tasks supportive of the project as a whole. Similar solutions have
been found in situations where important subtasks have proved impossible to
carry out within the project time constraints. In the majority of cases
partners have achieved the same objectives using alternative means. This
flexibility indicates the robustness, and goal direction, possible in an
international consortium with many diverse interests and responsibilities.
The wide spectrum of industrial and research partners meant a number of
alternative descriptive frameworks were represented. The associated
heterogeneity of terminology and tools caused problems, which were addressed in
two ways. First, mutual understanding was facilitated through exchange of
papers and discussions at workshops. Second, common definitions of significant
terms were agreed and used. In future, therefore, time should be allocated in
the initial phase for this task.
Problems of communication were the source of much frustration among partners.
Since eight partners did not have email it was necessary to distribute much
material by fax. The distribution mechanism was to fax to the five regional
coordinators who then faxed to partners in their regions. This occasionally
resulted in missing material. The solutions were to fax to specific partners as
well as coordinators, to use email in parallel, and to ask partners with email
to contact other partners in their region when a matter was urgent. What could
not be solved was the problem of partners with a coordinating role but without
email which led to less effective attainment of objectives. From the GNOSIS
self-evaluation questionnaire (Appendix A) it appears there is a consensus that
in future programs all partners must have email and be able to access a central
electronic document archive. The resultant volume of material, however,
requires a filtering mechanism.
Major problems of electronic document exchange and collaborative editing have
become prominent as GNOSIS moved into the documentation phase. Partners use
widely different document processing technology and it was initially not easy
to exchange documents and to consolidate different contributions into overall
GNOSIS reports. A solution that minimizes the workload of individual partners,
and tools that enable documents in one format to be converted to others have
been obtained. All of the work package coordinators and most of the partners
are now able to transport documents with full typography and diagrams in
electronic form either through email or on disk. In a future program it might
be appropriate for all partners to use a common document processor available on
multiple platforms.
Contents,
Previous
Section,
Next
Section,
IMS
Page,
KSI
Page
gaines@cpsc.ucalgary.ca 1-Sep-94