Minutes of BoF session on Portfolio and Lifecycle Management
NORDUnet conference, Longyearbyen, 6 April 2005
Participants:
- Walter van Dijk - SURFnet (walter.vandijk@surfnet.nl) - CHAIR
- Pekka Linna - CSC/Funet (pekka.linna@csc.fi) - CHAIR
- Martin Bech - UNI-C (martin.bech@uni-c.dk)
- Jan Willem Elion - Nortel
- Maria O.M. Jesen - Forskningsnettet (maj@imm.dtu.dk)
- Magnus Johansson - LDC, Lund University
(Magnus.Johansson@ldc.lu.se)
- Gitte Kudsk - UNI-C (gitte.kudsk@uni-c.dk)
- Odd Erik Loftesnes - Sogn og Fjordane University College
(oel@hisf.no)
- Håvard Myrvang - Western Norway Research Institute
(havard.myrvang@vestforsk.no)
- Kees Neggers - SURFnet (kees.neggers@surfnet.nl)
- Jukka Orajärvi - Oulu Polytech (jukka.orajarvi@oamk.fi)
- Matti Saarinen - University of Helsinki (matti.j.saarinen@helsinki.fi)
- Pekka Savola - CSC/Funet (psavola@csc.fi)
- Magnus Strømdal - UNINETT (Magnus.Stromdal@uninett.no)
- Sandra Passchier - SURFnet (sandra.passchier@surfnet.nl) - MINUTES
Introduction
The chairs gave an introduction
about the topic: Co-operation and
finding synergy in product managementDiscussion
- Nortel saw a comparison of a services providing
process within the vendor field but expected it to be heavy to
harmonise the product portfolios in the various NRENs in Europe.- The chair made it clear that LCPM is not about establishing the same product portfolio for all NRENs, but about cooperating in order to make the process of developing the product portfolio within individual NRENs more fluent. There will be a need for a shared language in order to be able to learn from each other and this will bring in an aspect of harmonising, but only on the level of language.
- UNI-C asked about where the LCPM initiative is going.
- The chairs explained that the goals are not set yet. The possibilities are still being looked into within the TERENA context. For now it looks like there will be an attempt to set up a Terena task force, and terms of reference will be drafted before the Terena conference in Poznan in June.
- UNI-C was enthusiastic, but pointed out that exchanging best practices in portfolio and life cycle management (checklists, cookbooks and such) and cooperation in providing services (copying an anti-spam service, co-managing a News-service and such) are two very different things that will attract very different audiences. UNI-C wondered if these two things could be divided so that portfolio and life cycle management would get full attention on a dedicated platform.
- The chairs explained that the exact focus of the co-operation was not decided upon yet.
- The chairs stressed that the initiative was not about doing work on certain technologies in order to innovate new services. There are other task forces within TERENA who do that. LCPM concerns services already in production and it might be fruitful to tackle production-related questions, like buying services jointly. The final scope of the interaction will be decided upon in the near future; first there will be made a charter with concrete subjects and the items that have a common interest within most NRENs should be pursued (5-7).
- It was suggested that LCPM could also define how to cope with things after you deliver a service. And the question how technology push and the need of costumers/users could be getting closer together.
- From a university perspective the remark was made that it is a problem that a lot of universities don't know what they can get from a NREN.
The chair pointed out that the TERENA Task Force TF-PR is also dealing with this subject: end-user information. But there's also a marketing issue.
When you launch a service Product Management becomes along, but also PR when you look at how to launch a service. TF-PR is primarily about corporate communication, but also end-user communication is a subject where marketing issues are involved too. The cooperation between TF-PR and LCPM should be looked at very carefully: where does one stop and the other begin. It might also be that partially the same people who are in TF-PR are also involved in LCPM.