jonathan@researchcomputingteams.org
This resource first appeared in issue #21 on 25 Apr 2020 and has tags Strategy: Working with Decision Makers, Strategy: Product/Service Management, Strategy: Other
Research Computing and Data Capabilities: A Tool for Assessment and Improvement - Data Brunson, Claire Mizumoto, Patrick Shmitz, EDUCAUSE
This is really important and relevant work that I was pointed to by a long-time reader; I hadn’t even known this work was going on.
A working group between EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and the Campus Research Computing Consortium has put together a very detailed capability model of research computing in research institutions. The model is clearly of an HPC-type centre at a university, but I think the model generalizes to beyond that, to general research computing support at a range of institutions both private and public sector or even multi-institutional collaborations
The model considers capabilities in five separate domains:
and within each of those domains it covers a number of key capabilities; an institution can rank its strength in those capabilites from 1-5 in either deployment (not deployed to deployed institution/collaboration wide) or service level (none through lights-on to premium). Researcher-facing capabilities involve outreach, support, and training; data-facing capabilities include long-term storage, data modelling, data lifecycle support, and so on.
In addition to the presentation that covers the mode, there’s an example filled-out capability model spreadsheet and a guide to use.
This is an excellent resource to use when examining strengths and weaknesses in any research computing support effort; even more narrowly-scoped efforts will be able to use this to suggest areas of growth and need (there’s a column in the worksheet which allows you to weight down areas that are not relevant to your situation).
Do follow up on this, it’s worth your time and can structure your conversation with local decision makers.
