ADMIRAL SprintReview 17
From ImageWeb
Sprint 17 review
Review held on: 01-Mar-2011
Present: GK, BA
| Sprint | Dates | Effort | Plan | Planning meeting | Review meeting | Goals achieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint 17 | 26 Jan - 01 Mar | 14 days ++ | (offline) | sprint 17 planning | sprint 17 review |
Two new ADIRAL deployments; Silk group storage upgraded |
Agenda
- Introduction, agenda review
- Information gathering
- review sprint activities
- review sprint goals
- Analyze
- Reflect on progress against plan
- Decisions
- Priorities for next sprint
- Identify impediments to progress on priorities
- Wrap up
Details
Progress review
Management / dissemination
- Written up benefits case study: http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/ADMIRAL_Benefits_Case_Study
- Project partners meeting: http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/ADMIRAL_20110221_project_partners_meeting
- Planning for possible follow-up of cloud-deployment of ADMIRAL
- Migrating aspects of project planning to issue list: http://code.google.com/p/admiral-jiscmrd/issues/list
Increase storage for Silk Group
- New NAS/iSCSI storage deployed for Silk Group. This has involved integrating ADMIRAl with other departmental storage facilities.
Follow-up with Development Group
- ADMIRAL system deployed for Evolutionary Development group
- Some browser-specific issues were notes (see issue list)
- A feature request for multiple collaboration areas was noted (see issue list()
Behaviour Group deployment
- ADMIRAL system deployed for the Behavioural Ecology group.
Initial reception was less enthusiastic / more critical than for previous groups. I sense this is a group for whom the desire to use ADMIRAL has come primarily from the group leader. Nevertheless, we did get some positive feedback from the initial deployment, and a number of issues/enhancements have been noted for future consideration.
Elephant Group requirements (priority 2-3)
No progress
- Follow-on discussions with LK (GK/DMS - priority 2) Awaitimng follow-up from LK.
- Think about distributed/field deployment of ADMIRAL; data synchronization issues (GK - priority 3) Continues.
Databank deployment with real datasets submitted
- Work with researchers to select and submit datasets (DMS/GK) Continues
In this sprint, we have focused mainly on completing new ADMIRAL deployments. We need to prioritize researcher engagement for the duration of the project.
ADMIRAL deployment issues
- The VMWARE virtual hosting environment management has been integrated with the departmental VMWare administration framework
- We have tested and improved the ADMIRAL migration script to facilitate in-situ deployment of ADMIRAL system updates (to configuration scripts, etc.)
- In light of improved LDAP configuration, we have been able to simplify the ADMIRAL configuration and remove some management complexities relating to the research group leader authority.
- We have tested some Databank improvements, and negotiated some changes, though some browser compatibility issues remain unresolved.
ADMIRAL features
- We have started to look at the design for a web-based user management facility for ADMIRAL (currently handled by shell scripts)
Technical debt and bugs
See the issues list: http://code.google.com/p/admiral-jiscmrd/issues/list
- We have resolved a long-standing LDAP+Apache configuration problem that prevented enabling HTTP viewing of non-personal file areas. An additional benefit is that we have been able to simplify the research group leader configuration. See http://admiral-announce.blogspot.com/2011/02/apache-configuration-for-ldap-access.html
- Following deployment to the Evolutionary development group, we are working on some browser incompatibility issues; some have been resolved:
Dissemination
- Started creation of Databank demonstrator system for JISC11 conference - continues
- Planned attendance at JISC MRD international workshop in March
Reflect on progress
We now have three ADMIRAL deployments and need to focus further attention of getting researchers to submit real datasets to the Databank service.
Following the deployments to the Evolutionary Development and Behavioural Ecology groups, we have been following up a number of technical problems and enhancement requests arising. A significant part of the past month has been spent investigating and fixing various problems, with a fair degree of success.
We have some unresolved issues with the Databank service, but none of these should be difficult to resolve.
A number of changes have been made to improve deployability and manageability of the ADMIRAL system.
Work has started on a free-standing deminstration system, including ADMIRAL and Databank services, for demonstration at the JISC conference.
A number of technical issues have been investigated and documented (see http://admiral-announce.blogspot.com/)
Make decisions
Process review
Future technical activities will be driven substantially through the project issues list (http://code.google.com/p/admiral-jiscmrd/issues/list), since we now need to be more responsive to user requirements.
We aim to supplement this with regular (2-4 weeks) progress reviews, as documented here, but do not intend to conduct any further formal sprint planning sessions.
Priorities for next sprint
Apart from working on technical issues in the issues list, our main goals for the rest of the project will be:
- demonstrating and disseminating information about ADMIRAL experiences
- continued engagement with researchers for submitting dartasets to databank
- improved user administration for ADMIRAL
- packaging for easier deployment of ADMIRAL
- issuing DOIs through Databank
Impediments to progress on priority items
- Databank stability uncertainties
Wrapping up
With some key issues now resolved, we really need to push on getting research users engaged.
Actions
(None specifically noted)
