Project Organization

Introduction

The organization of the UNICOS project aims at strengthening the participation of the user’s community in the definition of priorities and the long-term evolution of the project.

The organization is made of 3 main bodies:

The Technical Committee (TC), which is responsible for the day-to-day decisions in the UNICOS project.
The Advisory Committee (AC), which is responsible for strategical decisions that may have an impact on the long-term evolution of the project.
The Project Management in BE-ICS which listens to the recommendations from the Technical and Advisory Committees and takes the final decision on the steering of the project based on the available resources.

UNICOS Technical Committee

The UNICOS TC has the following mandate:

Maintain an up-to-date list of prioritized requests from the users community.
Provide clarification on the requirements from the different users whenever necessary and arbitrate in case of conflicting requirements or priorities. In case of conflict, CERN requirements shall be given priority over requests coming from external institutions.
Prepare a proposal for the UNICOS Annual Plan of Work that is presented to the UNICOS AC for approval. This must be done within the first trimester of the year.
Discuss options, technical choices and possible changes to the specifications to ensure that the development is performed according to the needs of the users’ community. In case the decision may have an impact on the long-term evolution of the project, a proposal should be made and presented to the AC for endorsement.
Produce an annual report on the progress done with UNICOS to be presented to the AC and users’ community. The TC is chaired by the UNICOS Project Leader and counts with representatives from key stake-holders. The TC meets every three months although ad-hoc meetings may be organized upon request from any of the participating parties. Other members of the UNICOS users’ community may be invited depending on the topics to be discussed.

UNICOS Advisory Committee

Strategical points that may have an impact on the long-term evolution of the framework are discussed at the UNICOS AC, which makes recommendations to the project management in BE-ICS.

The UNICOS AC has the following mandate:

Evaluate the proposal for the UNICOS PoW prepared by the TC and make a recommendation to the project management in BE-ICS.
Make recommendations to the Project Management on strategical decisions that may have an impact on the long-term evolution of the project. Examples of strategical decisson could be the integration of a third PLC vendor in the framework or the support of a new SCADA system should the users’ need could not be covered with the current technology stack. The chairman of the UNICOS AC shall be appointed by the project management in BE-ICS. The UNICOS AC shall meet not less than twice per year. Ad-hoc meetings can be organized upon request from any of the participating parties. Other members of the UNICOS users’ community may be invited depending on the topics to be discussed.

Reporting lines

The UNICOS Project Leader reports on the status of the project at the Technical Committee. Based on the input provided by the Project Leader, the TC prioritises the user requirements and makes a proposal for the annual Plan of Work. This proposal is submitted to the Advisory Committee for approval. Once the proposed plan of work is endorsed by the Advisory Committee, it is submitted to the project management in BE-ICS for final approval. BE-ICS reserves the right to make modifications to the proposed plan of work depending on the available resources. The final decision on the plan of work is communicated by the UNICOS Project Leader to the AC and to the user community through the UNICOS TC meeting.

Membership

The current members list of the UNICOS Advisory Committee is maintained through the unicos-ac egroup.