Academic Computing Management Benchmarks: Beta Version - A Report on a Pilot Survey of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computing (CASC) Members

Abstract

This document reports on a pilot survey of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computing (CASC) members in an effort to illustrate the potential for management benchmarking to the CASC community, while laying the groundwork for the development of an annual management benchmarking survey.

Many CASC members have expressed an interest evaluating their organizational performance using standard measures, but there are very few tools to assist them in this evaluation. Benchmarking involves assessing an organization’s performance through comparison with similar organizations. The goal of this benchmarking activity is to provide CASC members with the sort of managerial benchmarks that interest them – such as the human resources required to support different elements of infrastructure, the mix of services that different CASC members provide, and the focus of effort for peer organizations.

This benchmarking exercise should be thought of as a pilot, or proof-of-concept, and the benchmarks reported herein are largely illustrative. Based on this initial survey, the authors will convene a focus group to develop a “Version 1.0” survey to be administered at the CASC meeting in Fall of 2013. If successful, this project may evolve into an annual benchmarking survey of CASC members.

Keywords: CASC management benchmarks, academic computing management, HPC management, cyberinfrastructure