D29: ICONS Management Report: January

D29: ICONS Management Report: January - June 2002

Information about the document:

Project Number: IST-2001-32429
Project Acronym: ICONS
Title: ICONS Management Report: January - June 2002
Deliverable No.: D29
Due date: 30.06.02
Delivery Date: 30.06.02
Partners owning: Rodan
Partners contributed: all partners
Made available to: Internal circulation within project (and Commission Project Officer + reviewers if requested)

Short Description:

This Management Report covers the first semester (out of 4) of the ICONS project. During this period, the consortium carried out the work establishing firm foundations for the further effective and efficient project progress. Now, we even more appreciate the approach following from the old Chinese proverb "if you do not know where you are, any map will help you", that we have applied in the project.

First of all, we know where we are going - due to the effort of all partners to understand, re-validate and express in a clear way the goals and objectives of the project (D01 - Project Presentation).

Secondly, we know where we currently are, having developed valid and up to date maps as well as a reasonable and objective compass to choose the best way. For this, we have subsequently recognized the state-of-the-art pertaining to the project (D01 - Project Presentation), reviewed and selected relevant industry standards (D04 - Standards base), identified and initially assessed reusable software packages (D05 - Technological base), and defined the foundations for research (D06 - Research base).

Finally, we have excluded a significant amount of less suitable alternatives, which will focus our efforts on the accomplishment of the project's objectives. This was accomplished by defining a schematic architecture of the target ICONS prototype (D01 - Project Presentation).

Moreover, we are equipped with instruments to lead our march effectively and efficiently with continuous assurance of the genuine progress: managerial practices (D02 - Consortium agreement) have been defined and put into work, while achievement of quality expectations is to be ensured by a rigorous assesment process (D03 - Evaluation criteria).

Hence we continue the project well equipped with most of the risks being kept under control.

The best way to formally summarise the progress achieved in the first semester is by referring directly to the original definition of milestones [ICONS CONTRACT] that are actually achieved during the period of interest:

M1: Selection of standards and the software tools to provide the technological basis for the ICONS architecture. The goal is to select the standards and software environments providing the basis for the ICONS prototype development. The principal selection criterion for the software environment is to minimize the development effort and to maximise the re-use of the existing software components provided by the consortium partners.
M2: Selection of the principal research results to be applied and extended within the ICONS project. Several areas of the ICONS project are heavily dependent on the past and ongoing research efforts of the consortium partners. The aim is to formulate a coherent theoretical base, integrating the relevant research results and ongoing efforts of the consortium partners, pertinent to the ICONS architecture. Decisions taken at this stage are to determine the further evolution of the ICONS research and development work.

Other results, which are not so tangible and direct, however in our belief of great importance, include:

development of common understanding among partners on various levels (objectives, techniques and technologies, but also social),
development of streamlined communication channels (mostly over Internet),
early start of dissemination work that should result in higher interest in the target ICONS product and therefore its unbeatenable competitiveness.