e-Science project and experiment management with Microsoft Project

Abstract

The design, execution, and monitoring of challenging scientific applications is often a complex affair. To cope with the issue, several tools and frameworks have been designed and put into use. However, the entry barrier to using these tools productively is high, and may hinder the progress of many scientists or non-experts that develop workflows infrequently. As part of the Cyberaide framework, a workflow tool called Grid Manager had been developed and integrated using the Microsoft Project software package as an elementary component. The advantages of using such a tool are discussed in this paper. Microsoft Project is a user friendly project management tool that is being used in a new context. It is being used to design and monitor the execution of Grid based projects. The motivation for this choice is that many scientists are already familiar with Microsoft Project. Grid Manager enables seamless access to and execution over computational Grids, such as the NSF sponsored TeraGrid. Our framework also allows integration with other resources, including Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 (HPC) clusters. We test our hypothesis of usability while evaluating the tool as part of several graduate level courses taught in the field of Grid and Cloud computing.