ACCESS In-Person Meeting Scheduled for June 26–27

The ACCESS Executive Council believes that in-person collaboration is essential to the success of ACCESS and is in the planning stages for an in-person meeting in Boulder, CO, June 26–27. While this isn't an all-staff meeting, it'll be a large gathering of the Executive Council, as well as several members of the ACO, Service Teams, and Working Groups. For information about the meeting and to make suggestions for topics to be covered, please reach out to your cognizant PI.

ACCESS Coordination Portal (ACCESS Wiki) Updates

List of all ACCESS Mail Lists

A new ACCESS Mail Lists page has been added to the ACCESS Program-Level Pages/ACCESS Program Organization section.

Jira Issues Assigned to You on the ACP Homepage

As you've likely noticed, the ACCESS Program is using the Atlassian product suite for more and more purposes. The latest is the launch of the new ticket tracking system, ACCESS Ticketing System (more information on the new ticketing system can be found in the Support and Operations Updates below). As the program is using Jira for risk management (Risk Register) and change control (Project Change Request), and individual service teams are making use of Jira to track tasks, feedback and other types of requests, it's important for each ACCESS staff member to be aware of all Jira issues assigned to them.

To this end, a section has been added to the top of the ACCESS Collaboration Portal homepage that will list this information. The section is called “Jira Issues Assigned to You” and will list all Jira issues that are assigned to you, regardless of the Jira project. The “Key” column identifies the project and issues number, where the project is a 2-4 character acronym (e.g. ATS = ACCESS Ticketing System, RR = Risk Register, PCR = Project Change Request, CTT = CONECT Task Tracking, ALF = Allocations Feedback). In addition to the issue Key, the Summary, Status and Priority of the issues are listed. Clicking on a row in the Key or Summary column will take you directly to that issue in Jira.

If you have questions, feedback or ideas for further utilizing the Atlassian suite, please email the ACO Project Office.

Working Groups and Standing Committees

ACCESS Working Groups, like the ticketing Working Group, IAM Working Group and others, as well as Standing Committees, like the Cybersecurity Governance Committee, are essential elements of the ACCESS program. They provide a framework for teams to implement technical work involving team members from across the Service Teams. As part of the ongoing improvement to project governance, the Executive Council meets regularly with these groups to discuss and give feedback on proposed and planned changes. Working Groups are established for specific, time-limited purposes and may be chartered or sunset depending on need and progress towards goals. In some cases, it may be advantageous for a Working Group to transition to a Standing Committee, which is appropriate for operational areas. Proposals for forming new Working Groups or Standing Committees should come through one of the Service Team or Coordination Office PIs.

External Advisory Board Holds Inaugural Meeting

The first ACCESS External Advisory Board meeting was held on March 2. This was a two-hour virtual meeting, which included presentations from NSF, the Service Teams and the Coordination Office. The meeting was an opportunity to brief the EAB on the ACCESS program and seek input on progress and plans. Going forward, the EAB will meet on a quarterly cadence, three of which will be virtual and one in-person. The EAB is drafting a report that will be made available to the EC. The full list of EAB members and their affiliations may be found here.

Allocations recently held a virtual meeting in mid-March for the Maximize ACCESS allocations opportunity. Prior to each allocations review meeting, the team’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) facilitator offers panel reviewers DEI training to ensure an inclusive environment and proper group norms are established before panel recommendations are made. Notifications regarding the outcome of proposals were recently sent out to requestors, and approved allocations will begin on April 1.

The DevOps team has been busy putting the finishing touches on an updated Publications User Interface and integrating ORCID postings from approved allocations. Planning for two Innovative Pilots (Variable Marketplace; Campus On-RAMPS) is wrapping up and will be entering development stages in early PY2. When crafting software design, the team consistently considers DEI lenses to ensure functionality and content are as accessible as possible. The team has been devoting a lot of effort to redesigning their web presence to better align with frequent use cases and to better organize tools and documentation necessary to manage an allocation. The web redesign has been heavily guided and informed by the team’s continuous improvement initiatives and feedback received from various ACCESS stakeholders through the team’s feedback form, focus group sessions and frequently asked questions.

Upcoming Allocations Request Periods

For researchers with the largest-scale computational, analysis and storage needs, requests for Maximize ACCESS allocations can be submitted during the period of March 15–April 15. Approved allocations will begin or renew on July 1, 2023. The full allocation request timeline is as follows:

• March 15: Request window opens
• April 15: Request window closes
• Early June: Review meeting
• Mid-June: Notifications sent to requestors
• July 1: Start/renewal date

The next Maximize ACCESS cycle will happen with proposal submissions from June 15 to July 15, with awards starting October 1. Going forward, ACCESS Allocations will be moving to a semi-annual cycle for Maximize ACCESS requests with start dates in April and October. Researchers with existing large-scale XSEDE Research or earlier Maximize ACCESS should contact the Allocations team using the ticketing system with any questions or concerns to determine the best option for aligning their project renewals with the semi-annual schedule.