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Computing Organization

Objectives


While computing is essential to the day to day running of CELLS and used by everyone, controls systems are critical to CELLS ALBA synchrotron’s operations.

CELLS Computing and Controls Division’s objective is to support users’ research and experiments by providing reliable, high-performance, easy to use and highly available control systems -hardware and software-, personal safety, equipment protection, data acquisition, data analysis, IT services and information systems.

Our objectives:

  • When fully operational, CELLS synchrotron is expected to run experiments with minimum downtimes and maximum level of support. Controls Systems shall run 24x7, except during scheduled maintenance downtimes. Support for Control Systems is from 7am to 10pm from Monday to Sunday during operation and from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Friday otherwise. Our objective is to solve any critical incidents - any incident preventing the operation of the accelerators and beamlines - within an hour, maximum two. Out of working hours and when the synchrotron operates, critical incidents shall be addressed via our On Call system, i.e. with some one coming on site within an hour. A normal time to fix an incident in nominal conditions is 1 hour typically, 2 hours maximum, although the unpredictable variety of new experimental conditions can lead to higher resolution time.
  • CELLS’ users and staff expect a permanent access to a wide variety of IT facilities with reasoned level of support. IT services targeted availability is 24x7 except during scheduled maintenance downtime, preferably out of working hours. Support for regular IT services is from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. Targeted time to fix an incident is 1 hour within working hours, 4 hours maximum.
  • In both cases, computing is to be high performance, robust, resilient and reliable.
  • Data storage capacity and archiving shall be fault-less, disaster recovery capable and scalable as needs grow.
  • Between legal requirements for data security and the value of sharing information, accesses to systems shall be managed with wisdom. By default, information shall be shared with the widest community possible. By exception, information that may expose CELLS to legal infringement or to internal, external, accidental or malicious threats shall be secured and only accessible on a need-to-know basis.
  • IT systems shall be made available to all users via user-centric, integrated and easy to use intranet and extranet applications.
  • We strive to deliver value for money, with effective budget planning and long term costs control.
  • People are key in achieving innovation and operational excellence, requiring commitment, flexibility and constant learning. Staff on going development is fundamental. We expect people to spend time sharing knowledge with their peers, to contribute to open collaborations, to attend trainings, forums or conferences, and to set aside the time and space necessary to be creative. Finally, we strive to keep an open two way communication environment where people feel free to take risks, propose new ideas and try new solutions.


Quality Management @ CELLS Computing


Quality Management is both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving organization edging towards meeting or exceeding customers expectations:

  1. customer focus - recognizing both internal and external "customers" and their current and future needs and providing value to our users of services or products
  2. leadership – establishing unity of purpose and direction in our organization creating and maintaining an internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization's objectives
  3. people involvement - recognizing that quality is not only the responsibility of quality assurance teams or reviewers but should be totally pervasive in all aspects of the organization with everyone seeking ways to improve the quality of their own products and services
  4. process approach - achieving efficiency by relating activities and resources as managed processes
  5. system approach to management - identifying understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives
  6. continuous improvement - continual improvement of the organization's overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization with explicit improvement goals in critical areas.
  7. factual approach to decision making - decisions are always based on the data analysis and information
  8. and mutually beneficial supplier relationships - an organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value.


CELLS Computing Division Quality Management Strategy lies on two main established methodologies: PRINCE2 for project management and ITIL for IT services management. We work toward the achievement of high quality professionally managed services by systematically applying standards and best practice where there is a clear benefit in doing so.

Our Quality Management System can be expressed as a set of organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality management:


Quality Assurance or QA is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process:

  • Customer Satisfaction – WIP
  • Product Quality via testing user acceptance and commissioning
  • Continuous Improvement via Service Measurement  – ensuring that services meet agreed service levels, Service Reporting – periodically conducting maturity assessments against the process activities and roles associated to demonstrate areas of improvement or conversely areas of concern, and resulting Service Improvement Plan
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