Based on a comprehensive literature review and the activities of numerous case study companies, it is argued in this paper that performance measurement in R&D is a fundamental aspect to quality in R&D and to overall business performance. However, it is apparent from the case companies that many companies still struggle with the issue of R&D performance measurement. Excuses for not measuring are easily found, but there are also empirical examples and literature available with suggestions how it can be done. In this article this literature is reviewed and placed within the context of general performance control and contingency theory. Furthermore, the main measurement system design parameters are discussed and some basic system requirements are described as well as several design principles that can be useful for those who accept the challenge of establishing a meaningful measurement system. 1 In this paper, we will use the abbreviation R&D as a general term to indicate activities varying from basic research, to product development and introduction. If at any point basic research or any other specific R&D category is intended then it will be clearly distinguished in that context.

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We have developed and implemented the Relational Grid Monitoring Architecture (R-GMA) as part of the DataGrid project, to provide a flexible information and monitoring service for use by other middleware components and applications.R-GMA presents users with a virtual database and mediates queries posed at this database: users pose queries against a global schema and R-GMA takes responsibility for locating relevant sources and returning an answer. R-GMA's architecture and mechanisms are general and can be used wherever there is a need for publishing and querying information in a distributed environment.We discuss the requirements, design and implementation of R-GMA as deployed on the DataGrid testbed. We also describe some of the ways in which R-GMA is being used.

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Abstract. We describe how the R-GMA (Relational Grid Monitoring Architecture) can be used to allow for instrument monitoring in a Grid environment. The R-GMA has been developed within the European DataGrid Project (EDG) as a Grid Information and Monitoring System. It is based on the Grid Monitoring Architecture (GMA) from the Global Grid Forum (GGF), which is a simple Consumer-Producer model. The special strength of this implementation comes from the power of the relational model. It offers a global view of the information as if each Virtual Organisation had one large relational database. It provides a number of different Producer types with different characteristics; for example some support streaming of information. We describe the R-GMA component that allows for instrument monitoring, the CanonicalProducer. We also describe an example use of this approach in the European CrossGrid project, SANTA-G, a network monitoring tool.Keywords: Grids, instrument monitoring, grid monitoring architecture, grid information and monitoring systems, R-GMA, CanonicalProducer, SANTA-G The R-GMAThe Grid Monitoring Architecture (GMA) [2] of the Global Grid Forum (GGF), as shown in Fig. 1, consists of three components: Consumers, Producers and a directory service, which in the R-GMA is referred to as a Registry.In the GMA Producers register themselves with the Registry and describe the type and structure of information they want to make available to the Grid. of information is available and locate Producers that provide such information. Once this information is known the Consumer can contact the Producer directly to obtain the relevant data. By specifying the Consumer/Producer protocol and the interfaces to the Registry one can build inter-operable services. The Registry communication is shown on Fig. 1 by a dotted line and the main flow of data by a solid line.The current GMA definition also describes the registration of Consumers, so that a Producer can find a Consumer. The main reason to register the existence of Consumers is so that the Registry can notify them about changes in the set of Producers that interests them. Although the GMA architecture was devised for monitoring, the R-GMA uses it as a basis for a combined infor-