Funded by the: JISC Flexible Service Delivery programme.

Lead Institution: De Montfort University.

Key Words: Enterprise Architecture (EA).

Our Enterprise Architecture (EA) journey

a story of impact and value

 

Background and institutional context

 

Institution: De Montfort University (DMU)

 

De Montfort University (DMU), and the Higher Education (HE) sector as a whole, is facing considerable challenges over the coming months and years, not least how the University implements the recommendations of the Browne review and responds to the planned cuts to HE as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

 

DMU itself has entered into a new chapter with the appointment of Professor Shellard (Vice-Chancellor) and a newly formed Executive Board (EB). The decision was made to review and realign the University so that it can put the customer at the heart of what it does, ensuring that it is well placed to operate in a highly competitive, price sensitive market. 

 

Previously, DMU organised Vision Café events which were an enormous success and gave an opportunity for staff and students to provide valuable input and support into the University's mission and supporting vision statements (see Appendix 1). 

 

DMU now uses the mission as a focus for the University's priorities and planning, and have embedded the vision statements into the daily business, understanding how they translate to the work of all teams across the institution and partner network. 

 

Along with the Vision Café events the University also did its own comprehensive review across major processes and functions which included Admissions, Marketing and IT. These reviews have enabled the University to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness across the business as well as improving agility in responding to external challenges we will face in the coming years. 

 

Historically, IT has been managed in a decentralised manner, with an inconsistent approach to the management of projects; each running independently of other projects with several large IT systems and applications growing organically over time in a relatively unstructured manner. No single list of major IT systems has previously existed, nor an overall framework or standards for the integration of systems and complex data interfaces (Appendix 2).

 

With the appointment of a new Director, the IT department has seen positive changes and challenges to allow for the IT function to meet the objectives of the University but also promote new innovations and ideas. In order to turn the IT department into this forward thinking agile department based on services rather than isolated projects, the Director proposed a plan and gained approval from the Executive Board to integrate all IT Services across the University and reorganise the newly formed department. 

 

The integration into a central IT and Media Services (ITMS) team, is based on a clear recognition of the synergies between activities and teams across the University. This allows for greater opportunities, collaboration, integration and sharing of best practice as well as an opportunity to build stronger links with customers (see Appendix 3).

 

It was clear that there was a need to consolidate previously disparate teams to improve productivity, efficiency and consistency of service whilst reducing duplication and improving quality. The key aims of the new department will be to: 

 

• Be innovative and influential
• Be respected by the University
• Be recognised as a leader in the HE sector

 

This will be achieved by delivering IT services that significantly enhance the experience of staff and students in learning, teaching, research and business operations. 

 

The department will provide clear leadership and guidance on the adoption of appropriate technologies, systems and services in a rapidly developing environment. It will provide customer-focused support and assistance, helping people embrace technology as it becomes embedded within University life. In order for ITMS to be agile and flexible in delivering high quality services to the students and staff it is essential that the University takes a strategic and integrated approach to the development of Information Systems. To support this ITMS will formally adopt Enterprise Architecture (EA) practices and develop internal capabilities for a sustainable approach; hence the introduction of the Business Engagement and the Project and Governance teams within ITMS. 

 

The adoption of EA will play an important part in creating a framework and processes to integrate University activities and strategy with those of the IT teams; bringing together business process, information and systems architecture. 

 

New strategic technologies and delivery models such as 'Cloud' and Shared Services will be explored along with embedding IT Governance, IT Service Management and Portfolio Management in everything the department does. 

 

These initiatives will bring significant benefit to the University as it adapts to the challenging times facing the HE sector. We recognise the importance of not 'reinventing the wheel' and the work of the FSD programme covers many of the areas we are exploring. 

 

Objective

 

To date

Looking ahead (next 12 months post June 2011)

With the appointment of the new Director, ITMS has seen some major changes and new initiatives that have converted the department into a positive, modern IT department.   ITMS also took the initiative to review IT Governance across the University. From the review planning and prioritisation was given to the reviews recommendation to support, adopt and implement 'Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology' (COBIT) as a governance framework.   Other reviews were started to identify areas to reduce the number of point/silo IT solutions across the University and encourage increased focus on longer term planning and goals as part of product and solution selection.    ITMS has become involved in working with colleagues across the University to ensure that ITMS have a coordinated approach to the technologies underpinning other related DMU strategies, such as Technology Enhanced Learning, Research, Web, Information Governance and Data Quality.   Using internal funding, after an unsuccessful bid to JISC, the Director of ITMS initiated an overall review of the 'EA' of DMU business systems, data, integration methods and underlying infrastructure. The University funded the use of external consultants, Fulcrum, to carry out the assessment in order to deliver the assessment without bias, in a timely manner, over a period of twelve weeks. This would not have been possible, without external resource, due to resource limitations within ITMS.   The restructure of the ITMS department will allow ITMS to accommodate the increased value the University has in EA and Business Engagement as well as embedding ITIL best practices for Service Delivery along with the Programme Management Office.   ITMS have already started embedding ITIL 3.0 with a new change-control process, and a change advisory board (CAB) for operational changes. This will be complemented by the implementation of PRINCE2 for Project Management within the ITMS Project and Governance team.   ITMS continues to work with other HE Institutions and public and private sector organisations, learning by working alongside each other. Several JISC projects have seen ITMS at the forefront of innovation and initiation within the sector eg Flexible Service Delivery (FSD) projects, delivering successful solutions to the sector and leading on Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) (JISC Project Step-C and Step-F) and Cloud based integrated project (JISC Project Cumulus).

ITMS's main aim will be to become a more valued University partner that is customer focused, pursuing innovative solutions and concepts. Making sure that in an ever more stringent climate ITMS delivers high quality, consistent services effectively and efficiently to customers and staff.    Once the new structure is finalised an IT transformation programme will be developed and initiated to improve the capabilities of the ITMS team, to meet the challenges of the coming years with the ability to be agile and receptive to change.   Develop an open and transparent communication environment to help build relationships within the new structure, ensuring that teams and individuals are clear on their goals and how they link to the objectives of the University.   Provide support and training for technical and management staff in their new roles. Agree appropriate values, behaviours and ways of working.   Improve project management and resource allocation techniques based on skills. Project teams will be defined and allocated through the ITMS Project and Governance team based on the priorities outlined in the University's strategic plan.   Work towards providing guidance and setting up structures so that the standards and best practices ITMS uses complement each other, providing effective and efficient services to the University's customers and staff.   With the successful adoption of The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), ITMS will consider the appropriateness of other best practice frameworks and methodologies such as The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) over the coming year to complement and enhance ITMS's agility to change.   Continue to work with others including Vendors and HEIs in providing leading-edge solutions, such as SOA and Cloud based implementations and other new technologies and trends.   Expand the use of SCRUM agile development piloted within the Application Information Management during the transition period (Appendix 5).   ITMS will propose the set up of an IT Planning Group that will oversee Information and Technology priorities and projects.

 

Overall vision for EA practice

 

To date

Looking ahead (next 12 months post June 2011)

The vision for EA within DMU is to develop an overall integrated approach to the development of systems and services to support University activities and enhance the student experience. This includes people, process, technology, information and data.   Implementing the early recommendations of an EA Assessment by creating a new structure will support the adoption of Project Governance, Business Engagement and EA. ITMS is currently implementing service delivery management and project management, EA will be embedded within these two initiatives.   DMU led the Step-F project which used a SOA approach to provide a data exchange between DMU and the Graduate Prospects HEDD project through an Enterprise Service Bus (Appendix 6). The second JISC project, Cumulus also a SOA proof of concept implementation, located an application independently in the cloud and was consumed into differing institutions' processes and architectures using the XCRI 1.0 standard for curriculum mapping (Appendix 7).   Both projects required an EA approach as they required a collaboration of several interdependent systems and stakeholders, providing a single solution that would work for all participating institutions.   Membership of the EA Practice Group (EAPG) has allowed staff within ITMS to work with peers across the sector, sharing knowledge and experiences for the benefit of both DMU and the sector as a whole. This has proved invaluable when not only looking at successes but also failures from which ITMS can learn. ITMS also participated on the JISC EA Foundation Programme (EAFP) to increase our knowledge of EA, learn through the experiences of other HEIs and build a network of learning resources. Working within the EAFP highlighted the technique of Action Learning where self-analysing promotes how you can learn to embed EA successfully within your own institution.

Embed EA within the institution, enhance and improve efficiencies in new projects such as Content Management System and Customer Relationship Management, whilst taking an overall approach to information and data management across the insitution. Other initiatives currently being embedded into ITMS and communicated out to the University include ITIL Service Delivery, Governance and Project Management. The implementation of EA within the ITMS and across the University will be planned in a controlled manner to enhance the current initiatives, and add value by providing a concise blueprint of the University.   EA tools that can be used to provide an enterprise view of all DMU IT architecture and processes are Share Point, Archimate and MS Vision. Due to the limitation of Archimate in source controlling the EA blueprints of the University, Share Point will provide a document repository to control the changes made to the blueprints. The EA blueprints can be very technical so to communicate to the business, process mapping will be done through MS Visio. There are no costs attached to Archimate, which will be the starting point in developing the initial blueprint. We will need to provide training within ITMS to enable each area to create their own blueprints for their areas in accordance to EA standard language.   ITMS will use the EA Assessment to look towards creating an enterprise View of a new/existing process. This will highlight areas that can be improved and show the specific processes that require adapting in order to use an 'out the box' collaboration of systems. KPIs will be set to benchmark the University within the assessment in order to measure the success of implementing EA.   Recruit relevant team members to work within the new Business Engagement team within ITMS. Ther's a requirement for the EA roadmap to be communicated within ITMS and across the University at a timely manner.   Work towards developing staff awareness, particularly within the Business Engagement team, on how an EA approach can lead to more effective, efficient and high quality services for students and staff.   ITMS will continue its collaborative working with JISC, HEFCE and Vendors in working together to delivering efficient and effective projects that provide invaluable learning resources to the whole sector.

 

Getting value from JISC resources

 

To date

Looking ahead (next 12 months post June 2011)

The EA Foundation Programme (EAFP) was an invaluable group in highlighting why EA is important to any institution. It provided a roadmap and experiences about how to move along the 'road to value'. The EAFP provided support from peers 'learning by doing together', having universities at different stages in their progress in embedding EA.   EA Practice Group (EAPG) meetings provided evidence through Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) that getting Governance and Project Management in place before EA will help support embedding EA across the University.   JISC online resources also provides 24-7 guidance in providing information of best practices across the sector, provided members of staff within ITMS a knowledge base for reference.   The programmes and workshops ITMS attended also helped build our network and provided knowledge which may take months even years to obtain.   Attendance of modelling bashes at Coventry and King's College London helped us to learn how to use the JISC funded tool Archi, the session proved invaluable in efficiently learning how to model to the ArchiMate Open Group standards.   ArchiMate is an open and independent EA modelling language that supports the description, analysis and visualisation of architecture within and across business domains. ArchiMate is one of the open standards hosted by The Open Group and is based on the IEEE 1471 standard.

ITMS will continue to attend the JISC EAPG to gain latest information from where and how EA is progressing within the sector.   The University will support projects that provide value to the sector and will be willing to present at future JISC events about our experience of mentoring other institutions that are embarking on EA and SOA related initiatives.    Guide colleagues to think about processes and systems/services from an enterprise perspective; also raise awareness of the services provided by JISC and educate our own teams to enhance knowledge within the department.    ITMS will explore other toolkits and best practices that may add value to all the other initiatives currently being implemented within the University. An example could be investigating the JISC ICT Strategic Toolkit to learn more about assessing where ITMS is currently and use the findings to discuss where we could improve our offering.   Use the JISC infoNet Impact Calculator, as an end of project review process to calculate Return on Investment (ROI) from implemented projects.    As knowledge within DMU grows, host internal knowledge sharing events like the example set by Coventry and Kings College London where they ran modelling bashes. Over 30 people attended from several universities to learn how to use the Archi tool correctly to a defined standard. The benefit of these activities are that blueprints can be shared across the sector without everyone having to learn a new EA language or standard.

 

Progress and achievements

 

The ITMS department has been restructured with new initiatives for managing service delivery and project management governance currently being implemented. EA will be embedded within other initiatives as part of the IT Transformation programme.

 

The Director of ITMS initiated an extensive assessment of EA across the University; this provided a valuable document with actions of improving the level of EA. The initial actions of restructuring the department into a modern agile department responsive to change in challenging times have been implemented, as described earlier.

 

The restructure of ITMS to allow for the Business Engagement team has been fully supported by both the Vice-Chancellor and the Chief Operating Officer. Having the support from senior staff will help to embed EA within the University.

 

In order for ITMS to continue gaining and giving advice and knowledge from and to other institutions, ITMS will continue to attend relevant Practice Groups.

 

ITMS has been very successful in several SOA and Cloud based projects funded by JISC. ITMS will continue being involved in projects that can benefit the University and the sector. ITMS contributed and led on the following JISC FSD projects: Cumulus, Step-C, and Step-F which were successfully received by the HE sector. ITMS hosted several workshops promoting SOA as an approach that will lead to savings for institutions and the sector. ITMS also provided initial advice to the Research Management Administration System (RMAS) Steering Group on the need for and benefits of an architectural perspective to the project.

 

Business benefits (impact) and opportunities (3xE's)

 

Realisation of benefits will occur over the longer period when EA is embedded within the institution. An example of benefit would be to understand the underlying processes that drive systems/services. When the University can understand this we would look to improve the processes in a flexible manner that delivers more with less in a controlled way through the Programme Support Office (PMO).

 

EA will be the enabler in reviewing our processes in order to minimise duplication and to prevent continuation of poorly supported processes and systems/services across the institution, thus providing more effective and efficient services to the students.

 

With an institution set governance of systems/services and processes, EA will allow us to be more agile and receptive to changes in the HE sector.

 

With the future of SOA and Shared Services, EA will also provide control in terms of risk assessments of systems/services and processes both internal and external.

 

The way the University develops its systems and processes in the future will lead to the removal of point to point links between systems, EA will help manage reusability of processes and services providing agility for future needs. 

 

Key learning points: do's and don'ts, and advice to those who follow

 

The value of embedding EA within the institution should not be underestimated; it is a very important programme that brings value to the institution, though no visible metrics will be available on their own. With other initiatives within the University the metrics can be taken from successful delivery of service to staff and students. Savings made through improved business process can also be another measure of benefits of EA.

 

The ability to see the whole of DMU's architecture in terms of processes as well as systems/services can allow for informed decisions to be more easily made about adaption of current processes as well as the introduction of new, more efficient and effective processes.

 

There are no short term gains as the journey is more valuable in the longer term. We should not start embedding EA without any governance. Within DMU it was decided that the Service Delivery and Project Management and Governance would be implemented before EA, this strategic decision will gain top level involvement and support helping to embed EA more easily.

 

Learning independently as an institution will take longer than if the institution was involved with JISC using their knowledge base, and also by attending the Practice Group where institutions can learn from others. Within DMU we used a complementary approach where consultants were brought in to do an EA assessment and also attend the Practice Groups.

 

Appendix 1 – DMU Mission and Vision Statements, ITMS vision statements

 

DMU’s mission

 

We are a University of quality and distinctiveness, distinguished by our life-changing research, dynamic international partnerships, vibrant links with business and our commitment to excellence in learning, teaching and the student experience. We celebrate the rich cultural diversity of our staff, students and all our partnerships. 

 

Vision statement

 

We will:

 

• Develop an exciting and supportive learning environment that transforms our students and inspires them to make a real difference in society
• Be a University that places research excellence and innovation at the heart of our mission
• Focus on employability and understand the needs of business and the professions so that DMU courses are relevant and give our graduates a head start
• Be a recognised leader in creative education and research, built on our reputation in the creative industries and driven by innovative projects across all faculties
• Be a truly international University, building influential global relationships to enrich our research, teaching and cultural collaborations
• Make a significant contribution to global efforts to achieve environmental sustainability

 

ITMS vision statement

 

We will:

 

• Be an innovative and influential department, respected by the University and recognised as a leader in the HE sector, delivering IT and Media services that significantly enhance the experience of staff and students in learning, teaching, research and business operations
• Provide clear leadership and guidance on the adoption of appropriate technologies, systems and services
• Provide customer-focused support and training, helping people embrace technology as it becomes embedded within University life
• Continue to support and develop our people, recognising their important contribution and celebrating their success

 

Appendix 2 – subset of organically grown systems within a section of ITMS

 

 

Appendix 3 – ITMS before/interim/ final restructure

 

Before February 2011

 

 

February 2011–Interim

 

 

September 2011–Current new structure

 

 

Appendix 4 – ITMS; defining words

 

 

Appendix 5 – What is SCRUM?

 

Excerpt taken from: http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/topics/scrum 

 

Scrum is an agile approach to software development. Rather than a full process or methodology, it is a framework. So instead of providing complete, detailed descriptions of how everything is to be done on the project, much is left up to the software development team. This is done because the team will know best how to solve the problem they are presented. This is why, for example, a sprint planning meeting is described in terms of the desired outcome (a commitment to set of features to be developed in the next sprint) instead of a set of Entry criteria, Task definitions, Validation criteria, and Exit criteria (ETVX) as would be provided in most methodologies.

 

Scrum relies on a self-organising, cross-functional team. The scrum team is self-organising in that there is no overall team leader who decides which person will do which task or how a problem will be solved. Those are issues that are decided by the team as a whole. The team is cross-functional so that everyone necessary to take a feature from idea to implementation is involved.

 

These agile development teams are supported by two specific individuals: a ScrumMaster and a product owner. The ScrumMaster can be thought of as a coach for the team, helping team members use the Scrum framework to perform at their highest level. The product owner represents the business, customers or users and guides the team toward building the right product.

 

Scrum projects make progress in a series of sprints, which are timeboxed iterations no more than a month long. At the start of a sprint, team members commit to delivering some number of features that were listed on the project‟s product backlog. At the end of the sprint, these features are done--they are coded, tested, and integrated into the evolving product or system. At the end of the sprint a sprint review is conducted during which the team demonstrates the new functionality to the product owner and other interested stakeholders who provide feedback that could influence the next sprint.

 

Appendix 6 – STEP-F

 

The STEP-F project builds upon the successful FSD project STEP-C which demonstrated the concept of implementing an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) within a university IT environment with connectors to several different types of applications being run either on campus or externally. Led by De Montfort University this project will place an ESB inside the cloud and demonstrate how a live application, HEDD (the Higher Education Degree Database), can be connected directly to the student record systems at most/all UK HEIs so that enquirers can verify the degree qualifications of graduates.

 

 

Appendix 7 – Cumulus

 

The project attacks institutional inertia in large monolithic systems and shows that hosting applications in the 'cloud' and using SOA can offer new flexibility for institutions to better match business need with system availability. It explores new ways for IT to support business processes and to respond quickly to rapidly changing business imperatives.

 

Project (Cumulus) enabled the Consortium to work with Unit4, the supplier, to break the link between a significant business module (Curriculum Management (ACMS)) and the major systems software of which it is a part. An important aspect of ensuring the interoperability of the curriculum software is the work flow with XCRI, the emerging Curriculum standard. Project Cumulus collaborated with other relevant projects (Step-F) in this issue. 

 

 

 

A couple of examples of the agility of how the SOA infrastructure for Cumulus can be setup, allowing the ability for institutions to choose their implementation best suited to their current infrastructure without impeding other institutions.