Using reference models to drive business transformation in the HE sector

Dr Samia Oussena

Thames Valley University

Enterprise information system design

Evolution from a centralised mainframe applications to a services oriented architecture

Understanding the business process and aligning the development or the procurement of services to support the business process

Business modelling as a transformation tool

Business process involve workflow management

Formalising is a shared way of understanding the way the things work

Process model help support of the quality management system

COVARM project

The COVARM project sets out to contribute a reference model for a “Course Validation” service to become a component of the JISC eFramework Programme.

Project Consortium

Thames Valley University (Lead partner)

Prof. Balbir Barn Dr Samia Oussena Dan Sparks

University of Manchester Dr Hilary Dexter Dr Jim Petch

Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Mark Stubbs

Staffordshire University Prof. Mark Stiles Dr Jennifer

Ealing and Hammersmith West London College

Satwant Deol

Course validation process as a value creation process

Reference Model

A reference model is based on a small number of unifying concepts

An abstraction of the key concepts, their relationships, and their interfaces both to each other and to the external environment.

A reference model may be used as a basis for education and for explaining standards to a non-specialist

can be viewed as a framework for comparing architectures and operations of existing and future systems.

Reference model

A framework can be used for specifying requirements and benchmarks in procurements or development of systems

The codification of interface structure will also encourage the development of software tools to enable the development of software tools that conform to the reference model

COVARM approach

Fundamentals Model based approach using UML (1.5 and

2.0) Application and adaptation of software

engineering methods – component based development and Rational Unified Process

Iterative

Stages

Method principles

Principles

Grounded Case Study Approach- 4 case studies- review by an independent HEI- compare against survey results

Business process based

functional

InformationModel data

UML end to end

Model driven

Adapted web services development method

Componentbased

Stages

Business process characteristics modelled

Stages Roles Objects and their flow – instances of docs produced Events – something that triggers a set of activities Collaborations – activities executed by two or more

roles Activities Constraints Specific activities to support eLearning Life-cycle / states of objects – Programme Interfaces with other enterprise information systems Reference Docs – e.g. strategy docs

Process model example

Domain information model

UML class diagram for capturing set of elements and roles in the course validation domain

High level of abstraction with only key relationships between the elements included

Domain model example

Synthesizing the process models

Rule based approach to process and information synthesis

Identify elements in a process that were common to all four institutions

Identify the principal variation points where an institution may differ from others

Define activities that are unique to an institution and provide a mechanism for those activities to be integrated into the common set.

Synthesis Rules Characteristic Synthesis Rules

Stage The principal stages were identified and aligned across the four processes. The detailed activities were compared within the bounds of the high level alignment

Activities Where possible, common activities were identified. Where a single activity differed between institutions it was modelled as an abstract activity with four specializations. If there was a sequence of activities that differed across the institutions a control node was entered and a sequence modelled for each.

Role The principal roles were aligned and a general name allocated. The equivalent roles in each institution were modelled as specializations of the general role. Each activity in the synthesized process model was annotated with its responsible role, common activities with the general name and specialized activities with their own local role name.

Object Flow An abstract object was created for each object flow, given a general name and then specialized for each institution.

Object Lifecycle

Each institution's document lifecycles were modelled separately and the appropriate states placed on the specialized objects.

Event Events were used in the synthesized model at the start of high level activities and to trigger activities by collaborating roles. The synthesis decisions for activities and their responsible roles determined event placement.

Collaborations Activities carried out in collaboration were modelled by an association stereotyped as «joint».

Constraints Constraints were preserved from their source models for specialized activities. If a common activity had been identified the constraint had a CASE statement for each institution.

Process model: synthesis

Information model: synthesis

Stages

Design the web services

Model the web services at the business level

Define XML data representations of the information consumed and produced by services

Generate appropriate implementation models of the service specifications.

Modelling services specification

Method based on a number of sources. (Cheesman Daniels, D’Souza and Will..)

Initial results

Positive response from institutions whose enterprises have been modelled.

Staffs have indicated that this activity has raised some questions on their processes

Manchester want posters of the process!

TVU have expressed interest in the additional reporting that will be possible via tools hosted on the reference model

Process Patterns emerging from the models Consultation with expert; Assessment and Approval; Convene Panel; Meet Conditions; Refinement Pattern Sign-off Pattern; Collaboration Pattern;

Initial results (cont)

Business Process and Information models from 4 institutions

Rules for combining process models

Generalised Canonical Process and Information Model

Utility web service : document management service

Business web service: Event coordination service

Questions?