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An enterprise architecture approach : towards a method for standardising processes across different business units at a tertiary education institution
Engelbrecht, Rika; University of Pretoria. Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology. Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering
History has shown that companies survive because they are able to adapt to change
faster than their competitors. EA gives organisations the agility necessary, by creating a
holistic view of the enterprise and thus identifying business/IT alignment and
integration possibilities. It is believed that the EA drivers should not lie within IT, but is
rather a concern of business. IT should thus be a supporting function in delivering a
good EA. Tertiary education institutions are hard to change because of their complex
socio-technical structure, despite the fact that they experience extreme pressures to
increase operational efficiencies and agility. EA tools and techniques have been widely
adopted by the commercial and public sectors however, it is still widely unknown in the
education sector.
The University of Pretoria launched an achievement plan to aid the University in their
main goal – to be an internationally recognised research and teaching institution. This
project was aimed at Enterprise Architecture to direct the University’s IT functions.
The core of this project is based on the EA paradigm created by Ross et al (2006). The
first component of the paradigm states that the level of business process
standardisation and integration must be defined in the Operating Model for
organisations to strive. It is however not such as simple task to perform and the
methods for identifying process standardisation opportunities are explored in this
project.
The research entails a case study conducted at the University to help in the
development of a method to identify possible standardisation opportunities within its
core business processes across different business units. The study was conducted
within the Enterprise System Renewal Project which supports the core functions along
the University’s Value Chain.
A literature study was conducted to identify the appropriate EA tools and techniques
that may aid the development of solutions of this project. Case studies that were
conducted provided meaningful insights on applying EA in HE and it proved to be a
fruitful tool. This document describes the theoretical and organisational context on
which the research rationale is based upon. It defines the scope and the aim of the
research to be done. Problem analysis and data gathering have been performed and
will be discussed in this document. However, it was discovered that the Programme
Amendment process had most potential for possible process standardisation
opportunities and is thus the process under concern for this project. Three conceptual
methods were developed for identifying standardisation opportunities. The methods
were tested and the most suitable method was identified. The method was further
validated by applying the method with different Programme Amendment processes
followed by various parties in an attempt to develop a best practice process. The
document is concluded by delivering results of the research and recommendations.
Description:
Thesis (B Eng. (Industrial and Systems Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2010.