An enterprise architecture approach : towards a method for standardising processes across different business units at a tertiary education institution

Abstract

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.