JISC

These Early Adopter Studies (EAS) are the first in a new series of reports from TechWatch. Where our existing remit is to anticipate and speculate, the EAS will demonstrate some of the technology-related futures work that JISC undertakes. The aim of this is to encourage greater curiosity about futures thinking in order to stimulate more widespread action.

Unleashing EA: Institutional Architectures and the value of joined up thinking

At the beginning of 2008, JISC funded a twelve-month Pilot programme of projects to explore the applicability of Enterprise Architecture (EA), a strategic management technique for enabling large companies to adapt to change, to the higher education operational context. Although largely unknown in the education sector, EA has been widely adopted over the last 15 years in the commercial world and in public sector organisations. JISC saw boot-strapping EA work in the HE sector as part of its overall remit of helping institutions to move forward, to use technology in effective ways and to undertake day-to-day business more effectively.

There are a number of frameworks that have been developed over the years to support EA. One of the main purposes of the Pilot was to explore and evaluate the practical realities of using one of these frameworks, TOGAF, in a HE institutional setting. This was done by asking two questions: firstly, how useful is EA to HE as a sector? Secondly, how suitable is TOGAF as a framework for undertaking EA in an educational setting?

This report summarises the main debates and learning points, and provides conclusions, analysis and recommendations based on the knowledge generated by the Pilot projects. It builds on the work outlined in the previous report, Doing Enterprise Architecture, which is discussed below.

Download this synthesis report from the link at the bottom of the page.

Doing Enterprise Architecture: Enabling the agile institution (April 2009)

At the beginning of 2008, JISC funded a pilot project which set out to explore the applicability of Enterprise Architecture (EA), a strategic management technique for enabling large companies to adapt to change, to the higher education operational context. Although largely unknown in the education sector, EA has been widely adopted over the last 15 years in the commercial world and in public sector organisations. EA provides an evolving, dynamic way of describing and aligning the functional aspects of an organisation: its people, activities, tools, resources and data/information, so that they work more effectively together to achieve the organisation’s business goals.

Three universities – Cardiff, Liverpool John Moores and King’s College London – were the early adopter organisations that were considered suitably ‘EA ready’ to undertake a 12-month evaluation of EA in the context of their own institution. In particular they road-tested TOGAF™, a non-proprietary framework for undertaking EA which has been developed by The Open Group. During the course of the project a small group of staff from each institution was exposed to the work of The Open Group, trained in the use of TOGAF and associated tools and techniques, and supported in the development of the first stages of an architecture for their institution.

As well as documenting the Enterprise Architecture Pilot process, this study provides an introductory level to the key concepts of EA and TOGAF.

Download the full report below: