Changing the Way IT Delivers Application Services Through Architecture for Increased Agility Marina Arseniev Associate Director / Enterprise Architecture Administrative Computing Services, UC Irvine marsenie@uci.edu

Agenda Challenges Enterprise Architecture - An Overview Vision Steps to get there… Value EA and Web Services/SOA?

Our Challenges Hundreds of systems - IBM Mainframe, Solaris, Windows Lack of Real-time integration Users use disparate systems, user interfaces = Training IT skill-set reuse New compliance regulations, security threats Define processes that govern technology changes, investments and future strategy Lifecycle management –focused on inventorying, building, maintaining, acquiring, consolidating, and retiring technology Informed IT decisions UC Irvine Campus Overview Year Founded:  1965 2004 Enrollment:  24K students Carnegie Classification:  Doctoral/Research Extramural Contracts & Grants Awarded:  $235M for 2002 – 2003 Significant enrollment growth California State budget Administrative systems must adapt! Systems: CICS/Cobol, Powerbuilder, Web/Java Applications, Vendor packages VSAM, DB2, Mysql, Foxpro and Sybase Lack of Real-time integration Integration based on FTP = Time lags Data inconsistency and quality issues = High technical and business labor costs for repair or reconciliation Users use disparate systems, user interfaces = Training

Our Challenges (cont’d) Customers know technology can make serious improvements Demand business process automation Forms, Document Management, Workflow, Imaging... Growing queue of application projects IT Agility as business pressures/needs change Complex project management became critical to mission Project justification, selection, prioritization, sequencing Extraction of common requirements for horizontal, reusable solutions. Application “assembly”, not customization. Enterprise Architecture (EA) Initiative identified IT department of 25 programmers Mainframe programmers, Powerbuilder developers, Java/Web technologists, Database and System administrators. Resources, competency, training, governance Sound familiar?

What do we have already in place? Overview: What is EA? A blueprint of an organization to analyze and plan changes. The structure of (Enterprise) components, relationships, and principles and guidelines governing their evolution over time. A strategic asset repository which defines the current and target architecture environments. New application? What do we have already in place? Impact?

EA Planning Consists of A standard methodology or framework Logical framework – not technology Not to be confused with J2EE, .Net, Portal, or Web Services A model A repository of knowledge (populated model) A change management process Business needs define application and required infrastructure change Project-oriented approach to EA Project = Change Agent

Vision Imagine the perfect world… goals articulated initiatives, roadmaps, projects linked to goals technology linked change strategy agility Before you can make change, you must understand your EA - business processes, information/data, and technology. How? Irvine’s model – based on Zachman Framework

Steps to start with EA 1: Create a list of specific questions, focusing on critical areas. 2: Identify senior technical and business people to gather knowledge from; their roles and responsibilities 3: Develop change impact analysis methodology 4: Choose an Enterprise Architecture Framework

Steps to start with EA 5: Choose a tool to model and populate Enterprise Architecture Asset Repository Goal: easily accessible and maintainable repository 6: Plan communication methods 7: Document Technical Reference Architecture Principles, standards, and governance 8: Enforce architectural control Choose key technologies and standardize. Constrain new development.

The step that never ends… Step 9: Incremental EA model development and population Create and populate model as defined by questions Define As-is: Business model and processes. Applications, data, components. How technology supports the business processes. Identify desired enhancements to business as projects. For complex enhancements, organize projects into roadmaps. Communicate, assess and track impact of change.

Specific Questions Life cycle management, governance Control proliferation and retirement of technology? What database technology should I use today? When will it be retired? How many workflow engines do we own? Where are they used? Application and data security for HIPAA, PCI, and California Privacy compliance? Which applications use SSN? Encryption? How can we extract “Common Requirements” across projects into patterns for Web Services/SOA? What reusable, tested, horizontal components implement which requirements? Which applications satisfy what requirements? Which ones operate together? What interface(s) create an Invoice? Timecard? Web Service candidate? How were these steps handled at UC Irvine? I will go over a few of the steps in more detail. How should we prioritize our projects and assign resources? Why are we doing project X? How can we “assemble” applications by implementing common requirements across projects into reusable, tested components? How much reuse do we have today? How many reporting tools do we own? What are they used for? What technology should I use today for a web app and database? When will it be retired from our organization? What data is subject to HIPAA or State Bill 1386 compliance? Which applications use this data and how secure are they? What technologies does this project use? What projects does this technology support? Touch points between components?

Develop Change Impact Analysis Methodology Need a change… How do you know which one, when, and how? Analyze and articulate impact of change to business or technology. Measure impact of moving from a current to targeted practice. Freely available Sloan School of Management’s “Matrix of Change” tool. (http://ccs.mit.edu/MoC).

Enterprise Architecture Framework Need direction and guidance? Many frameworks to choose from. Comparison at: http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8-doc/arch/p4/others/others.htm Adopted the Zachman Framework (http://www.zifa.com) What is it? A language that helps people think about complex concepts and communicate in less technical terminology. Planning tool

Zachman Framework Intro Question What How Where Who When Why Data Function Network/ People/ Time/ Motive Node Work Cycle Planner / Scope Owner / Enterprise Model Designer / System Model Builder / Technology Model As built View Semantic model System design Business locations Human interface Timing definition Business plan Important things Business functions People and groups Events and cycles Goals and strategy Process model Work Flow model Master schedule Application arch Distributed system Processing structure Business rule model Physical data model Tech arch GUI arch Control structure Data definition Code Network arch Security arch Rule repository Rule design Business logistics Logical data model Zachman Framework: Rows Rows = Unique perspectives (taken from “Software Productivity Consortium”) Scope: Corresponds to an executive summary for a planner who wants an estimate of the size, cost, and functionality of the system. Business model: Shows all the business entities and processes and how they interact. System model: Used by a systems analyst who must determine the data elements and software functions that represent the business model. Technology model: Considers the constraints of tools, technology, and materials. Components: Represent individual, independent modules that can be allocated to contractors for implementation. Working system: Depicts the operational system as it functions. Zachman Framework: Columns Columns = questions (taken from “Software Productivity Consortium”) Who: Represents the people relationships within the enterprise. The design of the enterprise organization has to do with the allocation of work and the structure of authority and responsibility. The vertical dimension represents delegation of authority, and the horizontal represents the assignment of responsibility. When: Represents time, or the event relationships. This is useful for designing the master schedule, the processing architecture, control architecture, and timing devices. Why: Describes the motivations of the enterprise. This reveals the enterprise goals and objectives, business plan, knowledge architecture and design. What: Describes the entities involved in each perspective of the enterprise. Examples include business objects, relational tables, or field definitions. How: Shows the functions within each perspective. Examples include business processes, software application function, computer hardware function, and language control loop. Where: Shows locations and interconnections within the enterprise. This includes major business geographical locations, separate sections within a logistics network, allocation of system nodes, or even memory addresses within the system.

Model and Repository Management How do I model and capture information for the EA repository that can answer my specific questions? Zachman Framework - powerful thinking tool, not technology Storing redundant lists of “stuff” in Word, Excel, Visio... Application lists, critical business cycles… One possible solution: Stanford’s Protégé Knowledgebase and Ontology Tool Auto generates forms for capturing information based on ontology and class definitions. Ontology defined by questions. Open source at http://protege.stanford.edu/

Communication Plan Any method selected must minimize redundancy increase consistency of information provide reporting Example - our use of Protégé meets Zachman vision of storing an enterprise artifact in a single place Web HTML reports, plug-in for XML output supports slicing and dicing of information via powerful link ability customizable reports - executive to programmer, for Zachman views

Example of how we use Protégé to collect information for Zachman Framework. Example of how we report from Protégé using XML

Example: Protege

Technical Reference Architecture Documented principles, guidelines, and best practices of Architecture Domains: Lifecycle Management Adopt the “4 year/16 Quarter Sliding Window Methodology” Identifies technologies that are “Approved”, “Maintained but not Upgraded”, in “Sunset”, “Retired”, or “By Approval Only”.

Architectural Control

Realized Value Technologies retired Database servers consolidated, reduced DBA costs. MS IIS Web Server (except where required by vendor) Clipper, Foxpro Applications are database neutral (Expresso/JDBC) Tracking security and compliance (ie HIPAA) Reduced development costs Tested Code reuse: Java components shared between IBM, Solaris, Windows. GUIs made consistent with reusable templates. Reuse of staff skill sets Common infrastructure for development: ie LDAP, Workflow, uPortal, and Web Services/SOA.

Status Using Protégé to model and capture information about business process, data, and technology. Tracking common requirements across projects. Using EA to assess and justify investment decisions and vendor selection. Linking goals, roadmaps, projects, and technologies. Determining “touch points” between projects and technologies to assess impact of change. Management decisions based on more accurate and timely data. Reduce queue and increase timeliness of projects

EA and Web Services? SOA? Application agility mandated by business user community. Business community starting to think in terms of SOA. Revamped our Technical Reference Architecture to include Web Services to facilitate reuse. Moving stove-pipes, 30 year-old CICS technology to Web Services, Portal, and SOAP/XML. Examples: Tririga Facilities Management System uses Web Services/SOAP for Integration. WSDL for Project reporting via campus business portal. Web Services enabled Workflow Engine (Autonomy) used to eliminate “stove-pipe” workflows via Business Portal. Kuali Financial System – open source and Web Services enabled. Well I have shared EA plans now but what does all this have to do with Web Services and SOA in more detail? Reduce queue and increase timeliness of projects

Benefits Comprehensive approach to enterprise strategic planning that encompasses business, technology, data and logical modeling. Management decisions based on more accurate and timely information. A strategic road map for change with careful project selection, sequencing, and planning and technology management. Increased Agility! “Projects done without architecture planning cost significantly more in the long term” (John Zachman) Management decisions based on more accurate and timely data. Reduce queue and increase timeliness of projects

This presentation: apps. adcom. uci This presentation: apps.adcom.uci.edu/EnterpriseArch/PresentationsConferences/IQPC/IQPC_200603.ppt UC Irvine’s EA Web Site: apps.adcom.uci.edu/EnterpriseArch Zachman Framework: www.zifa.com/ Sloan School of Management’s “Matrix of Change”: ccs.mit.edu/MoC Ontology and Knowledgebase: protege.stanford.edu/ UC Irvine’s Administrative Portal: snap.uci.edu uses JA-SIG uPortal software: www.ja-sig.org/ Reporting using XML/XSLT: www.apache.org Java Application Dev. Framework, CMS: www.jcorporate.com/ LDAP: www.openldap.org/ Q & A