Strategic planning in Information Technology: Research Design and Methods

Enterprise Architecture Modeling for Oriental University in Timor Leste to Support the Strategic

Plan of Integrated Information System.

Sergio Soares Magister Teknik Informatika

Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 55281

[email protected]

Djoko Budiyanto Setyohady Magister Teknik Informatika

Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 55281

[email protected]

Abstract— Enterprise architecture aims to reach synchronization between information technology and business for the need of an organization. To develop the information system, a university really needs a plan to achieve the university strategies and goals. To build a plan by defining the architectural data first, applying the applications and technology to support the whole business process becomes an integrated system. Oriental Timor Lorosa’e University is one of private universities in Timor Leste whose development of information system is not integrated, and it is still conventional in the existing business process needs. The purpose of the research is to design an enterprise architectural model which can be used for an organization to reach the strategic plan of an integrated information system to achieve the vision and mission efficiently and effectively. Enterprise architectural model implements TOGAF methodology by Architecture Development Method (ADM) stages which are flexible, complete, detailed, easy to implement. The result of enterprise architecture planning is a blueprint of information system for the data, application and technology. So, it is useful for better base of information system development in UNITAL’s business process.

Keywords: Strategic Plan, Integrated Information System, TOGAF ADM, UNITAL

I. INTRODUCTION Basically, Enterprise architectural modeling aims to create

the standardization and guidance to achieve the vision and mission of an organization. Enterprise architecture is a tool or strategy to support the business process and to achieve the business goal [1]. One of the benefits of using enterprise architecture is to reduce operational costs and improve congruence between business and information technology [2] [3]. Universidade Oriental de Timor Lorosa’e (UNITAL) is a private university organization in Timor Leste and accredited by Timorese National Accreditation Agency of National Education Ministry since 2014. UNITAL is built on 20 September 2002 with the vision is to create the reliable and competent human to develop knowledge, technology, arts and culture for Timor Leste country and the mission is to prepare the human resources as appropriate as the need of the country and the evolution [4].

A strategic plan for effective information system can provide the solution to create functional information system to

support the business management [5]. Nowadays, there are so many organizations that are ready to invest for new technology in the way to increase the competitiveness in the market. As in the academic context, the previous research of strategic information system planning supports the idea to ensure the integration of information technology and business strategies [6][7]. In other studies, it is also mentioned that many universities face challenges, innovation and international competitiveness [8].

In this case, UNITAL organization itself doesn’t have an integrated information system yet for the main program and the supporting programs till now. It is still conventional and it really needs an adaptation of certain framework model to reach the well enterprise architecture to gain the target. It is proved by the lack of application of information technology for the daily operations and the absence of strategic plan or a certain framework to support the business architecture of the organization [9]. The strategic plan of information system is regarded as computer portfolio identification process with application-based in the purpose to help the organization to run the business plan and achieve the business goals [10].

TOGAF is a framework and method for enterprise architecture that provides methodology to analyze a business architecture overall [11]. The advantages of using TOGAF are the flexibility and open source [12]. The goal of the research is to create a suggestion to adapt enterprise architectural model by using TOGAF framework. It aims to synchronize the purpose of the business and the information technology so that it runs effectively and efficiently. The result of TOGAF methodology are a design and blueprint in order to develop an integrated information system [13]. So, UNITAL can achieve organization objectives.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Earlier Research According to Dinesh and Albert, information system

planning is a set of activities as long as an organization chooses the application portfolio with computer-based to facilitate and to achieve the business goals. In the research titled “Less is More: Information System Planning in an Uncertain

Environment”, it emphasizes the main factor of a successful information system of an organization is plan because the plan is very important as the beginning to achieve the aim [14].

One of other researches related to the research is “An Enterprise resource planning system innovation and its influence on organizational culture: a case study in higher education” by Teresa Warig and Dimitra Skoumpopoulou. It gave an illustration of implementing the integrated information system for a university in England. The system is known as strategic information technology service. It created the complexity cultural environment with an integrated information system [15]. As the UNITAL case, to adopt the integrated system, the first thing to do is identifying the needs of the users effectively and efficiently.

B. TOGAF ADM TOGAF is a framework which consists of method and

supporting tools to develop enterprise architecture [11]. The Enterprise architectural development method of TOGAF is ADM (Architecture Development Method) which is the core framework itself. TOGAF ADM is a generic method whose functions are to develop and manage the enterprise architectural model and is designed to handle most of the need of the organization system.

Fig 1. ADM Cycle (The Open Group, 2011)

Figure 1 shows the principles and visions clearly about the way to develop enterprise architecture. The principles are implemented as a barometer to evaluate the success of enterprise architectural modeling of an organization. They can be described as:

Enterprise principle, an architecture model development to support the organization program, including to facilitate the need of the units,

The information technology principle is more leading the consistency of the uses itself to support the organization, including the units who will use it, and

The architectural principle is to design an architectural system based on the need of the business process and the implementation.

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research is conducted in Timor Leste at University of

Oriental de Timor Lorosa’e (UNITAL). The process of collecting data is done with literature study, interviewing UNITAL management and observation. Literature study is done by collecting references from books, journal publications and previous research results related to this topic. The interview is done by interviewing the rector, vice rector I, vice rector II, vice rector III, vice rector IV, structural officials, planning unit and (ICT) UNITAL information system. Observation is done towards documents which are related to this study. The following research shown in figure 2.

Fig 2. Research framework

The next step in this study is to review the current condition of the enterprise which consist of identification and mapping business processes, the identification and mapping are done to get an idea of what business process are currently running at UNITAL. In identification stage, there are main and supporting activities, then followed by decomposition process of them, using functional decomposition diagram (FDD). Once business processes are identified, then researcher does gap analysis of current business and ideal business process conditions that are adjusted to organization expectations by proposing solutions that are designed by the enterprise architecture.

IV. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A. Business Process Identification and Mapping The main stage is identifying and mapping the business

process in UNITAL right now in accordance with the enterprise architecture model stages. So, it is found the enterprise range of the organization, university rules, and supporting framework to

Start

Observation Interview

Review of Current Enterprise Conditions Business Process Identification and

Mapping

Gap Analysis

Decomposing of Business Activities

Proposed Solutions and Enterprise Architecture Modeling

Business Architecture Modeling

End

Data Collection

Data Architecture Modeling

Applications Architecture Modeling

determine the architecture framework, architecture tools using, enterprise architectural principles using. Based on the policy rules, quality standards, strategic plans and operational plans in 2014-2019, every stakeholder in UNITAL must be able to carry out the duty based on the work he or she has to do. Rector as the highest leader has the duty to carry out the obligation to organize education, research and society service in terms of decision making, planning and evaluation. The new paradigm of university quality assurance is university must maintain and improve its quality to achieve its visions and missions, so that stakeholders can be satisfied, and willing to be audited from inside and outside. Based on the paradigm, UNITAL requires education management that focuses on increasing quality constantly through the management of university that is based on modern management in order to improve institution competitiveness. New students who register must follow the admission selection first. If they pass, they are required to re- register and complete the administration payment, so they can follow the course activities. Lecturers as educators who are recruited through the faculty and managed by the human resources department. Then lecturers are assigned in academic process according to their competence by referring to the established curriculum. There are Training for lecturers and other lecturers development activities to improve their quality. The students follow lecture, practicum, practical work, proposal, result and final test after they are officially accepted as student. After the students pass final examination, they will have graduation ceremony. In order to support education, teaching, human resource management processes, library management, facilities and infrastructures, so laboratory is run as a unity of education and teaching process. The main business activity process map that runs at UNITAL can be seen in figure 3.

Fig 3. Business Process Map of Educational Activities

And also Based on university principles, lecturers policy and quality standards rectorate determines policy regarding process of research, society service, and resource of the process. Research plan and community service are made in the form of proposal which after getting approval from the head of research and dedication department, they can be executed and the results must be reported. The results are submitted to library manager. Other resources such as finance, lecturers, students, staff,

facilities and infrastructures play an important role in supporting this process. In order to support one of the objectives of UNITAL which requires to carry out education, research, society service, and technology service center needed. To define the business process of UNITAL, it is described with value chain analysis in Figure 4.

Vision, Mision

& Goal

Admissions of New Student

Academic Operational

Academic Release

Research and Community

Service Facility and Infrastructure Managementy g

Human Resource Management Financial Managementg

Cooperation and Promotion Managementp g Academic Quality Assurance Management

Pr im

ar y

A ct

iv iti

es Su

pp or

t A ct

iv iti

es

Fig 4. Value Chain Activity of UNITAL Business Process

In the figure 4, this is the business process of UNITAL whose main and supporting programs need information system and technology to run it all. The main programs are admission for new students, academic operational, research and community service, and academic release. And the supporting programs are: the management of finance, human resource, facilities and infrastructure, academic and general administration, and library and computer laboratory. Neither the main programs nor the supporting do need the information system and technology to support the business process. After identifying the business activities, the next is decomposing it with Functional Decomposition Diagram (FDD) to be detailed business sub-process and to know the problem of each sub- process. Functional Diagram that shows main and support business process at UNITAL can be seen in figure 5 and 6.

Admission of New Students

Promotions

New students enrollment

New students selection

Announcing selection result

Choosing semester subject

Lectures

Final examination

Grade report

Academic report

Executing research & community

service activities

Graduation

Reporting graduate

Main Activities

Academic Operational Research and

Community ServiceAcademic Release

Academic registration

Graduation registration

Planning research and community service activities

Reporting selection result

Reporting research & community

service activities

Fig 5. FDD of main activity at UNITAL

Budget disbursement transactions

Reporting of Human resource Administrative

Planning cooperation & promotion

activities Implementing

cooperation and promotion Reporting

cooperation and promotion

Support Activities

Facility and Infrastructure Management

Human Resource

Management

Financial Management

Cooperation and Promotion

Management

Academic Quality Assurance

Management

Planning

Procurement

Management

Maintenance

Report

Human resource planningp gp g

Recruitment of Human resource

Reporting of

Human resource Development

Planning and budgeting

Budget

budge gg g Student payment

transactions

Finance report

Planning internal quality assurance

standard document management

Academic audit and monitoringgg

Report

Fig 6. FDD of supporting activities at UNITAL

Faculty and Study Program Management

Curriculum Development

Lectures and exams

Thesis Yudisium and

graduation

Educators development and

assignment

Agencies of Cooperation and Promotion

Cooperation and promotion

Finance Administration

Tuition fee Graduation

fee

Academic AdministrationA d i A

Registration Admission of new

students

Ad i i t tiAd

Graduation administration

General administration and facilities

Sources

Library

Development of academic

atmosphere

Human Resource Management

Recruiting lecturers

Recruiting staff

Developing staff

Mapping and assigning employee

Agencies of training and developing

education

Research Agencies

Research and community service

Student Administration

Student activities

Teaching and training foreign

languages

Language Section

Final exam

Facilities and infrastructures

increasing lecturers’ quality

B. Gap Analysis The analysis is to identify the problems in certain sub-

process which is described in the previous stage. It provides the comparison of the recent business process condition and the ideal one for UNITAL. The gap is considered as the problem to be solved by several alternative solutions. But later, only an alternative solution will be offered to develop UNITAL information system which is the business architectural model. Gap analysis of admission of new student sub-process can be seen in table 1.

Table I. Admission of New Students Admission of New Students

Activities Recent conditions Ideal Problems Analysis Solutions

New students

enrollment

New students

enrollment is done

manually, they must

come to the campus to

get the form and

complete the

requirement s

New student

enrollment can be done

online by filling

form in UNITAL' S website.

Student candidates

who live far from the

university get

difficulty to get the form.

Develop online

registration system

New students selection

test

The selection

test is done directly at campus

after completing

the enrollment

The selection tests can

be scheduled and done through

computer based test (CBT) on place and

online website

Student candidates

are not ready to

take exams, for it is

unscheduled .

Automate the scheduling

process of test selection, and

integrate it with

registration and

announcement process

Selection result

notificatio n

The test result

notification is

announced a few days after it is

done.

The test result

notificatio n can be

announced directly on

place or online.

Range error occurs in

the process of inputting academic

requirement and finance

data, because it

has not been integrated.

Integrate announcement

-making process with

the registration and finance

process.

C. Business Architecture Modeling The architectural planning process is in accordance with

ADM TOGAF framework where the organization needs to develop a better academic service for all the society of academicians of UNITAL. One of the identified processes is the admission for new students. The process is still conventional and easy to find the problems in the form and queue for the new student registrations. To solve it, it needs the integrated system to ease the management. The target of the business process model is described on the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) diagram to show the comparison of the previous and

the expected business process. One of the sub-processes is the new student registration as described in Figure 6 and figure 7 below.

Admission of New Students

C om

m itt

ee St

ud en

t C

an di

da te

R ec

to r

D ea

n

Registration Sub-process

Start

Registration Form Filling

End

Reviewing Registration

Data

Reviewing Registration

Data

Get the number of examinee and

the schedule

Registran Data

Registrant Data Entry

Print out the examination

card and schedule.

Figure 6 Current BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) diagram – Sub-process registration

Admission of New Students C

om m

itt ee

St ud

en t

C an

di da

te R

ec to

r D

ea n

Registration Sub-process

Start

Admission of New Student Information

System (ANSIS) Form Filling

Registrant Data Entry

End

Reviewing Data of (ANSIS)

development

Reviewing Data of (ANSIS)

development

Database (ANSIS)

Get the login username and password of

(ANSIS)

Print out (ANSIS)

examination card

Figure 7 Expected BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) diagram – sub-process registration

D. Data Architecture Modeling In this stage, the data architectural model is in accordance

with the need of the previous business and information process. Data architecture is described with the diagram of entity, attribute, and relation. The relationship of the inter data entity support the business in accordance with previous business architectural model. The model is described on ERD below figure 8.

Figure 8. ERD Admission of New Students

Origin School

Has

N

Student Candidate

N Selection (ANSIS)

Examination

Has

Exam Sheet

1

N

N

1

Data entity of the admission for new students: Original_school {school_id, school_name, city, district, telephone} Student_candidate {registrant_id, school_id, name_of_registrant, address, telephone, e-mail, birthplace, birthdate, gender, weight, height, citizenship, study_program} Selection {school_id, registrant_id, exam_id, exam_score, health_record, status} ANSIS_examination {exam_id, sheet_id, exam_type, date_of_examination, the_number_of_participants} Exam_sheet {sheet_id, exam_type, exam_level}

E. Application Architecture Modeling In this stage, it is already understood about now situation

and ready to apply a new application architectural model. The first step is defining the applications to manage the data. It is to support the business needs. Below is the table of the applications for a group of candidates.

Table II. Proposed Application

No. Group of Applications Application of Candidates 1 Admission of New

Students Information System (ANSIS)

1. Online registration 2. On place registration 3. CBT selection 4. ANSIS report

2 Academic Operational 1. Academic Calendar Arrangement 2. Lecturer Management 3. Academic Registration 4. Study Planning Management

(SPM) 5. Study Result Management (SRM) 6. Schedule Management 7. Lecturer and Student Attendance

Management 8. Student Point Management 9. Laboratory/ Field Practice

Management 10. E-Learning Management 11. Semester Examination

Management 12. Final Assignment Management 13. Academic Report Management 14. Academic Leave Management

3 Academic Release 1. Graduation Registration 2. Diploma Management 3. Point Transcript Management 4. Graduate Data Management 5. Alumni Tracking

4 Financial Management 1. Proposed Budgeting 2. Fund Disbursement Management 3. Student Payment Transactional

Management. 4. Financial Report Management

5 Human Resource Management

1. Proposed Human Resource Intake 2. Human Performance Evaluation 3. Training and Education

Administration 4. Honor, Salary, and Salary Cuts

Administration 5. Human Resource Report

6 Alumni Management 1. Alumni Tracking 7 Research and

Community Service 1. Research and Community Service

Management

8 Academic Quality Assurance

1. The Data Management of Academic Quality Assurance

Based on table 2, after listing several application candidates, the next step is making portfolio application to explain the relationship of the business sub-process and the features.

V. CONCLUTION Enterprise architectural model which consists of business,

data and applications architecture absolutely adopts TOGAF ADM and every stage can be done correctly well as long as the business process is understood and identified. Based on this awareness, there are several gaps between the needs and realities of the information system of UNITAL. With an early model planning in the research, it can produce an enterprise architectural model for a whole and complete business process. Finally, it can be implemented by UNITAL.

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