University of California, Irvine
Enterprise Architecture Implementation:
Practical Steps Using Open Source Tools
Marina Arseniev
Enterprise Architect, Assistant Director
Administrative Computing Services, UC Irvine
marsenie@uci.edu
Copyright Marina Arseniev, 2004.
This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial,
educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the
copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Agenda
Challenges
Enterprise Architecture - An
Overview
The desired
result…
Practical Steps – how we got to where we are
today…
 Enterprise Architecture
Framework: Zachman Framework
 Modeling, Knowledge Base and Ontology Tool: Protégé
 And more…
Results
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
UC Irvine Campus Overview
 Year
Founded: 1965
 2004 Enrollment: 24K students
 Carnegie Classification: Doctoral/Research – Extensive
 Extramural Contracts & Grants Awarded: $235M for 2002 –
2003
 Significant enrollment growth expected
 California State budget
 Administrative systems must adapt
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
What is EA all about? A riddle!
Your
IT organization a bowling alley?
If the
bowling pins are the IT solutions you provide for
your customers, what is the ball?
 Hint:
Objective is to knock down maximum pins with one ball...
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Our Challenges
 Hundreds
of systems - IBM Mainframe, Solaris, Windows
 CICS/Cobol,
Powerbuilder, Web/Java Applications, Vendor packages
 VSAM, DB2, Oracle and Sybase
 Lack
of Real-time
 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
 New compliance regulations
 Security threats
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Our Challenges (cont’d)
 Sophisticated
business community that understands potential of
technology to make serious business improvements.
 Growing
 Increasing
queue of projects.
complexity and technology choices for solutions.
 Workflow,
 Complex
Imaging...
project management became critical to mission
 Project
justification, selection, prioritization, sequencing
 Extraction of common requirements for horizontal, reusable solutions
Enterprise Architecture (EA) Initiative identified
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
UC Irvine’s EA Objectives
 Improve

Planning
Help make more informed IT decisions
 Reduce
Complexity
 Lifecycle
management - To establish a process that is focused on
building, maintaining, acquiring, and retiring technology
 Improve
IT to Business alignment
 Facilitate
the adaptation of technology to changing business needs
and pressures in campus administration
 Which technology solutions solve which business needs, and how?
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
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.
Transitional Processes that keep all aligned
Business Processes
and Functions
Information
and Data
CUMREC, 2004
Technology
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Overview: What is EA?
New application?
What do we have already in place?
Impact?
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Enterprise Architecture
at UC Irvine
 Desired
result…
“Perfect” world...
 goals articulated
 roadmap, projects linked
 technology linked
 change strategy

 Irvine’s
model
 Based
on Zachman
Framework
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
EA Planning Consists of
 A standard
methodology or framework
 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
 Projects = Change
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
What is EA Planning all about?
If the
bowling pins are the IT solutions you provide for
your customers, what is the ball?
The ball
is the project(s) that you pick strategically
and organize into a roadmap for change!
 Objective
is to knock down maximum pins with one ball...
 Before you can do that, you must understand your EA business processes, information/data, and technology.
 How?
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
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
in the EA process.
3: Develop change impact analysis methodology
4: Choose an Enterprise Architecture Framework
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
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

 8:
Principles, standards, and governance
Enforce architectural control
 Choose
key technologies and standardize. Constrain new
development.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
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 IT systems support the business processes.
 Project life cycle, SDLC
 Identify
desired enhancements to business as projects. For
complex enhancements, organize projects into roadmaps.
 Communicate, assess and track impact of change up, down,
and across.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
How were these steps handled
at UC Irvine?
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 1: Specific Questions
Our critical problems:
Life
cycle management, governance
Link business goals, projects, and justification
Control proliferation and retirement of technology
Extraction of “Common Vision Requirements” across
projects into patterns for reusable, horizontal components.
Application and data security for HIPAA and California
State Bill 1386 compliance.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 1: Specific questions
 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?
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 2: Identify owners of
knowledge, roles and
responsibilities
Identified key IT people
who also know the business.
People from business units (e.g: Human Resources)
Agreed on roles and responsibilities.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 3: 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).
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Example: Establish GUI Team
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 4: Enterprise Architecture
Framework
 Need
direction and guidance?
 Many frameworks to choose from. Comparison at:
http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8doc/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 non-technical terminology.
 Planning tool
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Zachman Framework Intro
Question
What
How
Where
Function
Planner
Important
things
Business
functions
Business
locations
People and Events and Goals and
groups
cycles
strategy
Owner
Semantic
model
Process
model
Business
logistics
Work Flow
model
Designer
Logical
Application Distributed
data model
arch
system
Builder
Physical
data model
System
design
Tech
arch
GUI arch
Control
structure
Rule
design
Data
definition
Code
Network
arch
Security
arch
Timing
definition
Rule
repository
Human
interface
Time/
Cycle
Why
Data
CUMREC, 2004
People/
Work
When
View
As built
Network/
Node
Who
Master
schedule
Motive
Business
plan
Processing Business
structure rule model
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 5: Model and Repository
Management Tool
 How
do I model and collect information for the EA?
 Zachman

Framework - powerful thinking tool
lacks technology for putting it into practice.
 Storing
redundant lists of “stuff” in Word, Excel, Visio was difficult.
 Application
 Stanford’s
lists, security information, critical business cycles
Protégé Knowledgebase and Ontology Tool
 Auto
generates forms for collecting information based on ontology
and class definitions.
 Generates HTML output
 Open source at http://protege.stanford.edu/
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 6: Plan Communication
Protégé minimizes redundancy, increases consistency
Meets
Zachman Framework vision of storing an enterprise
artifact in a single place.
Protégé and
Zachman Perspectives (Rows)
Plug-in
produces XML output.
XML processed using XSLT into appropriate presentations,
per Zachman Perspectives (audience).
Open
source XML and XSLT available as Xerxes and
Xalan from http://www.apache.org
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Examples:
 Example
of how we use Protégé to collect information
for Zachman Framework.
 Example of how we report from Protégé using
XML/XSLT.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Example: Protege
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Example: Protege
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 7: Technical Reference
Architecture
 Documented
Domains:
principles, guidelines, and best practices of Architecture
Common Conceptual Architectural Principles
Developed Apps Vendor/ASP Apps
 Lifecycle
Security
Network
Database
Operations
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”.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 8: Enforce Architectural Control
Standardized on
 J2EE
& Expresso - an Open Source Java Application Development
Framework - Apache Struts and MVC. (http://www.jcorporate.com)
 LDAP Directory Services (http://www.openldap.org)
 Open Source JA-SIG uPortal software. A Java-based portal
developed by Higher-Ed for Higher-Ed. (http://www.ja-sig.org)
 Single sign-on based on Web-ISO and Kerberos for campus-wide
web applications.
Immediate benefits - reuse of components and metrics.
Reduced skill sets and solution choices.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Step 9 – Putting it all together
 Examples
of how we use Protégé
 Zachman
Physical Perspective (Row 3) - Technology Life
Cycle
 Alignment of IT to Business: Link from Goal to Project to
Technology, justifying investment and identifying gaps.
 Tracking HIPAA and California State Bill 1386 Security
Compliance
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Status
 Use
Protégé to model and collect organizational information.
 Track security compliance.
 Track common requirements across projects.
 Justify investment decisions and vendor selection.
 Create links between our goals, roadmaps, projects, and
technologies.
 Determine “touch points” between projects and technologies
to assess impact of change.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Realized Value
 Technologies
retired
 Database
servers consolidated
 MS IIS Web Server (except where required by vendor) - 2003
 Clipper - February, 2004
 Reduced
required IT skill sets
 Oracle
DBA – due to limited resources, migrated off of Oracle
 Java focus
 Applications
are database neutral (Expresso/JDBC)
 Reduced development costs
 Code
reuse: Expresso objects, SSO Java lib shared between IBM,
Solaris, Windows platforms, shared user objects.
 Common infrastructure for development: LDAP, Workflow
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
Enterprise Architecture
at UC Irvine
 Desired
result…the perfect
world
 Reduce
IT complexity (and
cost)
 Reduce queue and increase
timeliness of projects
 Facilitate
a strategic road
map for change with careful
project selection and
planning.
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
What is EA Planning all about?
If the
bowling pins are the IT solutions you provide for
the customers, what is your ball?
The
bowling ball is the project(s) that you pick
strategically and organize into a roadmap for
change!
 Game
objective: knock down maximum pins with one ball...
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
What is EA Planning all about?
Who (or what) makes
the bowling ball (your IT projects)
roll at precisely the right spot in the lane and
at optimal speed?
Your Enterprise Architecture!
 Before
you can bowl with projects, you must understand your EA
- business processes, information/data, and technology.
 Using the tools shown today you can start bowling tomorrow!
CUMREC, 2004
University of California, Irvine (Administrative Computing Services)
 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: www.jcorporate.com/
 LDAP: www.openldap.org/
Q&A
CUMREC, 2004