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Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture

Discussion and news from the Enterprise Architecture (EA) service

The Student Administration & Support programme

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been helping the Student Administration & Support programme by creating a diagram that shows how all the projects they have planned will fit together into a coherent applications architecture.

The result is this rather colourful picture below.  Each colour refers to a different project.

 

The challenge was to present a lot of information in a single diagram.  I decided to show application functions (i.e. something a system allows the user to do, such as “View Course Enrolments”) linked to application components (i.e. the actual software systems, such as MyEd, the student portal).  This separation shows how some core systems support multiple functions from multiple projects.

You can see from the orange and blue elements that these two projects are interdependent.  The new Course Selection tool, in blue, needs the orange Programme & Course Information (PCIM) system to be in place.  Course Selection also requires an enhancement to the PCIM tool itself – that’s the blue function sitting on the orange system.  Both projects require additions to the student portal as well.

The diagram shows that the new student information API will be central (although not for the postgraduate support work).  It also describes which functions will be developed in the existing student record system (EUCLID) and which will be procured or developed separately.

I haven’t attempted to show the whole student systems architecture, which involves many other systems in addition to those shown, such as student finance, accommodation, the identity management system, and others.  As with all architecture diagrams, this one addresses a specific need, which in this case is how the new projects will fit into the overall architecture.

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