New enterprise architecture repository now online

A new project to create a map of the University's organisational landscape has recently started.

With the Architecture Repository Implementation project (ISG007) we've started the process of building a map of the University's organisational landscape.

 As a large and devolved organisation, the University of Edinburgh has a complex set of applications, services, organisational units, business processes, IT infrastructure and data sets. While all of these assets are well looked after, what was missing was a place where they were all represented, with all of their interconnections.

The new architecture repository aims to provide such a place, and it is now online. As it happens, the system - Avolution ABACUS - could be installed in just a few days by using existing university data and web hosting services.

With the repository in place, the mapping work can start in earnest. Existing catalogues of applications and services will be imported, along with the future process models produced for the Service Excellence programme. Common data models will be housed when they become available, and linked to the flows between data creation and data use.

Once a minimum set of content is available, and a good front end has been designed, the repository will be made available to a wider range of users to help them plan change projects, trace dependencies in programmes, calculate the impact of faults or discover the provenance of data.

More information is available from Wilbert Kraan, Data Architect in the Enterprise Architecture section of IS applications (wilbert.kraan@ed.ac.uk)