This week I was asked to reflect on the systems and processes my school district, San Diego Unified (SDUSD) and my site, SCPA use to better understand why it is necessary to develop a future state business architecture.
After reviewing the current architecture and the capabilities of business services in the areas outline below, I looked at what elements from these systems could be transformed, eliminated, or modified in order to better meet the overall vision and contribute to strategic goals. The areas reviewed include: transportation services, teacher preparation and support services, human resources, finance and business, technology, real estate, and custodial services. What I learned after reviewing the current state and developing a future state is that a few modifications to some of these systems such as automating them or in some cases, transforming these systems although cost effective for the district in the long term, may result in unemployment for several non-certificated district employees. This has already resulted at the site level with the initial deployment of some systems. I also observed that in some areas such as technology, analysis and planning toward a future state had been conducted, but steps were not taken to implement the recommendations. This was the case with the i21 Now Committee that was formed. Many of their recommendations were not implemented.
Finally, I realized that it is difficult to foresee compatibility problems with BA services such as Naviance, Illuminate, and PowerSchool with migrating data from older systems to newer systems, and with the pace of change in platforms and Apps being used. However, developing a future state, which includes identifying current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWAT) analysis, may identify opportunities to support stakeholders using these services and provide possibilities for improvements in effectiveness that may have been overlooked if only looking at the current state.
References:
California Enterprise Architecture Framework. (2013) (2nd ed., pp. pages 13-19). Retrieved from http://www.cio.ca.gov/Publications/pubs/Appendix_A.pdf
State of Hawaii Enterprise Business Architecture. Section 4.0. IT/IRM Transformation Plan PDF. Retrieved from https://oimt.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/EA_4.0.pdf
After reviewing the current architecture and the capabilities of business services in the areas outline below, I looked at what elements from these systems could be transformed, eliminated, or modified in order to better meet the overall vision and contribute to strategic goals. The areas reviewed include: transportation services, teacher preparation and support services, human resources, finance and business, technology, real estate, and custodial services. What I learned after reviewing the current state and developing a future state is that a few modifications to some of these systems such as automating them or in some cases, transforming these systems although cost effective for the district in the long term, may result in unemployment for several non-certificated district employees. This has already resulted at the site level with the initial deployment of some systems. I also observed that in some areas such as technology, analysis and planning toward a future state had been conducted, but steps were not taken to implement the recommendations. This was the case with the i21 Now Committee that was formed. Many of their recommendations were not implemented.
Finally, I realized that it is difficult to foresee compatibility problems with BA services such as Naviance, Illuminate, and PowerSchool with migrating data from older systems to newer systems, and with the pace of change in platforms and Apps being used. However, developing a future state, which includes identifying current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWAT) analysis, may identify opportunities to support stakeholders using these services and provide possibilities for improvements in effectiveness that may have been overlooked if only looking at the current state.
References:
California Enterprise Architecture Framework. (2013) (2nd ed., pp. pages 13-19). Retrieved from http://www.cio.ca.gov/Publications/pubs/Appendix_A.pdf
State of Hawaii Enterprise Business Architecture. Section 4.0. IT/IRM Transformation Plan PDF. Retrieved from https://oimt.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/EA_4.0.pdf