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Table of Contents
The essential means of maintaining institutional vitality in our rapidly evolving era is for a college or university to conceive a strategic vision and then realize that vision through purposefully managed organizational change.
Douglas W. Steeples
The Information Architecture and Process Innovation Project was initiated to assess the current processes and information systems in the University environment and to develop a framework and strategy for improving those processes and systems, enabling them to be useful through the end of the decade. The scope of the effort encompasses the entire University, including the regional campuses, but excluding the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
The Information Architecture is documented in three publications at different levels of detail:
This document is the overview. Like the architecture, it is intended to be dynamic, that is, to change, grow, and contract as technology changes. It will act both as a guide for the future development of information systems at the University of Pittsburgh and as an historical record of that development.
In this age of rapid technological change, uncertain economic conditions, and increasing demands for customized information services and products, it is fruitless to layout long term master plans with projected investment levels. It is more realistic to have a set of principles, models, patterns, and an overall framework for information system development that can be implemented in an organic and piecemeal manner. The implementation should be based upon a set of priorities established on a year-by-year basis to satisfy the most pressing needs of the University within what it desires to invest in information system development and the benefits that can be derived.
The University Information System (UIS) will provide the necessary technological infrastructure to support the administrative information processing requirements for students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders. It will be capable of integrating information from multiple applications and multiple sources into a single coherent presentation. All systems will provide the user with a common interface based on a set of guidelines and principles such that learning to use one system will transfer to all other systems. All valuable, public information will be acquired in a timely fashion and made available for access.
The envisioned information system will provide widespread access from anywhere in the world to University information. It will provide functionality for all authorized persons in a manner that is flexible and easy to use. Users will have the capability to manipulate the available information to satisfy their particular needs without requiring a specially trained intermediary. Information creation, access, retention, ownership, and associated responsibilities will be well defined and a mechanism to settle disputes will be established.
This section provides a few scenarios that show how the architecture will impact work at the University. These concrete illustrations describe how the proposed information architecture will actually work and what it can do for individuals and units within the University when fully implemented. These are intended to not only show some of the functional capabilities of the architecture and how users may interact with it, but also the relationships among various components.
While professor Paula is waiting for her turn in the shower in the morning she checks her home computer to see what activities are on her schedule for the day. From her home, professor Paula has capabilities similar to those available in her office at Pitt. Her workstation can access any device, database, library, computer application or other facility within any Pitt campus or Internet location. She connects to the network using a SLIP connection so her windows environment will look the same as it does from her office.
Her display screen is configured with a number of windows tailored to her personal taste. In the messaging window, all her e-mail, voice mail, FAX, scanned letters and documents, and other electronic messages have been prioritized, sorted and colored according to priorities and rules specified by her. In her time management window is her calendar of appointments for the day. She notices she has a 9:00 a.m. meeting with her research team to check on the progress of her research project for the automatic indexing of flowering plant images. This reminds her that she needs to check the status of the equipment she ordered for this project and the budget status of the project. She makes a note of this in her notebook window. She also sees that one of the items in her messaging window is red and blinking which means it is highly important. The message header indicates that it is from her co-investigator on the research project. She points and clicks on this header and the associated message is displayed in the message window. The message informs her that her colleague will not be able to attend the 9:00 am meeting but he has attached a document that outlines a series of algorithms to be used for the image indexing project. She files the message and attachment in the electronic folder for the project.
Upon arriving at her office, Paula logs into the system via her desktop personal computer. She is authenticated for access to all authorized resources in the system via this single login. A series of windows are displayed and she looks at her notebook window and is reminded that she needs to check on the equipment order and budget status for the research project. She looks at the applications window and points and clicks on the purchasing entry. A menu of choices appears, one of which is to check the status of a purchase request. She clicks on this entry and is shown a window with an index of all purchase requests made by her in descending order by date. The index line shows the status of each purchase order. She clicks on the PO she is interested in and a history button and is then shown the history of actions related to it in reverse chronological order. The display shows that the PO was approved by the Dean three days ago and an order was sent to the XYZ company yesterday and a notification of such was sent to Paula via e-mail late yesterday.
Paula closes this window and scans her messaging window which shows the notification message from purchasing. She decides to raise the priority of such messages and color them green so she can easily identify them from now on. To do this, she clicks on the rules button in her messaging window and makes the necessary changes. She now goes back to the applications window and clicks on the accounting choice to check on the budget situation for the research project. She is presented with a number of accounting related functions, one of which is research accounting. She clicks on this choice and is presented with a window which lists her three current research projects. She clicks on the Image Indexing project and is presented with the current budget items for the project, the amount expended to date and the amount encumbered at the current time. She notices that the equipment on the PO she just looked at has been encumbered. The budget still has money for personnel left in it and she wants to discuss this at her 9:00 a.m. meeting. She drags the budget line item on personnel to her notepad window for future reference.
Paula decides she wants to peruse the algorithms document sent by her co-PI. She selects the project folder in the messaging window and selects the algorithms document which she brings into an editor so as she reads it she can make comments about the document. She decides to do a search of some databases on the local CD-ROM and the Internet to see if there is additional information about a couple of the algorithms. She selects and drags some key words and phrases to her notepad as she continues to read and comment on the document. After she is done with the document she e-mails it to members of the project team along with a short note. She then selects the window for information access and chooses PITT-CD-ROM as the source to search. When the search form for PITT-CD-ROM appears, she drags several terms from her notepad window onto the form as keywords for searching. The results of the search shows two documents which appear to be relevant. These are saved in the scratch pad area for later reading.
Paula exits the PITT-CD-ROM database and then decides to try the Internet sources by selecting that menu choice. This places her in the Mosaic software which guides her through a set of sources from Gopher servers and WAIS servers for the keywords entered as the search terms. From this Paula selects two more documents and places them in her scratch pad memory. Paula exits the information access window and selects her word processor from her personal productivity tools window. She imports the documents from her scratch pad and annotates them for her co-PI. She is then off to her meeting at 9:00 a.m.
Upon arriving back from her meeting Paula must order an HP image scanner for the research project. She first checks the equipment budget information by using the research accounting choice in the applications window and sees that there is money in the equipment budget line. She then selects the purchase choice from this same applications window. She also clicks on the create a purchase request button and is shown a purchase request form with information the system knows about her filled in. She double clicks on the account number field and gets a list of account numbers and related project titles which she has authorization to charge against. She points and clicks on the desired account number and it is placed in the field on the purchase request form.
She then types "scanner" in the item description field and is presented with a list of scanners of different types from different manufactures. She uses the scroll bar on the side of this window to move down the list to HP scanners where she again double clicks on the first HP scanner entry on the list and is shown a brief description of the scanner and its price. After reading the description, she decides this scanner will not meet the requirements for the project and exits back to the list and selects another entry. This entry fits the requirements and she clicks on the "OK" button. The information from the entry fills in several fields on the purchase request form. Paula then completes other needed data and clicks on the "OK" button. The form is sent to the work flow software where it is date and time stamped, and routed to the department chairperson, who is the next person on the authorization path for approval. The work flow software also makes an entry in its database of the event and actions that occurred. Paula then checks her calendar window for other appointments and her messaging window for new messages.
After arriving at his office Bill logs into the Pitt system and see that he has several electronic messages and an alarm signal on his calendar. He clicks on the alarm signal, which informs him that he has a student coming for an advisement and registration session in an hour. He decides that he will send his completed workbook for his course to the on-line production printing facility offered by Central Printing. He clicks on the "Print Services" option in the "Services" window and is presented with a set of printing services available at the University. He selects the "Production Print Services" option and a form is displayed which lets him enter the specifications for his print job, including binding, tabs, color, covers, and any special handling of graphics included in his document.
Bill then decides to continue work on his journal article until the student advisee arrives. He activates his word processor and selects the journal article. As he is reading what he wrote yesterday, he decides he needs a reference for a point he is trying to make. He minimizes his word processor window and selects "PittCat" from his information access window. A form is displayed into which he can enter search terms for searching the library catalog. He enters his search query and a list of items are displayed which match his query. After narrowing his query, he finds a bibliographic citation which appears to fit his needs and orders the book sent to his office. He then clicks on the PITT-CD-ROM choice and enters his query to see if he can find a journal article on the topic. He gets three citations that appear to fit his needs. He then peruses these articles on-line and determines that one is worth reading. He imports this article into a file on his desktop device for later reading.
A knock at his office door signals that his advisee has arrived. The student enters and is directed to a seat in the office. The student tells Bill he needs to register for a natural science course and a humanities course to complete his distribution requirements. He also wants to take two math courses and a computer science course on compiler design. Bill selects the "Registration" option from the applications window and is shown a menu of choices. Bill is shown a form where he can enter the student ID or the student name. He asks the student for his ID and enters it. A display appears which has basic demographic data about the student, any service restrictions (holds) for the student, and a series of buttons for getting further information or for registering the student into courses.
Bill selects the "Academic History by Term" option since he deems it necessary to see what the student has actually taken so far. The courses the student has taken are displayed in a window. Bill scrolls through the courses and sees that the student has an incomplete grade in Biology. He discusses this with the student and they decide that the student will need to take two natural science courses to complete his distribution. Bill clicks on the "Schedule" button in the registration window and is shown a "Course Schedule Browser" form on which he may specify what part of the course schedule he wants to view. Bill enters Geology as a subject for courses and is shown the courses offered for the next term (the default term) by the Geology and Planetary Sciences Department. They see a course that looks interesting and the student wants to find out more about the course. Bill double clicks on the course title and is shown a description of the course and a course syllabus. They decide this is a good course for the student and Bill clicks on the register button.
A registration form appears on the display next to the course schedule window. Bill drags the course schedule entry for the geology course to a line on the registration form and the student is registered into the course. Bill then clicks the "Course Schedule Browser" window to make it come to the foreground and enters "Math" as the course subject. The math offerings are displayed and two math courses are selected and registered for. The Compiler Design course is filled and Bill suggests another course. Bill then clicks on the "Advisor Notes" button and is shown a window with notes he made from the previous advising session for the student. He enters some notes about the advising session and sends the student on his way.
After the student leaves, Bill decides to look at the class roster for the current classes he is teaching. He selects the "Class Information" option from the information access window and enters the class ID of one of his classes. He is presented the basic information on his class and a set of buttons for related information. He clicks on the "Roster" button and is presented with a list of students in his class. He decides he will add these to his spreadsheet for keeping track of grades. He copies the roster to his scratch pad and then clicks on his spreadsheet icon. He then pastes the scratch pad roster data into his spreadsheet. He repeats this operation for his other class.
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Introduction
Framework for Building Information Systems
Philosophy and Principles
Architectural Overview
Summary