SELF EVIDENT APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITIES

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SELF EVIDENT APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITIES

• Designing for the Extended Enterprise
• Greg Smart

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The Self Service Application

• A business model with far reaching implications.
• Developed from the convergence of two trends-
• The Internet, which gives us-
• A ubiquitous global network,
• A commonly accepted, but relatively limited
  interface (html).
• Lower demands on client processing power.
• The ERP Application, which gives us-
• A defined set of rules for transacting business.
• A relatively constrained environment,
• Linked business processes.

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Why Self Service?

• Objectives of Self Service applications are
  typically-
• To reduce cost of processing,
• The Captive vs the Volunteer user,
• The Student as Customer,
• To give greater choice and flexibility to the
  customer,
• To reduce the scope for error,
• To make the customer responsible for the
  accuracy of their data,
• To avoid the need for training.

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Self Evident for Self Service

• A self service application must be self evident.
• Obvious to use,
• locally specific,
• Readily available (ie through a browser),
• Self Evident applications will multiply.
• Self Evidence can only be achieved through
  creating multiple interfaces onto enterprise
  applications.

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Server Centric Applications

• We cannot afford to rewrite our business
  applications to fit this new model.
• The server should provide a repository for
• Data,
• Business Logic,
• Inter-application Interfaces.
• The server centric model gives-
• A single, stable, reliable code base,
• Maintains One Version of the Truth,

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A Window on the Data

• Each Self-evident application is an interface
  into the server application.
• It can be replicated and modified to meet
  different circumstances,
• It can use terminology which the user will
  understand to describe data and processes,
• It can be easily modified, without changing the
  underlying rules,
• This promotes interfaces that are content driven

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Content Driven Interfaces

• The Self-Evident interface is-
• Content Driven-
• Shaped by the Data,
• Adopts suitable terminology,
• Process Driven-
• Leads the user through the required steps,
• Validates data in order to encourage correct
  completion,
• Not Transaction Driven-
• Shaped by the transaction definition,
• Assumes the user knows what they are trying to
  do,
• Rejects errors,

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The Technology Bit (Non MS)

• The elements of a Self Service environment-
• Enterprise Applications
• ERP or Best of Breed.
• Application Integration
• Linking applications at the application server
  level.
• Component applications (EJBs) linked via CORBA.
• Messaging and Data Definition.
• Transaction Processing
• Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability.
• JSP allow a link between htlm or xml interfaces
  and application objects.
• XML/XSL separates data from presentation.

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Keep the !!?s Out!

• A direct and immediate link between the user and
  the data, but that user could be anyone.
• Security must provide-
• Authentication
• That a person is who they say they are.
• Encryption
• So that Data is protected
• Authorisation
• So that people only do what they are allowed to
  do.
• The greatest threat is still from within.

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Can Everything be make Self Evident?

• Would you want to?
• Ask yourself-
• Where are the benefits?
• Who are the potential users?
• And how many of them are there?
• Can we deliver not just data, but information?
• Can the interface be Content, not Transaction
  driven?
• What stops something from being Self Evident?

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The Experience of Bath

• Access to our Finance System (Lawson)
• Arrow and Aura, access to financial data for
  budget holders.
• E-Procurement the web based requisition.
• Registrations On Line.
• An ambitious project,
• Doesnt follow the model,
• But does give a layer of abstraction.

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Where will Self Evident Lead Us?

• Forces us to confront who our customers are.
• What effect on staffing levels and job
  descriptions?
• Blurs the divide between an organisation and its
  customers
• Feeds the dis-intermediation process.
• Supports the Application Service Provider model
• Common processes, different interfaces.
• Adds to the Virtual Learning Environment by
  helping to merge the process of learning and the
  management of the learning process.
• What IS a University?