Information Management Systems Planning Using a Synthesis of Modelling Techniques

A Discussion Paper

Contents

1. Using Modelling in the Management Planning Process 2

2. Enterprise Architecture Modelling 3

3. Viable Systems Modelling 9

4. Soft Systems Modelling 15

5. A Synthesis of Modelling Techniques 19

6. Analysis and Conclusions 24

Tony Toole

February 2013

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1. Using Modelling in the Management Planning Process

1.1 Overview

The purpose of management modelling is to encourage and contribute to a systematic and structured approach to management systems planning. It aids the planning process by presenting existing and proposed management systems in an easily assimilated way. The models are designed to assist systems thinking by providing routes through the planning process that generate consistency and lead to realistic and achievable solutions.

This paper describes the use of three different modelling approaches applied to the student information management system at Swansea Metropolitan. Each has a different focus and collectively they provide a much richer picture for planning purposes than they would individually.

The Enterprise Architecture view is presented at the business process level and identifies where process inconsistencies and inefficient practices exist. The Viable Systems view examines the communications and control capacities of the business processes and determines whether they are adequate. The Soft Systems view ensures that management process improvements recognise and accommodate the real world of human activity systems.

1.2 Context

Swansea Metropolitan University merged with University of Wales Trinity Saint David during 2012 and a significant programme of management systems integration and redesign for the new institution continues at the time of writing.

The merger took place midway through the Jisc-funded Smudie (Swansea Metropolitan University Data Integration Exercise) project. The project had the objective of evaluating the existing student information management system at Swansea Metropolitan (as it is now called), identifying areas for potential improvement, and using modelling techniques to design those improvements into a more effective information management system.

The outcomes of the project are now available as an additional resource for the university managers responsible for the merger process. It is also hoped that the approach will be of interest and value to the wider community of practice engaged in information systems design and the use of management modelling tools.

1.3 Process

The student information management system modelling process began with an evaluation phase that involved interviews with all system stakeholders. This comprehensive body of information was used to build an ‘as is’ Enterprise Architecture model of the existing systems and processes.

The second phase involved analysing the ‘as is’ model and identifying areas for process and performance improvement with the goal of designing a more effective and efficient ‘to be’ EA model. This was then coupled with an assessment of system control and communications capacity using Viable Systems modelling. Finally, the real world view of Soft Systems modelling was added to create practical and achievable solutions.

Each of the modelling systems is now described and the paper concludes with the synthesis of their application in designing student information system improvements.

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2. Enterprise Architecture Modelling

2.1 Overview

The key benefit delivered by Enterprise Architecture (EA) modelling1 is its ability to support decision making during periods of institutional change and restructure. Specifically; it brings together business systems (processes, procedures, structures) and the technical systems (applications, technical infrastructure) that support them. It presents a visual representation of the management system components for the purpose of aiding conversations about improvement and optimisation.

It is particularly effective for information systems design and management as it was originally developed for that purpose2. It is a high level, strategic technique to achieve beneficial organisational change by creating a roadmap between the current ‘as is’ system state to a target ‘to be’ state that implements identified improvements.

Enterprise Architecture modelling of management systems involves:

Capturing the stakeholder viewpoints; Identifying and documenting concerns, barriers and problems; Creating models of the existing system that indicate the source of problems; Creating models of improved systems that address the problems; Using the models to assist strategic and change management processes.

The ArchiMate EA modelling language is used to create visual representations of systems based on the stakeholder viewpoints. It identifies where system inadequacies or inconsistencies exist and informs the design of improved systems that address these issues.

The Archi modelling tool3 developed by Jisc-Cetis is an open source application that uses the Archimate modelling language. It was used by the Smudie project to create ‘as is’ EA models of the student information system components and, following analysis, ‘to be’ models of the same components. Examples of the ‘as is’ models are shown below.

2.2 Enterprise Architecture Models:

The structure of the EA models that follow were constructed following a series of interviews conducted with the stakeholders involved with the management of student information at the university. The purpose of each model was to stimulate and inform a discussion about the management processes involved with a view to identifying opportunities for improvement.

Only a selection of models is shown, but they illustrate the EA technique and its benefits. It will be seen that the models represent a series of linked information management sub-systems. The boundaries of each sub-system were chosen to illustrate particular management issues that may benefit from improved systems and procedures.

A summary of the issues are presented with each model, indicating the considerations to be addressed to achieve an improved’ to be’ information management system. It will be seen that existing good practice was also identified by the exercise and this is highlighted, particularly in the first two models shown.

1 Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David Robertson (2006) Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution (Cambridge Ms. Harvard Business Press)2 US Department of Defense (1996). Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. Vol. 1. April 19963 http://archi.cetis.ac.uk/

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1. The Student Application Process

University applications in the UK are predominantly carried out through UCAS. A business process level representation is shown below:

The applications process is managed through the UCAS website by both the student and by Registry who are responsible for making conditional and confirmed offers. Overall, the system is reported to work well, despite bottlenecks at the time of ‘A’ level results and application deadlines. Improvements here relate to pragmatic decisions about staffing and cost to deal with peaks in demand. A process and system review with that goal would be sensible.

2. The Student Enrolment Process

Students self-enrol online at Swansea Metropolitan. This establishes their identity as a student and there are multiple outcomes of the process including the setting up of their library, Moodle and finance accounts, their record on the student information system, and their student file in the Faculty office.

The representation below shows both the business process and system application layers:

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The student self-enrolment process is an example of good and effective practice in the current system for two reasons. The first is the fact that it applies the principle that the data manager is the data owner and is fully responsible for the process. The second is that, being online, enrolment can be undertaken from anywhere there is access to the system, thus greatly speeding up the process, as well as making it more accessible.

3. Student Attendance Monitoring

Student attendance monitoring has two main purposes in the university: the first being the key information it contributes to the assessment of student progress and hence their academic and personal support needs; the other relating to both internal and external reporting requirements, the UKBA requirements for overseas student attendance reporting being an obvious example.

Attendance is through a register system at the university that is both paper-based and recorded using spreadsheets. The process of creating of registers varies:

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The EA model shows the inconsistencies in the current student attendance register creation process. There are three different stakeholders who create the registers, two different record systems used for the student information, and two different ways of presenting the attendance information. Furthermore, there is inconsistency in the way the attendance information is gathered and shared:

The overall picture is that the student attendance monitoring system is not institutionally managed. Programme directors and tutors are aware of the requirement for attendance recording, but are largely left to devise their own methods for doing so. The systems range from paper registers retained locally by individual module tutors to sophisticated spreadsheets in shared folders online available for programme team and faculty management discussions.

Good and effective practice, particularly with shared online register spreadsheets, can be readily identified. It would not be difficult, in principle; to create a consistent process that all programme teams could apply to their courses.

Some work needs to be done, however, on the way the data is gathered. The most common method is on paper registers, completed by the tutors or by the students themselves, which are later transcribed onto spreadsheets. Clearly the need for transcription is inefficient and the university has experimented with proximity card recording and the use of proprietary attendance monitoring software.

4. Student Suspensions, Transfer and Withdrawals

A consequence of poor attendance or academic progress by students is the triggering of institutional processes to redeem the situation. The first option is always increased and problem specific support, but if this is not successful then the processes for programme change are triggered:

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These procedures have an important impact on the way the institution presents its performance and quality statistics. Student completion rates are a key yardstick of institutional quality and hence in the way it is perceives externally in the media, by government and by potential future students.

It is clearly necessary, therefore, that the institution both maximises the use it makes of information to support students and, where programme change is inevitable, it is carried out in a way that is consistent across the institution, optimally supports the student, and is seen that way externally as a component of quality provision.

There are process inconsistencies between and within the faculties at present and a goal will be to use the EA models as resources in management discussions to address that inconsistency.

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2.3 Conclusions

It became clear, during the development of the ‘as is’ model of the student information management system at Swansea Metropolitan, that it was a system of interconnected parts that together represented the totality of the information about each student at the institution. Each component of the system was managed by a particular stakeholder group for a particular purpose in the management of the institution and for the support of students.

In that respect it would not be unreasonable to describe the different information management sub-systems as representing ‘data silos’ where the information was used independently for a particular management purpose. The existence of data silos is generally regarded as evidence of poor information management practice, but this is only the case if core data is not shared.

As noted later in this paper when looking at Soft Systems Modelling, It is a reality of management systems that different stakeholders have different information requirements to carry out their roles and that this is typically a mix of core data and role specific data.

The role specific data is created, recorded and used locally and does not need to be shared with other stakeholders, beyond any management reporting requirements. This is the local data silo and is appropriate and reduces data management complexity.

The core data, however, does need to be shared across all stakeholder sub-systems for the system as a whole to be efficient and maintain data consistency and accuracy. Student core data, of course, including; name, student ID, course ID, etc.

An analysis of the data requirements for a particular management sub-system then would specifically identify core and local data and would seek to ensure that they were available for the management purpose involved. This can be achieved by an examination of the Enterprise Architecture models of the ‘as is’ student information system and ensuring that the system in place makes them available. A key feature of a planned ‘to be’ model would be the linking of core data across all sub-systems and a clear management strategy for the maintenance and sharing of that core data.

The advantage of the Enterprise Architecture model is that it specifically links the intended information management business processes to the supporting technical infrastructure and hence presents a clear picture of how that infrastructure ensures the effective and efficient sharing of core data across the whole system.

The technique of Viable Systems modelling recognises the independent worlds of stakeholder information sub-systems and brings added value to the re-design of the information system and its infrastructure by specifically addressing the issues of control and communications capacity in the system and ensuring that requisite variety is in place. The VSM approach is described in the next section.

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3. Viable Systems Modelling

3.1 Overview

The use of Viable Systems Modelling (VSM) recognises that management systems are built up of self managing sub-systems that interact with the wider organisational systems that surround them. The key success factor for any management sub-system is that it should be viable in its own right and able to self-manage, given appropriate support services and resources.

The value of the VSM approach is that it specifically addresses the issues of communications and control capacity in the management system. It seeks to balance the high and low complexity components of the system through structures that ensure requisite variety. It is for this reason that it falls within the scope of the trans-disciplinary approach of cybernetics.

What this means in practice is that the low capacity and complexity of management has to be amplified to meet the control and communications requirements of the system being managed. Equally, the high complexity of the information being received by managers about the system operations needs to be attenuated for them to be able to absorb that information and respond in an effective way.

The benefit of modelling the management system in this way is that in easily identifies communications and control problems that impact on management effectiveness. A typical example would be communications and control bottlenecks that prevent organisational goals being met in a timely and cost-effective way.

The VSM model is recursive, in that each sub-system has the same general management structure with the communications and control capacity to successfully perform its management role. This is represented diagrammatically in the student information management systems shown in the examples below with the Viable System on the right hand side and the management Environment with which it interacts on the left.

3.2 Viable Systems Models:

The Student Application, Enrolment and Registration Processes

The structure of the VSM models that follow, as with the EA models, are derived from the series of interviews conducted with the stakeholders involved with the management activities concerned.

The focus in the models in this case is on communications and control capacity. The questions to be asked are:

Are the requisite communications and control channels in place?

Do the channels have the capacity to deliver their intended outcomes?

Does the system balance the differential complexities effectively?

The comments following each management process representation shown below address these issues.

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Comments:

Process: The application process is managed by the potential student and carried out with assistance (when needed) from institutional advisers and UCAS guidelines;

Management: The process represents a self-contained management activity controlled by the prospective student;

Requirements: An intuitive interface and process for non-technical users with clear feedback on successful completion and process outcomes/results;

Current System: The current system is provided by UCAS with information and application management by the institution. The student applies and receives a decision through the UCAS website;

Areas for Improvement: The present system is reported to work effectively and efficiently from the student point of view. Bottlenecks occur when examination results are published, particularly national A level results.

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Comments:

Process: The application process is managed by the potential student and carried out either online or by submitting an application form by post;

Management: The process involves the manual transcription of all application data onto the institutional system by registry staff;

Requirements: The system accommodates both online and postal applications and caters primarily for part-time and overseas students;

Current System: Both online and postal applications are received in registry by either the UK admissions or overseas admissions sections and are manually uploaded to the institutional applications database;

Areas for Improvement: An online applications system that does not require manual transcription of information would be a significant improvement.

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Comments:

Process: The enrolment process is managed by the potential student and carried out with assistance (when needed) from institutional advisers;

Management: The process represents a self-contained management activity controlled by the prospective student;

Requirements: An intuitive interface and process for non-technical users with clear feedback on successful completion and process outcomes/results;

Current System: The current online system for self-enrolment by students is reported to work effectively and efficiently;

Areas for Improvement: No specific system improvements identified. It is recommended that the system be used for all student enrolment modes including part-time and international students.

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Comments:

Process: Student registration occurs when the enrolment process is completed and approved;

Management: Upon verification, a series of follow-on processes are triggered which lead to the student support services being set up;

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Requirements: A complete and consistent semi-automated system that ensures the sharing of all core student data, the inclusion and verification of additional service data, and confirmation of successful completion to both management and students;

Current System: All the student registration systems stem from the completion of the enrolment process by the student/staff and the verification of that enrolment. The enrolment is either completed online by the student (mainly full-time students) or is carried out by staff (mainly part-time and overseas students);

Areas for Improvement: A fully online student based enrolment process that, once verified by the institution, leads to the sharing of core student data with all information sub-systems. This would range from the physical issuing of student identity cards to the creation of their Moodle learning accounts.

3.3 Conclusions:

The various components of the student information management system become populated following student enrolment and registration. It is at this stage that core data is distributed to each of the support systems and students are registered on the various information management sub-systems and identity cards are issued.

The VSM models of these processes are presented here as representations of current management practice and are designed to assist an analysis of the extent to which they fulfil their purpose. It is hoped that they will contribute to discussions about improved systems and practice as the institution progresses with its merger process.

The key point being made by these models is that each management sub-system needs to be independently viable in its own right to optimally contribute to the management system as a whole. A clear implication from an optimisation point of view is that each sub-system needs to be designed in a consistent way and that all sub-systems are viewed as both independently viable and as components of the overall management information system.

This is not the way things necessarily happen in practice. Often, local management sub-systems, though effective for local management needs, do not integrate well with the corporate system. This is typically because the local systems were not designed as a component of the larger system and, in the absence of corporate direction, were created by the local management team (sometimes just a single individual) to meet their information processing responsibilities. This is the sub-optimal, non-communicative, data silo scenario mentioned earlier.

The application, enrolment and registration systems considered in this report already integrate reasonably well. Other systems, such as student attainment reporting and attendance monitoring are less consistent across the institution. VSM representation of these systems, together with the EA modelling, can be expected to assist conversations about improvement in the way the different stakeholder systems share core data.

A third consideration, when seeking to improve information management systems, is to take full account of the fact that it is a human activity system that is being designed and that there are People related issues that need to be built into any systems model.

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4. Soft Systems Modelling

4.1 Overview

The Soft Systems Modelling approach4 encourages constant reflection on how things happen in real world situations. It doesn’t so much describe how the information management system actually works, but how the stakeholders think it works, how they think it should work and how they would personally like it to work. This exactly describes the nature of the qualitative messages that came from the stakeholder interviews carried out in the first phase of the Smudie project.

A further consideration when dealing with a student information system is what value each stakeholder sees in a specific piece of information and how the information is used in their particular organisational role. This is important because the same information is often used for different purposes by the different stakeholders.

Student assessment outcomes, for example, are used by:

The student to judge attainment against learning objectives and to adjust their effort if not meeting their personal objectives and aspirations;

The teacher to judge both the effectiveness of their teaching approach and the levels of support needed by individual students;

The programme director to monitor the performance of the course against agreed attainment and quality targets set by the faculty;

The institutional management to maintain the best possible institutional quality profile when reporting to HESA and other external agencies.

This demonstrates that the management and use of such basic pieces of student information in the system are not the sole responsibility of particular stakeholders, but have a ripple-through effect where the student performance is responded to by the teacher, the teacher by the programme director, the programme by the faculty and so on.

The common goal of maximising performance is evident for each role, but the example emphasises how success for the entire system relies on a contribution to optimising student support and attainment at each level of management.

4.2 How it works in practice

The EA ‘as is’ models and the VSM analysis5 have shown how the University institutional information management system is made up of recursive self-managing sub-systems. Each sub-system has a contribution to make to the whole, but in general, operates as an independent entity. The key to institutional success with such an arrangement is the effectiveness with which the sub-systems communicate with each other and are supported by their operational environment.

A common complaint in organisations is that different parts of the organisation manage their information needs in isolation and create information ‘silos’ that do not inter-communicate effectively or efficiently. There is a general view that a centrally managed enterprise-wide information system is the solution to this problem. However, this view does not necessarily recognise the realities of how large organisations operate in practice.

4 Checkland, Peter B. & Poulter, J. (2006) Learning for Action: A short definitive account of Soft Systems Methodology and its use for Practitioners, teachers and Students, Wiley, Chichester. 5 http://smudieprojectblog.blogspot.co.uk/

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The fact is that individual stakeholders and stakeholder groups do operate in isolation from other parts of the organisation because they have different job functions and information management responsibilities. A lot of the locally managed information is used for that management function only and is not relevant or used elsewhere. Managing locally where appropriate reduces the complexity of the central system and can add benefit.

There are two areas, however, where centralised student information management is needed. The first relates to core data that is used by multiple sub-systems. Typically this would include the student name, student ID, Course code etc., which are shared in the records of registry, the faculties and by student support services. For core student data to be managed efficiently it needs well defined management on a central database where the core data fields are available to all sub-systems that use them. This is both efficient and ensures consistency of both content and format across the institution.

The second area is where central management requires access to specific data from multiple sub-systems. This would mainly be for formal periodic central management processes and for external reporting. A typical student information system would have customised reporting options that are set up to draw from the core data and from the various sub-systems concerned. The Smudie project evaluation exercise has shown that there are varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency in achieving this.

A further central management requirement of the system, that is more difficult to satisfy, is when non-standard reporting is requested to satisfy the needs of a specific current management issue. A database set up to satisfy the needs of the standard information management requirements may not be so effective in synthesising data for one-off reports.

The student information management system has to support the needs of multiple institutional management sub-systems of varying degrees of complexity with both core and functionally specific data. It has to interface with other information management systems both internally and externally. The degree to which it is designed to meet all possible requirements is a management decision that balances functionality with cost.

It was recently commented, rather prosaically, that the most cost-effective interface between two information systems might actually be a junior clerk with a calculator.

4.3 The Soft Systems approach

Management modelling techniques have developed in an academic environment and tend to have a formulaic approach that can mask the value of the thinking behind it. Checkland’s SSM6 has been adopted by the systems design and operational research communities and has led to many, sometimes rather opaque, academic publications.

However, Checkland himself makes the point7 that SSM is primarily an approach for tackling problematical, messy situations of all kinds. It is an action-oriented process of inquiry into problematic situations in which users learn their way from finding out about the situation, to taking action to improve it.

The key is to define what the problem is from the point of view of the stakeholder who perceives the problem. Only then can a pragmatic solution be found that addresses that problem. The solution finder, however, must learn about the problem from the viewpoint of

6 Checkland, Peter B. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 19817 http://www.crawfordev.anu.edu.au/public_policy_community/content/doc/2010_Checkland_Soft_systems_methodology.pdf

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all system stakeholders for collective improvements to be actioned. It is not so much formulaic as adaptive.

This is exactly the approach the first phase of the Smudie project adopted. Each of the stakeholder interview records described their viewpoint of the student information management system. As well as providing a rich picture of the systems in place, which were represented visually with EA models, the process identified some of the problems with those systems that needed addressing to improve performance.

The soft systems approach to be used in the Smudie project will not formally apply the modelling techniques that have developed from the methodology. More it will be used as a reality check when considering the potential improvements suggested by the EA and VSM analyses.

4.4 Defining the problem

The Enterprise Architecture representations of the student information management systems show the processes and procedures that make up current practice and identify where uncoordinated variations occur that reduce consistency and reliability. They point towards potential improvements in systems design, management and technical infrastructure.

The soft systems approach brings this picture much closer to how the users view the system, how well (or otherwise) it works for them and what improvements would make their job easier. In other words, it involves defining the problem from their point of view that needs addressing.

An example would be the academic member of staff who is reporting student assessment outcomes. With the current system this involves accessing the reporting software online and entering the information in the prescribed way. In principle it couldn’t be simpler. In practice there are a number of barriers to be overcome and different coping strategies have been adopted by staff.

The issues, from the viewpoint of the academic member of staff, include:

The fact that they access the system infrequently, typically twice per year when assignments are submitted and exams undertaken at the end of semesters. As a result, they forget how the system works and the workflows involved in accessing student records and correctly entering data;

The reality that many staff are non-experienced computer users, are often anxious about their ability to cope with the system, and find the process stressful;

Reports that the system is non-intuitive, even for the relatively computer literate, and has several frustrating characteristics such as momentary delays after entering each item of data and the need to navigate through several screens to complete procedures.

The coping strategies include:

Requesting help from colleagues. Typically these will include their immediate academic colleagues, their Faculty MIO, and IS staff with a part remit for academic support/history of helping staff out;

Relying on others to enter the data, either in the Faculty office or others in the Programme team.

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The problem in this example, then, is that a significant number of academic staff, through lack of familiarity and confident developed IT skills, find the online assessment reporting system difficult to use. The perception is that this is exacerbated by the system software being non user friendly.

The problem definition once discussed and agreed makes it possible to identify potential changes that are desirable and feasible.

4.5 Defining the solution

The way the problem above is described is as a conceptual model of how the system works as perceived by the stakeholder(s). Aspects of that perception may not accurately represent the way the system is intended to work and rectifying that conceptual miss-match may be part of the solution.

SSM functions as a learning system because it facilitates a greater understanding of the problem situation on the part of all the stakeholders involved. The solutions that result can range from the complete disappearance of the problem by reconciling a soft conceptual and actual miss-match by discussion, through to the re-structuring of the system to solve the problem through a defined hard redesign process.

In all cases the solutions are people solutions for people problems. The technical infrastructure for a student information management system is only successful if it meets the needs of the users and in doing so recognises their technical, occupational and cultural diversity.

4.6 Conclusions

Referring back to the introduction; the soft systems methodology doesn’t so much describe how an information management system actually works, but how the stakeholders think it works, how they think it should work and how they would personally like it to work.

Clearly, the closer these four views of the system are together, the closer the system will be to an optimal configuration. The objective with SSM is to gain, through consultation with the stakeholders, a picture of these different viewpoints so that conversations about reconciling the differences are fully informed.

In the development of an EA ‘to be’ model for the student information system and constituent sub-systems, SSM will be included as part of the methodology, as will VSM. Each will bring added value to the eventual outcomes, including a healthy dose of realism in what will always be a difficult consensus to reach between stakeholders with different and often conflicting viewpoints and interests.

The final section of this paper outlines how the synthesis of these modelling approaches can bring collective added value in the design of an institutional student information management system.

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5. A Synthesis of Modelling Techniques

5.1 Overview

Both the Enterprise Architecture and the Viable Systems models of the existing student information management system at Swansea Metropolitan University showed that it operated as a number of semi-independent sub-systems managed by different stakeholder groups with different information management roles and objectives.

There is a view that such sub-systems should be fully integrated and centralised, thus making all information available to any manager who needs to make use of it. However, this does not necessarily recognise the realities of how organisations operate in practice.

It is suggested here that semi-independent information sub-systems are not only inevitable but are essential for the efficient and effective management of a complex organisation. The key to successful central management is in ensuring that the local information needs of each functional area are met, whilst information flows into and out of those areas optimally support them and the needs of the organisation as a whole.

The design of such a system, then, would naturally begin with an analysis of each sub-system to ensure that it was operating optimally as a functional unit. In other words, the process would begin with Viable Systems modelling. Having identified how information should best be managed both within the functional area and in the way it communicates with its operating environment, Enterprise Architecture can then be brought in to design the appropriate processes, procedures and supporting infrastructure.

There is a step to be taken before all this starts, however. Soft Systems modelling shows how, in the design of a new system, there needs to be an overall concept of what that system will look like and what its operational boundaries are. It begins with the formulation of what it calls a Root Definition.

Soft Systems modelling would also operate in the background of the subsequent development with periodic reflections on how proposed systems are likely to work within the prevailing institutional culture. Soft Systems considerations would guide the change management processes needed for the introduction of any new system to be successful.

Improved system designs do not come from models. They come from the conceptual ideas of systems designers who use structured modelling techniques to aid them in arriving at their design goals. Furthermore, modelling methods do not guarantee efficiency and effectiveness in new systems design, but they do provide a structured way of examining just how effective and efficient a new system is likely to be.

5.2 Student Attendance Monitoring: a case study

It has been identified that the student attendance monitoring system is inconsistent across the institution and is in the process of being evaluated with a view to improving data capture, consistency and accuracy of reporting. It was therefore chosen as a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of synthesising the modelling methods in information systems design.

The basic components of the student attendance monitoring system will be determined by the objective of the exercise: to record who should be present at a given session; to record who was actually present at the session; and to record any variations in terms of attendance pattern flexibility, location, timing and individual participation plans.

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It will also depend on the purpose of the exercise: to record student participation in scheduled learning activities; to identify potential student problems requiring additional support; and to meet the reporting requirements of internal quality systems and external agencies.

In general, there will be a basic register of students in a particular cohort. An attendance register will be created for each learning session and a method agreed regarding the recording of attendance. Current methods for achieving this have been shown to be inconsistent across the institution. Responsibilities for the process are often unclear and methods vary from the individual creation of paper registers held locally, through the use of bespoke year group spreadsheets available on line, to the use of proprietary timetabling and recording software and hardware.

As far as the design of a student attendance monitoring system is concerned, then, we need to begin with a conceptual idea. This will derive a lot of its information from the analysis of the existing system(s), an assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and the identification of options that would minimise weaknesses and maximise strengths.

It begins, however, with the consideration of the process as a sub-system. In VSM terms it needs to be a self-managing sub-system that achieves its functional purpose internally, when supplied with the resources it needs from its operating environment. It also needs to consistently deliver the planned information and outputs of the required quality back to that operating environment.

5.3 The root definition

The purpose of a root definition is to articulate the problem being addressed in a structured way to aid the development of a solution.

A root definition of the student attendance monitoring system might be:

The creation and implementation of an information management system that accurately and consistently records and reports on the participation of students in planned learning activities.

This definition immediately focuses the system designers mind on where in the organisation this happens and what it might look like. In other words it is the beginning of a conceptual model.

5.4 The conceptual model

The conceptual model makes an outline statement about what the system is intended to do and how it will do it.

Key to the conceptual model will be a view of the system boundaries and who is responsible for managing it (module tutor, year tutor, programme director). Equally important will be an idea of how flexible the model needs to be to support all curriculum areas and how responsive it needs to be to meet the needs of institutional management.

A basic conceptual model of the student attendance monitoring system might be:

1. A data capture system that records individual student attendance at scheduled, location specific, learning activities;

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2. An online information management application that receives attendance data and presents it for management use at module, course, faculty and institutional levels;

3. The management of data capture being the responsibility of the individual session tutor and that automatically populates the online management application;

4. The student attendance information being used at tutor and course team level to trigger student support actions where problems are indicated;

5. The student attendance information being available to appropriate levels of management for internal and external performance reporting.

The conceptual model indicates what is to be done without stating how it is to be implemented. Having said that, it does need to be based on achievable goals, and typically makes assumptions about system features. In this case, for example, the conceptual model implies that the data capture is electronic and can directly populate the online information management application.

This is a major departure from the current paper based systems in use at Swansea Met and would represent a significant strategic decision. However, it also makes a statement of intent to exploit the use of technology in improving information management effectiveness and efficiency.

The conceptual model can now be used to construct a viable management model that delivers its intended outcomes. This is still at a level of abstraction from the practical implementation, but it does begin to consider the actors involved and the way the processes are managed through adequate communications and control channels.

5.5 The Viable Systems model

The first decision that needs to be made when modelling a sub-system is the level of recursion involved. As far as student attendance monitoring is concerned, this can vary from the individual tutor as a data capture and management agent, up to the full institutional information management system. As with the conceptual model, the decision made here already makes some assumptions about how the system should work.

The fact that the recursion level here is taken to be at year tutor level implies that this is the key level of management for the system and around which the whole data capture and management process is organised. The important thing for Swansea Met is that such a decision needs to be made in order to create a consistently managed institutional system.

The VSM schematic below shows how the student attendance monitoring system operates independently of its programme management environment, but interacts with it; relying on the provision of data capture and recording systems and feeding back attendance data and issues.

The key features are that:

The system is managed by the year tutor who sets up and monitors all the individual module registers;

The attendance recording system is electronic and online; The data capture system is electronic, feeds directly into the record system and is

managed by the individual module tutors;

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The record system is set up to flag attendance issues for action by the programme team;

The local system, managed by the year tutor, is entirely self-managing and viable given appropriate resources from its operating environment. It therefore is designed to have adequate control and communications capacity to carry out this function and it is also replicable across the institution.

Several assumptions have been made in this model which now needs to be turned into practical reality. Enterprise Architecture techniques can be used for this purpose.

5.6 The Enterprise Architecture model

Section 2 of this paper presented EA models of how student attendance monitoring was currently carried out at Swansea Metropolitan. It showed the variations in systems across the institution and how this resulted in lack of consistency and confidence in data integrity.

The VSM model above was based on evidence of good practice that did exist and was worthy of exploring as the basis for an institutionally managed system. An Enterprise Architecture version will now be presented as an example of how the method can help design a practical solution from the conceptual model.

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The assumptions made for the creation of the model are that:

All the students for the year group are enrolled, the modules they are taking are known and the cohorts and delivery patterns have been agreed by the programme team;

The online attendance recording system is spreadsheet based and each cohort has a separate worksheet with a matrix of names and scheduled learning activities8;

The year tutor is responsible for verifying the completeness of the cohort attendance recording system at the beginning of the session and for managing student attendance issues9;

Each module tutor will be responsible for monitoring the capture of attendance data at each scheduled learning activity session10;

It can be seen how the EA model effectively presents a design brief. It has adopted the proximity card reader as the most pragmatic way of capturing attendance data electronically and makes the assumption that a client application will be in place to automatically populate the attendance spreadsheet with this data. It also assumes that the module tutor will have access to Moodle during the session and that this will link to the spreadsheet for monitoring purposes.

8 This could be either an institutionally developed shared spreadsheet solution, the present system used by Humanities being a particularly good example, or a commercial application such as CelCat. 9 This will be determined by the learning schedule and attendance patterns. Escalation of non-attendance issues would be in consultation with the module tutor.10 Electronic data capture is assumed.

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The system will, of course, need to be adapted for non-conventional attendance patterns but, because it is module and year tutor managed, local data capture arrangements can be agreed.

6. Analysis and Conclusions

This discussion paper has explored how modelling techniques can be used in systems design as a structured way of analysing the system design objectives, forming ideas about potential solutions and moving towards practical implementation.

As has been emphasised throughout, the purpose of creating visual and descriptive systems models is to guide and assist design discussions. The approach taken here has been to recognise that there is more than one way of doing this and that different modelling methods address different aspects of the design process.

The approach has accommodated the fuzzy realities of human activity systems through soft systems considerations, recognised the existence of semi-independent management sub-systems and planned for the practical infrastructure requirements. It is felt that by combining these three methods, a richer picture of the proposed management system improvements can be achieved.

The final case study analysed the student attendance monitoring system and it is not difficult to see how this is a sub-system with a specific purpose. It uses core student data, of course, but it also generates and uses data that is not used outside the sub-system and hence there is no need arrange for it to be available elsewhere in the information management system. This is typical of other sub-systems in the institution.

It is suggested that a full analysis of the student information management system at any institution should recognise the realities of independent sub-systems that need specific management considerations. It should also apply the techniques demonstrated here to ensure that adequate communications channels are provided to their operating environment, as well as providing sufficient resources for their operation.

The overall conclusions arising from this work can be summarised as follows:

1. The student information system in a typical institution serves the needs of a number of functional areas and each area uses a combination of core student data and functionally specific data;

2. The system needs to ensure the appropriate sharing of core data, but that functionally specific data should be locally managed;

3. The local variations in student activity, particularly between different curriculum areas, assessment methods and attendance patterns need to be optimally supported. A one-size-fits-all information management model is unlikely to work;

4. The three stage modelling method demonstrated in this paper shows that, by taking into account the need for flexibility, recognising the sub-system structure and using this to design a practical management solution, consistent and pragmatic designs can be achieved;

Tony Toole

February 2013

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