Reference no: EM132619844

IAB401 Enterprise Architecture - Queensland University of Technology

Description: This assignment will require students to create an enterprise architecture describing a service delivery business and IT systems, based on a background of an Australian federal government agency responsible for the delivery social welfare support for citizens, i.e. the Department of Human Services1.

The assignment will require students to apply modelling techniques taught through the unit's business and enterprise architecture lectures:
• Business architecture in developing a characterisation of what an organisation does, through business capability models, and high-level process value streams to further detail business capabilities (lectures 2 and 3);
• Enterprise layered architecture, which translates business capabilities and value streams into more detailed scenarios which are modelled as ArchiMate models (lectures 4 and 5).

(i) Business architecture
The business architecture component will involve reading and analysing the assignment brief (see below) and developing a multi-level business capability and related value streams.
Students will be given the overall business capability map and asked to complete the one of the business capabilities.
The capability will need a graphical model and textual description describing each capability as described as part of it.
All assumptions made will be required to be briefly described.

(ii) Enterprise architecture
The enterprise architecture component will involve reading and analysing the assignment brief (see below) and developing a layered ArchiMate model in terms of the business and IT application layers only.

The IT infrastructure layer (i.e. hardware and middleware platforms) is NOT required.

The model should be described in terms of a scenario-style explanation.

The ArchiMate model should capture key aspects of the business and IT service delivery systems: all key business roles and the business actors that correspond to them, business services, business channels, business collaborations between roles, business processes, software application services, software applications and software application components. Any key business information used in the business processes should also be modelled.
All relationships between modelled elements should be provided. A key highlight of the model should be the alignment between modelling elements in business and IT layers, so that it is clear which parts of the business use specific IT applications.

Assignment Part A

Assignment Brief: Department of Human Services Social Welfare Support in Australia

1. Overview: Social welfare support through the Department of Human Services
Governments worldwide provide social welfare, by way of payments and services, to support individuals, families and other groups, for particular circumstances, which limit their ability to support themselves. Examples of social welfare support include unemployment benefits, study assistance, rental assistance, disability insurance, and childcare support.

Customer requests need to be carefully assessed to get payments and services, depending on particular conditions and what is being requested, e.g. how much income they earn, the number of dependents they support (e.g. spouse and children), and their state of health.

About DHS
In Australia, social welfare services are available for citizens through the federal government's Department of Human Services (hereafter referred to as ‘the department'), under the Social Security Act 1999, Social Security Admin Act 1999 and New Tax System Family Administration Act 1999, passed through the federal parliament.

The department consists of a number of different agencies, including Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, responsible for different social welfare support areas. The services provided by the department from its agencies include:
• Payments (e.g. Youth Allowance providing financial support for those under 24, Austudy for study support, and Newstart providing financial support for those out of work and over 24)
• Concessions (e.g. discounts for travel and groceries)
• Other forms of services (e.g. health support).
The responsibility of providing services means that the department undertakes the design, development, delivery and usage monitoring of them.

Overview of DHS's Service Delivery

Having services that can be easily comprehended by customers (i.e. what services are available, who can apply, what are the rules for accessing them, how to apply etc.) is important. This is a major factor in improving the efficiency of service delivery, as there are often uncertainties on the part of customers in relation to services which requires too much support from customer-facing staff. Currently, there is an extremely high volume of customer interactions and processing steps for services involved, as indicated by the following:

• Around 720 million digital and online transactions a year (i.e. payments made to customers)
• Around 21 million visits from customers at its 350 service centres per year
• Around 169 billion dollars in payments to customer and providers
• Around 56 million phone calls per year.
Customers can access services via a range of the department's online (e.g. web site, mobile applications), postal and staff-assisted channels, as well as through delivery partners.

Organisational structure

The department's organisational chart provides an insight into the key actors and business capabilities that support its charter. A summary of the key areas2 of the organisation are as follows:
• Service Delivery Operations: this area covers service delivery management for customers across the channels and core business processes and systems. This involves supporting customers to:
o Register and get a customer profile (record)
o Discover payments and services for specific needs and customer circumstances
o Assess eligibility for services (whether customers can receive payments and other services given their circumstances such as the income and assets they have)
o Assess entitlement for the services (Determining how much customers are entitled to receive given their personal circumstances)
o Set up services (e.g. setting up payments for fortnightly transfer to customers)
o Running/managing the services over the time that they have been set up to deliver. It also involves interactions with delivery partners for assisted services delivery.

Tasks

For details of the assignment tasks, please read the following and also refer to the Assignment Coversheet part of the document (above), in the section covering "Tasks & Marks".

(i) Develop a multi-level business capability and related value streams based on the "Assignment Brief" above. This will involve developing Service Delivery Management and Customer Management Capabilities. A background on the service delivery Management and Customer Management is provided in Section 2 and 3.

The overall, a core of a business capability map is provided to students below. The "Service Delivery Management" and "Customer Management" capabilities, needed to be detailed by students, are highlighted.

L0: Social welfare management L1:
• L1 1. Policy Management, which include analysis or new policy that has been released in relation to payments and services to be delivered by the department
• L1 2. Service Management, which includes service analysis (using new or updated policies and analysis ‘service delivery big data' captured through service delivery systems); service design; and service implementation.
• L1 3. Service Delivery Management - missing details
• L1 4. Customer Management- Missing details
• L1 5. Channel Management
• L1 6. Product Management, which includes Procurements Management and Fulfilments Management
• L1 7. Sales & Marketing Management
• L1 8. Partner (or Vendor) Management, which includes Supplier Management (e.g. for office equipment); Delivery Partner Management (for assistance in service delivery); Supplementary Service Provider Management (e.g. for engagement of property services such as cleaning)
• L1 9. Human Resources Management (i.e. management of staff)
• L1 10. Financial Management which includes accounting
• L1 11. Product management which includes procurements and fulfilments
• L1 12. IT Management
• L1 13. Business Transformation Delivery, i.e. delivered through business transformation projects for new initiatives of service delivery

The missing capability will need a graphical business capability model and textual description describing each capability as described as part of this capability.

All assumptions made will be required to be briefly described.

(ii) Develop an ArchiMate model representing the enterprise architecture for the Service Delivery Management capability and value stream from (i).

The ArchiMate model will need the business and IT application layers only. The IT infrastructure layer (i.e. hardware and middleware platforms) is NOT required.

The model should be described in terms of a scenario-style explanation.
The ArchiMate model should capture key aspects of the business and IT service delivery systems: all key business roles and the business actors that correspond to them, business services, business channels, business collaborations between roles, business processes, software application services, software applications and software application components. Any key business information used in the business processes should also be modelled.

All relationships between modelled elements should be provided. A key highlight of the model should be the alignment between modelling element in business and IT layers, so that it is clear which parts of the business use specific IT applications.