Information Architectures Definition–A Case Study in a Portuguese ...

Information Architectures Definition – A Case Study in a Portuguese Local Public Administration Organization Filipe Sá1 and Álvaro Rocha2 1

Câmara Municipal de Penacova, Largo Alberto Leitão, 5, 3360-341 Penacova, Portugal [email protected] 2 LIACC, Universidade do Porto, R. Campo Alegre 1021, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract. An Information Architecture is the basis for a comprehensive and integrated information system of any organization, capable of providing answers that meet the challenges posed by the contemporary competitive environment. In this paper we identify representative methodologies used in Information Architecture definitions, and we present an Information Architecture Planning case study for a Local Public Administration organization, where we implement an Adapted BSP Methodology that is sufficiently flexible and suited to the goals we propose. Keywords: Information Systems Planning, Information Systems Integration, E-Government.

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Architecture,

Introduction

In a globalized market, with the consequent increase of competitiveness and the growing level of demand concerning products and services, practically every aspect of an organization impacts its competitive positioning, and this is particularly true for the efficiency of its Information System (IS) [9, 12, 13, 22]. Consequently, Local Public Administrations are currently facing a challenge of administrative modernization, where the purpose is to bring services and town residents closer together, together with a constant need process dematerialisation [2, 24, 15]. Penacova Municipality, located in the District of Coimbra, Portugal, is no exception to this need. The available information is increasingly larger and its consultation must be quick and effective, in order to lead to the most efficient decisions and actions. In this context, the purpose of this work was to develop a study that would define and validate an Information Architecture for the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality, capable of effectively answering to its information needs. For that reason, our study focused on existent concepts and methodologies, in order to define a cohesive Information Architecture based on an academic work that would be capable of sustaining a genuinely useful final product. Á. Rocha et al. (Eds.): Advances in Information Systems and Technologies, AISC 206, pp. 399–410. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-36981-0_37 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

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Accordingly, we outlined the following goals in the present work: • • • •

Analyzing methodologies that were representative of the Information Architecture Planning; Selecting and implementing a methodology in a real case scenario; Proposing and validating an Information Architecture for the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality; Reflecting about the advantages and disadvantages of the implemented methodology.

In the following sections we present the methodology adopted in this study, we identify the methodologies considered representative for the Information Architecture Planning and we present a case study involving the development of an Information Architecture for the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. Finally, we will discuss the results, draw a number of conclusions and define the direction for a future work.

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Methodology of the Study

In a first stage, we developed a review of the available literature, examining in detail a sample of books, essays, thesis and scientific papers published in the field, which allowed us to select and better understand the Information Architecture Planning methodology implemented in our case study. Maintaining this approach we followed the case study method, frequently used in both quantitative and qualitative investigation works [7, 8], that oriented the implementation of the Adapted BSP Methodology presented by Amaral & Varajão [3], in the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. Based on the collected and examined elements, we proposed and validated an Information Architecture encompassing the complete and integrated development of an Information System that supported the multiple information needs of this Penacova Municipality Department. Finally, we discussed the results and reflected upon the advantages and disadvantages of the implemented methodology.

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Information Architecture Planning Methodologies

The Information Architecture of any organization involves the definition of relationships between business processes and data classes. This enables the evaluation of data sharing inside the organization. Additionally, the Information Architecture provides the basis for resource management and tactical planning, allowing for an orderly implementation of the Information Architecture. The focus of our investigation involved the identification of methodologies that were capable of aiding the Information Architecture Planning of an organization. Consequently, were selected and studied the BSP (Business Systems Planning) Methodology [10], the Adapted BSP Methodology [3], Zachman’s Framework

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[25, 26, 27], the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework [21] and the Enterprise Architecture Planning Methodology [5, 18]. These were the methodologies considered representative for the Information Architecture definition, based on the extent that they were mentioned, studied and selected and/or implemented in several academic works [e.g., 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 23]. In the present case study we selected and decided to implement the Adapted BSP Methodology developed by Amaral & Varajão [3]. Our choice was based on the following factors: • • • • •

It was substantially documented; It was inspired by the original BSP Methodology but offered new details and a different organization of activities, suited to the present context; It met the critical key-factors underlying the successful planning, development and implementation of an Information Architecture; Its different steps were easily adapted to fit the reality of Private Construction Works Department in Penacova Municipality; The matrices describing the Information Architecture enabled a clear and effective analysis of processes and data classes, as well as an information flow analysis, promoting a greater understanding of the study as a whole;

The Application/Data Classes Matrix, the Application/Processes Matrix and Application/ Organization Matrix, led to a clear and unmistakable identification of the current and prospective IS support to the Information Architecture of the Private Construction Works Department in Penacova Municipality.

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Case Study: The Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality

In this section of the paper we describe a study developed in the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. This study included an Information Architecture Planning based on the Adapted BSP Methodology, developed by Amaral & Varajão [3]. This methodology was adapted to the reality of the context and the size of the study. 4.1

Characterization of the Private Construction Works Department

Penacova Municipality belongs to the District of Coimbra. The Municipality covers an area 220 Km2 and has 15251 inhabitants – 2011 Census – spread over 11 civil parishes. Penacova Municipality is, therefore, a Local Public Administration organization. By the end of 2010 it held 149 employees. Its Private Construction Works Department belongs to the Environment, Urban Services and Municipal Construction Works Department, who may delegate tasks to Town Councillors or someone from its office. It is composed by the following organic subunits: Service Planning; Spatial

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Planning; Urban and Construction Works Management; Municipal Inspection Services; and Administrative Department. The General Division has 74 employees, 17 of which working full time in the Private Construction Works Department. Generally speaking, the purpose of this Private Construction Works Department is to licence and regulate all the construction works developed within Penacova Municipality. Some of the processes result in construction work projects, subdivision plans, certificates, correspondence, issuance of permits, fee collection, water-related processes, sanitation, etc. Despite being an internal department, the treatment of its processes implies an interaction with other internal departments, such as, for instance, the Treasury or the Accounting departments. There are also external interactions, both with town residents and other entities, involving licensing, authorizations or requests for opinions. This Department is responsible for receiving and running all matters connected with private construction works. 4.2

Implementing the Adapted BSP Methodology

In this section we describe how the Adapted BSP Methodology, developed by Amaral & Varajão [3], was implemented with the purpose of creating an Information Architecture Planning for the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. The complete absence of a study or any official ISP document involving this Municipality Department, and also the need to rethink its entire IS, justified this implementation. Consequently, we implemented the steps of the selected methodology, adjusting them to the reality of the object of study and to the scope of our investigation. The scope and the objective of the study were thus defined, as well as the project team and the logistics. We identified the information to be collected, concerning human resources, financial resources, services and clients. We identified the installed hardware and software, and the information systems. We identified the mission, vision strategic goals and objectives of the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. We also defined its entities. Based on the meetings we held with the Head of the Construction Works Department and the President of the City Council, we identified the following entities: President; Head of the Department; Technicians; Administrative Staff; Town Supervisor; Inspection Committee; and Citizens. This group of entities is responsible for all the elements that intervene in the processes of the Department. Finally, we defined the processes and the data classes. 4.2.1 Processes In the words of Amaral & Varajão [3] the organization processes can be defined as “logically connected decision groups” or “the activities that are necessary to manage the resources of an organization”. Still according to the same authors, defining the organizational processes will lead to:

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An IS that is independent of the organizational structure; An understanding of how the organization achieves its mission; A basis for the Information Architecture Planning, that identifies its scope, renders it modular and determines its development priorities; A basis for the identification of key-requirements pertaining to data.

Bearing in mind the rules for the identification of processes, based on the meetings we held, we drafted a first scheme containing all the procedures and existing processes in the Private Construction Works Department. After this survey the processes were organized in a “Dictionary of Processes”. Finally, the processes were validated. We identified and described 37 processes. ‘Prepare Plan of Activities’ (P1), for instance, was one of the processes we identified, and its definition was: “Set of actions and decisions concerning the preparation of a Plan of Activities for the Private Construction Works Department, defining goals, responsibilities and identifying the means to achieve it.” 4.2.2 Data Classes Amaral & Varajão [3] state: “A data class is a cluster of data pertaining to aspects (or entities) that are relevant for the information. Data classes should represent data that needs to be available to complete the activities of the organization”. Based on this assumption, and after the dictionary of processes had been completed, we were able to identity and define the existing data classes in the Department and prepare a dictionary of data classes. We identified and described 42 data classes. “Site Journal” (C30), for instance, was one of the data classes we identified, and its definition was: “Document containing the entire history of the construction work, including information of the responsible technicians, daily summaries of the construction works progress, amendments to the project, inspections from Town Supervisors and inspection-related files”. After identifying and describing the dictionary of processes and the dictionary of data classes, we determined which data was created and used by each process. Figure 1 illustrates the process P1 (Prepare Plan of Activities).

P1 – Prepare Plan of Activities Create C1 – Activities Plan

Use C3 - Goals Sheet C5 – Holidays Sheet C4 – HR Assessment Form

Fig. 1. Creation and use of data classes by process

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4.2.3 Defining the Information Architecture After identifying, describing and validating each process and the respective data classes, we needed to establish a connection amongst them in order to define an Information Architecture that allowed us to assess the situation of the organization and build a structured diagnosis of the existing, as well as the future, constraints and difficulties. Accordingly, we built a matrix displaying the processes on the vertical axis and the data classes on the horizontal axis. In the cells we used the ‘C’ (create) letter to designate the data classes created by processes, and the ‘U’ (use) letter to designate de processes that used data classes. In order to determine the Information Architecture flow chart we organized the processes by grouping those that shared a great deal of data. Afterwards, we reorganized data classes as follows: the data class that was closest to the process axis was created by the first listed process, the next one (the following) by the second process, and so on. After reorganizing the rows and the columns in the matrix we were able to define groups of processes. When those groups were identified, we were able to identify the data flow amongst them, based on the data classes that each process used. Figure 2 displays the Processes/Data Classes Matrix, and the groups of processes were named according to their role: • • • • • • • • •

Administration – Group of processes and data classes concerning the Construction Works Department management and policy; Service - Group of processes and data classes concerning Costumer Service and preliminary processing; Sanitation – Group of processes and data classes concerning the preparation of a preliminary construction work process analysis by the Administrative Service; Licensing - Group of processes and data classes concerning the technical analysis of a construction work process; Permit - Group of processes and data classes concerning the issuing of a permit; Construction Work Monitoring - Group of processes and data classes concerning the monitoring and the inspection of the construction work carried out by a town resident; Utilization Permit - Group of processes and data classes concerning the issuing of an utilization permit; Archive - Group of processes and data classes concerning the management of the construction works archive. The data flow amongst the groups of processes is displayed in Figure 2. These flows happened each time a process belonging to a group of processes used a data class created by a different process belonging to another group of processes.

Fig. 2. Creation and use of data classes by process

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4.2.4 IT Support to the Information Architecture Analysis After the new Information Architecture was defined we analyzed the support it currently receives from computer applications/ Information Technologies (IT). To do so we prepared three matrices: 1) Applications/Entities Matrix (Figure 3), displaying the computer applications that support users from the Construction Works Department; 2) Applications/Processes Matrix, displaying the applications that support existing processes; 3) Applications/Data Classes Matrix, displaying the applications that support data classes, in order to understand which applications are currently automated and which applications maintain the data.

Fig. 3. Applications/Entities Matrix

4.2.5 Problems After validating the previous steps we needed to identify and define the main problems emerging from the analysis of the computer applications support to the defined Information Architecture, and consequently to the processes and the data classes. In the course of this analysis, which included a number of meetings with the team members, and during the interviewing we identified and validated the main problems. To summarize them we created a table with the following columns: group of processes, cause, problem, significance, originating process, originating data class and proposed solution. Despite emerging in different processes, most of the problems revealed a common source. The main problems were: 1) Lack of available information in the system (paper-based data in some cases) – The Construction Works Department mainly resorts to an OPS (Operations Processing System) application to deal with the construction work processes and a DMS (Document Management System) application for mail registration. These

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two systems should be completely integrated. At the same time, both the OPS and the DMS should enable the electronic scanning of every document, giving way to fully electronic processing and process analysis. Excess of useless information – Without the electronic scanning the applications cannot track the information, leading to the storage of information that is irrelevant for the process analysis. Communication gaps with the town residents – The communication with the town residents is still paper-based, which interferes with deadlines and an accurate document processing. The OPS and DMS applications should allow the electronic notification and communication with town residents. Several applications use the same information, without being shared or scanned – Again, the OPS and the DMS must be integrated to access the same information. No control over external requests – The current applications do not support automated requests for information or opinions from external entities. Since these requests are a part of licensing processes the OPS must be altered to allow automated requests. Access to information from the outside – Supervising teams and inspection committees, when performing external services, need to have access to updated information from the construction work processes under supervision/inspection, and this calls for the implementation of a remote and real time system that allows access to existing processes in the OPS system.

4.2.6 Priorities and Recommendations Considering the collected and validated information, the identified problems, and the validation of current needs, defining development priorities and recommendations becomes mandatory. In order to identify the priorities we adopted a method that involves the identification and clustering of criteria into four categories (Figure 4): Potential benefits; Impact on the organization; Probability of success; and Demand. In each category the relevance was rated in a scale of 1 to 10. The sum of the ratings determined the best computer application development sequence.

Fig. 4. Defining Development Priorities

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Considering the previous analysis, the list of priorities for future development involves solving the following issues: 1) Lack of available information in the system (paper-based data in some cases); 2) Communication gaps with the town residents; 3) Several applications use the same data, without being shared or scanned; 4) Excess of useless information; 5) Access to information from the outside; 6) There is no control over external requests. Despite the definition of a preliminary list of development priorities, this list should be subjected to a new evaluation after each implementation. For instance, the implementation of the first item (Lack of available information in the system) must be followed by a new identification of development priorities that includes the remaining items.

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Discussion and Conclusion

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Contributions

The main purpose of this work was to plan an Information Architecture for the Private Construction Works Department of Penacova Municipality. Our goal was motivated by a strategic decision from Penacova Municipality, of conforming the IS to the new demands of town residents - who needed a greater and quicker access to information and legal demands for increasingly effective and efficient answers. However, we observed that one of the greatest problems faced by Municipalities is the misuse of the available computer systems, as well as their lack of alignment with implemented and intended policies. Another problem has to do with the vision of the political power when faced with a number of changes. Change is frequently perceived as an obstacle, as opposed to a means for success. Fortunately, organizations and new human resources departments are starting to perceive IS and IT not only as technology but as a means to achieve their goals and strategies. This change allowed us to involve a small team from Penacova Municipality in the implementation of the Adapted BSP Methodology, developed by Amaral & Varajão [3], in the Private Construction Works Department. As such, specific goals have reached significant degree of specialization inside information systems, and that is why we performed a literature review involving multiple themes in this field, and several Information Architecture Planning methodologies. By defining the Information Architecture we were able to characterize the information system and verify the existing computer applications as well as the support they provide to the implemented Information Architecture, and to identify and define eight groups of processes (Administration, Services, Sanitation, Licensing, Permits, Construction Works Monitoring, Utilization Permit and Archive) and forty three data classes.

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In a later stage, we identified the main problems as well as the development priorities and recommendations for the future. The excess of useless information and the lack of an integrated document management system in Penacova Municipality are the main obstacles to the Information Architecture implementation and improvement. Regarding the used methodology, the Adapted BSP Methodology was sufficiently flexible and suited the context in question. In short, we reached all goals we proposed when we started this investigation. 5.2

Limitations and Possibilities of Future Works

Our work does not end with the results presented in this paper, which is a part of a preliminary information system planning for Penacova Municipality, particularly the Private Construction Works Department. This work can be improved and completed, should the Municipality be interested in exploring the full potential of the current information systems, in a comprehensive and groundbreaking manner. Despite being a tangible work, time restrains and other limitations made it impossible to explore in greater detail the multiple areas developed, and in a subsequent period we intend to improve and study in greater detail the final steps of the selected methodology. During the final implementation step we will negotiate a solution and confirm if it meets the goals defined by the Public Construction Works Department of this Municipality. Should the Municipality be unable to develop a new IS capable of supporting the new information architecture in a comprehensive manner, we suggest that the existing applications are made available for change in a near future, especially the OPS and the DMS applications, according to the new Information Architecture. The Municipality should therefore contact the company that developed the applications to request their integration. The DMS should be improved in order to allow the electronic scanning of documents, the treatment and the control of processes and the communication with external bodies.

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