A European Statistical System Enterprise Architecture Reference Framework
Topic: IT systems to support a corporate statistical Enterprise Architecture
Keywords: EA, ESS Vision 2020, Reference Framework, Modernisation
1.Introduction
The paper presents the ESS Enterprise Architecture Reference Framework (ESS EARF). It has been created to support the implementation of the ESS Vision 2020 on which the ESSCommittee came to an agreement in May 2014 as the guiding frame for ESS development during the years up to 2020.
ESS Vision 2020 lays down the basis for the future ESS cooperation on modernizing the production and dissemination of ESS statistics and outlines the future ESS business strategy in response to the challenges identified.
The Vision 2020 explicitly calls for the establishment of an ESS EA as a Reference Framework by stipulating the adoption of a “Common Reference Enterprise Architecture” as one of its key implementation elements and defining EA as "a systematic language to describe the way our business wants to operate and how the various components fit together. It serves to translate our vision into implementation strategies and priorities in a systematic way. It will be based on Principles of standardisation and interoperability, reuse, Business Function-independent standard processes, metadata driven business chains and service-oriented data-based outputs of statistical processes.[1] “
The Enterprise Architecture Framework defines the Enterprise Architecture in the context of the ESS. It provides Principles and practices for creating and using the architecture description both at the European and Member State levels.
In its broadest sense, the Enterprise Architecture Reference Framework should ensure that Vision 2020 is implemented effectively and efficiently. Projects that do not comply with the Enterprise Architecture Reference Framework should be questioned in terms of their value add & sustainability to the ESS.
In European Statistics development, the need for new statistical services and processes is growing. New architectures and new forms of solution delivery are required to respond more quickly and cost-effectively to statistical business needs. IT is recognized as a key enabler for embracing the data revolution, for introducing new & innovative metrics and for producing statistics more cost-efficient. The ESS EARF should ensure that IT developments are sustainable and efficient and utilize the collaboration opportunities of the ESS ensuring benefits to all its members.
While developing the ESS EARF, we have built upon a number of initiatives in official statistics such as the Common Statistical Production Architecture (CSPA[2]), the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM[3]), the Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM[4]) and the Statistical Network (Business Activity Model). We also draw on widely recognized Enterprise Architecture Frameworks such as the Open Group standard TOGAF.[5] These existing models and methods have helped considerably to guide and structure the elaboration of the ESS EAF.
2.Method
The ESS EARF is a set of abstract artefacts (principles, templates and models) that describe how to organize statistical capabilities to meet business information and technology requirements and satisfy the implementation of Vision 2020.
The ESS EARF includes the following key artefacts:
- The ESS business capabilities model, as part of the Business Architecture – the business capabilities model summarizes the key capabilities required for producing official statistics. It provides a framework to view which capabilities expressed in term of people, …. are already sufficiently present in the ESS versus those on which development effort needs to be put;
- The ESS business process model, as part of the Business Architecture –illustrates a generic process flows supporting the statistical value chain. It serves as a reference for project manager to structure project business environement in terms of inputs available and outputs required and to identify key business functions are to be transformed or created to reach the desired business outcomes of the ESS under Vision 2020;
- The ESS EA RF building blocks – the building blocks constitute the major functional components needed for the ESS and its individual partners to realize Vision 2020;
- The key standards are recommendation for the implementation of the building blocks ensuring reusability and interoperability across the whole ESS and within NSIs
- Principles for the ESS EARF – these are principles that should give guidance to the decision involved in realizing the Vision 2020 , e.g. when it comes to deciding on the go or no-go or design of Vision 2020 projects & Information system architectures;
The ESS EARF is targeted towards all ESS partners, and - within the ESS organizations - various levels of audiences (from the Director-Generals to IT project managers). It provides a consistent set of architectural artefacts in line with EA best practices. The ESS EARF is thus an asset from which ESS partners can draw, significantly speeding up decisions throughout an ESS project’s life cycle as illustrated by Figure 1
Figure 1 Overview of the ESS Enterprise Architecture Framework artefacts throughout the project life cycle
The ESS EARF should be used where decisions are to be made about the design of architectures as well as actual system implementations under the ESS.
3.Results
The paper will present a series of use cases for the ESS EA RF ;
- ESS managers
- ESS Enterprise architects
- ESS Business Leaders
- ESS modernisation projects
- ESS IT Leaders
Through these use case, we intend to demonstrate the ESS EA RF Value
These include:
- Cost savings through reuse and sharing of IT services and infrastructure where appropriate, reducing both capital investments and operating cost as well as providing the ESS with a stronger position to negotiate market prices towards external service providers.
- Long-term sustainability of IT systems through adherence to common architectural Principles and design criteria (such as interoperability), the implementation of standards and an overall more coherent development and adaptation of systems.
- Gradual breakdown of organizational silos through deployment of IT building blocks across Business Functions and/or across countries. Statisticians within the ESS can collaborate as “European” statisticians, making use of pan-European expertise, methodologies and services.
- Streamlined processes through ensuring that statistical process steps (e.g. within the validation phase) are only executed once within the ESS.
- Faster and better services through specialization whereby select ESS participants could focus on certain architecture building blocks (e.g. the design of collection instruments), accelerating and deepening the creation of expertise. Select NSIs could thus pilot an IT service and, if successful, make it available for replication or as a shared service.
- A single recognizable brand to users of European statistics through similar end user interfaces and survey contacts, increasing ESS awareness and uptake and indirectly also the confidence in official statistics.
- Leverage of greater amounts of data, with possibly new types of data being exchanged in a trusted environment where computing capacity can be increased flexibly, allowing the computation of more complex indicators and realities.
- Greater focus on the quality perspective when creating shared services.
- Higher business agility by creating and re-using services. By re-using a service within an NSI or even within ESS, ESS partners increase the possibility of reacting faster to new requirements.
- Balancing budgets & financing cycles amongst ESS partners. An NSI could for example take the lead in creating services during a period where its finances are sound and can benefit from other NSIs’ investments in turn in financially more restraining periods.
- Room for more innovative investment models such as joint procurement and “Kickstarter” like ways of investing.
References
Included as footnotes
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[1]Excerpts from ESS Vision 2020.
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