Case Study
The Opportunity
A government department recognised the need to develop coherent, integrated information architecture and governance capabilities.
These capabilities needed to align with best practice and include an approved and communicated set of guiding principles, policies and enabling architectures. The risk placed upon existing business services and current projects along with latent risk for future phases when improvements or changes are eventually undertaken was also recognised.
Key objectives were to improve information quality, integration and resilience by enforcing a defined layer of abstraction between organisational strategy and the supporting enterprise architecture components (business processes, procedures, IT systems, data stores).
Our Approach
- Information governance activities: Integration with NAA DC2020 mandates, issues management
- Meetings: Chair early governance meetings
- Structures: Develop the governance hierarchy
Artefacts were also developed, such as terms of reference, principles, policies and procedures. The data management and data governance framework and associated methodologies were based on the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBoK).
- Enterprise Data Model containing high level subject models with definitions and a detailed Conceptual Data Model with definitions down to entity and key attribute level
- Enterprise Business Model to complement the Enterprise Data Model by defining the key functions required to work with the entities in the conceptual data model
- Information landscape identifying the location and flow of information through the organisation, and the major data stores
- Target state data landscape with traffic light status of current data stores
- Future state roadmap defining the implementation of Enterprise Business models, Data Architectures and Information Governance.
Outcomes Achieved
- Strategic data initiatives are aligned to the National Archives of Australia Digital Continuity 2020 agenda
- Information governance structures will ensure that improvements to information management and architecture are sustainable
- Business and IT stakeholders are involved in information governance structures
- Current (as-is)/Target (to-be) data landscapes, data models and other foundational information architecture artefacts were developed to inform data storage and migration plans that minimised risk, data conflicts and redundancy
- Information-related dependencies and impacts are understood and can be analysed when Information Governance needs to determine priorities
