By documenting the inventory of applications used in an organization, and then rationalizing its level of contribution to the agency's operations, a well established plan to prioritize and evaluate existing systems will be completed with much more clarity. A chart allows stakeholders to focus on the major details of an application. Its data input and output provides an idea of how the applications are used and the range of its involvement in the educational programs. The functional and technical assessment, along with its standard classification, ranks a general idea of its performance quality in relation to other similar applications. From there, its process issues identifies any major problems that need to be resolved; and the state/district/school outcomes shows its relevancy in the education system. Finally, the costs gives the most important data of how much funding is needed to license, maintain, support, and essentially, to keep using the application. Each of these aspects helps determine where money could be saved and unnecessary labour reduced.
By going through this process of researching each application, I have become more aware of how they could quickly go outdated. It is so important to understand the business aspects involved: contracts, timeframes, external and internal support, relevancy to state and federal laws; also, the changing of applications, changing companies, changing services, and changing costs. All of which, contributes to the decision making process. Going over past and present data will give insights to how change has initiated progress and any trends that are stable and consistent. Ultimately, in leading an organization through decisions around changing their applications, I would recommend they look at the overall picture, the inventory list of applications, where areas need attention and to consider how existing applications could be upgraded to oversee another system that is having troubles. It's about taking what works to do more and to do better for the organization as a whole.
References:
“Education Enterprise Architecture Guidebook.” (2014, March). Reform Support Network. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/implementation-support-unit/tech-assist/education-architecture-guidebook.pdf
By going through this process of researching each application, I have become more aware of how they could quickly go outdated. It is so important to understand the business aspects involved: contracts, timeframes, external and internal support, relevancy to state and federal laws; also, the changing of applications, changing companies, changing services, and changing costs. All of which, contributes to the decision making process. Going over past and present data will give insights to how change has initiated progress and any trends that are stable and consistent. Ultimately, in leading an organization through decisions around changing their applications, I would recommend they look at the overall picture, the inventory list of applications, where areas need attention and to consider how existing applications could be upgraded to oversee another system that is having troubles. It's about taking what works to do more and to do better for the organization as a whole.
References:
“Education Enterprise Architecture Guidebook.” (2014, March). Reform Support Network. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/implementation-support-unit/tech-assist/education-architecture-guidebook.pdf