1 QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Science Faculty Information Systems School IAB401 Enterprise Architecture Assignment Part A Assignment Coversheet 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 is worth 35%, as individual-based activity. 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). Scoping of Tasks & marks: (i) Business architecture: Marks: 14/35 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 Marks: 21/35 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. 1 This case study has been adapted from general information about the Department of Human Services and its service delivery processes. It reflects an ‘authentic assessment’ for the IAB401 assignment. The information presented in this document does not strictly reflect actual business details and IT systems undertaken through the department, for reasons of confidentiality, currency and real-world complexity. 2 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. All assumptions made will be required to be briefly described. Assessment: 1 Relates to learning outcomes: 2, 3, 4 Weight: 35% Group or Individual: Individual Submitted material: An electronic document with the graphical model and supportive textual explanations, as described in tasks & marks (see above). Where to submit: You need to submit your documents through a link that will be made available on Canvas, assessment tab. The link will be available few days before the assignment’s due date. Submission deadline: Sunday 10 September, 23:59. 3 IAB401 Enterprise Architecture 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. 1.1 About DHS In Australia,social welfare services are available for citizensthrough 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. 1.2 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: 4 ● 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. The department’s web site provides full details of all the online services that are available. An image of the main page of the web site is provided in Figure 1. The department’s services may also be accessed online through the federal government’s myGov service centres and web site. myGov provides ‘one-stop-shop’ access to different government agency services including those of the department. Figure 1: Department of Human Services online site The department also utilises a number of external agencies, or Delivery Partners, to support it in certain aspects of delivery. The delivery partners assist customers in the circumstances that customers are in, helping customers to address these. An example of delivery partners are those agencies concerned with jobs (i.e. Job Active Providers) and assisting customers in looking for work and getting jobs. In this case, customers who are unemployed seek assistance through the department for unemployment benefits (e.g. through Newstart Allowance those who are over 22 years old and under pension age of 65-67 years old) and utilise a ‘jobactive organisation’ as a delivery partner to find work and report on progress in terms of job seeking or any required training as part of the agreement to get unemployment benefits (called mutual obligation). Customer may also trigger claims for services through delivery partners, which the partners forward to the department. The department also interacts with other Customer Stakeholders to obtain information about customers in relation to verifying the identity of customers and their circumstances in order to make decisions about providing payment and other services. Customer Stakeholders include education institutes for study being undertaken, employers where customers work, real estate for property related to customers residence or investments, financial institutes 5 where customers manage their money or investments, and other government departments which record customer details (e.g. Australian Tax Office has information about tax payers). Finally, the department interacts with Policy Agencies and Service Owners, because it is a provider of social welfare and related services, not an owner or policy setting agency of the services. Other agencies are responsible for the policy and service ownership of the department’s payments and services. Specifically, Australian Federal Parliament and other Australian State and Local parliaments pass laws that impact on the kinds of services and payments delivered by the department. Policies will define services, customer cohorts they are intended to support, rules for assessing these, obligations by citizens when they are granted these, and penaltiesthat could apply (e.g. related welfare fraud). Policy Agencies and Service Owners such as the Department of Social Security interact with the department to convert policy, new payments, businessrules etc. into business processes. The impact of new policy settings on existing processes needsto be carefully understood and change plans need to be put in place. Other Policy Agencies and Service Owners are Queensland’s Department of Housing, where services provided by Queensland Government might impact services provided by the department (e.g. if a customer needs housing assistance support, there should be a clear understanding about which agencies they should apply to – e.g. the department of Queensland’s Department of Housing). 2. Organisationalstructure 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. Section 3 describes service delivery management in more detail; ● Payments Reform (Transformation): this area involves planning, design and implementation of key systemsthat introduce new ways of undertaking service delivery3 . 2 An understanding of the full organisational structure of the department is beyond the scope of this assignment. Only the organisational areas highlighted in this section are relevant. Of these areas, “Service Delivery Operations” is the central focus. Its processes and systems are further detailed in section 3. 3 An example of a system being designed and development under Payments Reform is the Welfare Payments Infrastructure Transformation, which is intended to provide a modernised system for delivery social welfare payments and other services through the department. 6 The teams in this area undertake future state business strategy, business architecture, solutions architecture and solutions implementation (including solutions procurement from the market); ● Integrity and Information: This area is involved in analysing data generated through service delivery to manage: o Fraud (when payments are either claimed or made for customers reporting false circumstances) o Compliance (to determine that customers are providing timely and accurate information and following the right processes in relation to receiving services) o Debt resulting from when customers should not have received full or part payment; ● Corporate and Financial Services: This area is responsible for the internal processes and systems supporting the department’s management as an organisation. This includes: o Human resources management (i.e. management of staff) o Financials (accounting) o Product management (procurements and fulfilments) o Vendor management covering engagement, funding and tracking of product suppliers (e.g. for office equipment), delivery partners (for assistance in service delivery) and other service providers (e.g. for engagement of property services such as cleaning); ● Chief Information Officer (CIO) Group: providing IT management for all the IT systems used by the department. This involves supporting all sorts of systems including software applications, software platforms (e.g. database system, operating system) and systems infrastructure (hardware). It covers planning, design, implementation and running of IT systems. Note, for designing and implementing systems, the CIO group works closely with the Payments Reform (Transformation) area, which as described above is responsible for running projects that introduce key systems to the department; 3. Service delivery business and IT systems The department provides services through a number of enacted agencies. Centrelink is one of the largest and provides payment and support services to the customer segments such as job seekers, seniors (no longer working full-time), students and trainees, families, carers, parents, people with disability, Indigenous Australians, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. To deliver services, the department uses a range of customer management, claims lodgement, claims assessment, and service payment capabilities to deliver outcomes for customers, as utilised through the Service Delivery Operations organisational area. 3.1 Customer needs, registration and service matching Customers digitally access servicesthrough the department’s web site, interactive kiosks, and mobile applications. The staff-assisted channels include service centres located in different 7 towns and cities nationally, an integrated call centre with locations in different cities, postal mail processed in service centres, and mobile service centres (trucks) that go out to regional communities. 3.1.1 Online interactions If a customer wishes to lodge a claim for support online, they first access the myGov portal, which is the federal government’s ‘one-stop-shop’ entity from which services of the federal government are meant to be accessed. To make a claim for social welfare, customers will need a Centrelink online account which is linked to their Customer Profile (Record) identified by a Customer Reference Number. With a profile in place, a customers can sign-in to their account from myGov and connect to Centrelink (and other agencies) to gain access to services. If customers do not have an account or customer profile, they will have visit a service centre to be identified and provide documents to identify themselves (e.g. driver’s licence, birth certificate). A profile and account will be issued by the department once customers are accurately identified. A claim form for payments and other services can be filled in online4 . This form is used as the basis to verify customer details in relation to their requests, perform assessments for eligibility (checking conditions that customers should satisfy to receive one or more payments/services) and entitlement (how much of one or more payments/services can be supported). A customer will be requested to provide all relevant details (as outlined by legislation policy and associated business rules). The claim form will include customer information relevant to themselves and their claims – i.e. Customer Reference Number, their names, identities (like Tax File Number created through the Australian Tax Office), details of their dependents (e.g. spouse and children), and other circumstances. Circumstances include the details of income they earn, savings, assets such as cars and houses owned, courses they are studying). For specifying their welfare support requirements, the customer nominates a number of payments and services, available through the department, for their needs. A digital service called Payment Finder is available for customers to find payments and services relevant to their needs, to do a self-assessment about whether they are eligible for the service, and to simulate how much they are entitled to (payment and services finder). In some instances, information about a customer’s circumstances and other details are held in systems of other agencies, or Customer Stakeholders. This may include information about their tax records, family members, study courses, health care, jobs etc. This information may be requested via the customer or through the department to Customer Stakeholders using an automated data exchange system (for further details, see section 4). There are certain aspects of making a claim which may require sending in information. For example, documents related to claims can be sent to the department via scan/upload using 4 For a general appreciation of the instructions for making an online claim, see: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/online-help/centrelink/claim-payment-online-using-yourcentrelink-online-account 8 a document lodgement service. The customer is also asked to provide verification of their identification and claims. Alternatively, a customer may post in documents or personally take it into a service centre. In addition to the Payment Finder, other customer services available online are customer management (including capture and update of identity and circumstance details), claims management (including claims lodgement, assessment, enquiries and tracking), document lodgement, and customer feedback (related to input they provide the department for service delivery). 3.1.2 Staff assisted interactions In many instances, details of claim forms cannot be completed online and staff assisted processes are required. Customers may then be directed to provide further information at a service centre or by telephone at a call centre. Customers identify themselves via a service centre or by telephone. In addition, they may provide updates about their circumstances in relation to existing payments and servicesthey receive, e.g. change of address or getting parttime work. These are called staff assisted interactions. Customers who attend a service centre will on arrival be ‘triaged’ by a Customer Liaison Officer to determine who the best Customer Service Officer to assist (i.e. staff at the service centre). This could be a generalist officer or it could be a specialist such as a social worker. Once triaged, the Customer will be directed to the next step of interactions. In some cases, this may be immediate and in other casesthere may be a wait period before a required officer is available. In some other cases, an appointment will be booked at a future time for a telephone or service centre meeting with the customer to get and validate more complex details about the customer’s circumstances and social welfare needs. In extreme cases, specialist social workers are assigned to assist customers in determining special needs and making a plan to assist them. An example of where a social worker is needed is where a customer may homeless or has experienced domestic violence. In such examples, while running through the process of applying for claim is important, the department recognisesthat customers are experiencing personalstress and other factors and need proper social care and follow-up when applying for payments/services. 3.2 Claims processing Once the claim is submitted, it is assessed using both the claim management system, rules and staff expertise. Claims assessments will be made on the basis of circumstances of customers and validating the details provided: financial, accommodation, medical, employment, education, age, and family circumstances. There are two key processes involved in the assessment. Firstly, eligibility to determine whether a customer can receive the payment(s)/service(s) being requested based on eligibility business rules (e.g. the customer needs to be an Australian citizen and cannot be earning an income above a certain amount). Secondly, entitlement to determine how much of payment(s) a customer can get, based on entitlement rules. During the process of making these assessments, further information about customer circumstances may be queried and 9 checked with customers and Customer Stakeholders. Customer queries take place through email/SMS orletter notifications and customerstypically come into service centresforfurther interactions. Once the claim assessment is finalised and successful (partly or wholly matching the requests), a service offer is made to the customer. This may include both payments, concession cards, and/or social support (e.g. referrals to specialist services). The service offer will involve payment(s)/service(s) accepted by the department after the assessments, as well as the conditions of access to these. These are called obligations, which may involve taking action such aslooking for work or undergoing training, and reporting to the department about any change of circumstances. The customer may be directed to work with a Customer Stakeholder as part of the payments/services they receive, e.g. working with a job agency to find work. For customers in extreme situations, the department sustains social care by making referrals for support such as domestic violence protection, accommodation, or other welfare services. These referrals are made by the Service Officer after consultation with a customer to outside agencies, who are also forms of Customer stakeholders. Referrals are made via manual or automated processes. Customers can track their claims online using the claims management service or they can speak to staff through a call centre or service centre about the status of their claims. When a decision is made, they will receive notification of the service offer including the payment(s)/service(s) and obligations by secured Email/SMS, and letter. Alternatively, the department may request for further information from the customer. The service offer needs to be put in place by allocating payment(s)/service(s) that have been accepted by the department. This means allocating the funds available for services from the department to the payment(s)/services(s) being offered. Once the claim is finalised, data is transferred to the payment system to initiate the delivery of payment to the customer’s bank account. Payment is generally available to the customer within one or two days. In some instances of ‘hardship’ a customer maybe issued an immediate or emergency payment which is also made through the electronic payment system. 3.3 Service access Once payment(s)/services(s) have been put in place, customers access these for the agreed upon period by the department. Getting payment(s)/services(s) are subject to the same circumstances of customers as when a claim was assessed. If these circumstances change – for example, a customer on study assistance payment, gets a part-time job or gets married or has a child – they need to be reported to the department immediately. Otherwise the customer risks losing the payment(s)/services(s) provided. In addition, the payment(s)/service(s) may have obligations on customers to take particular action, e.g. reporting on jobs finding on a weekly basis to a job seeker organisation (i.e. 10 Customer Stakeholder) or undertaking training. Obligations need to be recorded by the department, and be captured by customers online, Customer Stakeholders, or staff assistance. If customers fail to comply with obligations, they risk losing their payment(s)/services(s). 4 IT systems used ● The myGov agency has a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ System supporting: o The myGov portal o Secure Gateway which supports communications between myGov and other agency applications that it provides access to (currently the department and the Australian Tax Office) ● The department has an integrated online web application to support its web site, a mobile application and a kiosk application in support of its online channels ● The department has a Customer Relationship Management system which holds its accounts and profiles of its registered customers (uniquely identified by a Customer Registration Number). This system holds details of customers such as their circumstances and data about obtained from Customer stakeholders (e.g. Tax File Number, QUT Student Id). It also holds details of customer payments/services accessed currently and in the past ● The department has a Service Management System supporting: o Claims Management, which manages the capture, update and tracking of claims made by customers o Service Management, which manages the service offers, by way of payment(s) and service(s) over a time period that customers access, the obligations that put in place, and interactions that take place regarding services – payments/services delivered, reports made by customers to update their circumstances ● The department has a Payment Engine which supports the payments made to customers ● The department has a Secure Partner Gateway for data exchange with Customer Stakeholders, Delivery Partners and outside agencies 5 Tasks For details of the assignment tasks, please read the following and also referto 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. 11 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 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. All assumptions made will be required to be briefly described.