Putting IT all together

He gave a succinct explanation of Enterprise Architecture as “providing a framework for integrating disparate systems into a cohesive whole”.

One of the things he spoke about was the need to give students an integrated view of the information that is relevant to them, drawing on whatever data is needed from back-end systems, rather than requiring students to keep checking multiple systems with inconsistent user interfaces.

The need for a more user-driven model to IT system planning at the University was underlined by a review carried out earlier this year which outlined clear areas for improvement.

The talk was well attended by staff from different departments within the University. This diversity in attendance contributed to a lively discussion afterwards during the question and answer session.

Slides from the seminar are available on Dave's blog: http://distributed-thinking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/presentation-putting-it-all-together.html

This was the first time I attended an IS Applications Division seminar and I found it an informative session. I’m based at IAD and have a focus on digital education so the seminar provided a useful overview of the work taking place in IS to support and enhance the online experience for students and staff. I came away with an understanding of how the digital experience will be improved as IS work towards designing online services provided by the University with a user focus, rather than being based on University systems and departments.

Celeste McLaughlin