OnSIS - Verney Conference Management

Reflections of the Ontario
School Information
System (OnSIS) Journey
Experience Architecture
Navigating Change
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 1
March 1, 2007

OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 2

OnSIS
The goal of OnSIS is to implement a
web-enabled system for streamlining
and improving the collection,
management and reporting of
elementary and secondary educationrelated
data
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 3
.

Data
OnSIS Overview
Management Before
OCT Boards EQAO
Ontario College
of Teachers
Education Quality &
Accountability Office
Schools
Statistics
Canada
The Ministry of Education
TSR SIS BSID CS BR MR Financial Other
Teaching
Staff
Report
Student
Information
System
Board/School
Identification
Data
Course/
Class
Enrolment
Board
Report
School
Report
Stars
Students
and
Regional
Settings
– Manual support required
– Duplicate / Inconsistent Information
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 4
–Lengthy data collection processes
– Reliance on outdated software
and discontinued vendor support

Data
Management After
The Ministry of Education
OnSIS Overview
ESDW
(Elementary Secondary Data Warehouse)
OnSIS
Schools
Boards
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 5
EQAO
OCT
Others

OnSIS Overview
MISA (Managing Information for Student Achievement)
Overview
ESS
OEN
Unique identifier
for students
Secure
access to
applications
OnSIS
41
Depersonalization
Supporting
evidence-based
decision making
ESDW
Data collection
and
management
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 6
School Board Profiles
Public
access to
information

OnSIS Overview
MISA and OnSIS Corporate
Strategies
• Information Management
• Legacy Renewal Strategy
• Business Intelligence, Evidence based
Decision Making
• Horizontal Collaboration Opportunities
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 7

OnSIS Overview
Project Approach
• Strong business leadership & participation
• Aligned with Corporate EA Framework
• EA Process Conformance
• Checkpoints 1, 2, 3 Completed
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 8

OnSIS Overview
OnSIS Business - Stakeholders
IMG
Ministry
Schools (5,600)
Boards (105)
Other Organizations
- Education Quality and Accountability Office
- College and Universities Application Centres
- Ontario College of Teachers
11,000 users
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 9

OnSIS Overview
Objective & Functions
To provide the data required to facilitate policy development, business planning,
tracking, monitoring and accountability at the ministry, board and school levels.
Data Collection
- Validation
- Scheduling
- Tracking
Data Management
- Inquiry
- Extracts and Reports
- Archiving
- Metadata Repository
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 10
Security/Roles Assignment

Corporate or Cluster
Architecture
Governance
Checkpoint 0
Project Initiation
Meets criteria for Corporate
Architecture Review
Corporate
Architecture Governance
Waterfall
Iterative
Business Architecture
(Rows 1 & 2)
Logical Architecture
(Row 3)
Checkpoint 1
Domain Working
Checkpoint 2
Group or
Multidisciplinary
Checkpoint 2
Review
Inception
Business Architecture
(Rows 1 & 2)
Prioritized list of all business
use cases in project scope
Elaboration
(Rows 1 & 2 if necessary)
(Rows 3, 4 & 5 for all
selected Use Cases)
Technology Architecture
(Row 4)
Detailed Representations
(Row 5)
Checkpoint 3 Checkpoint 3
Checkpoint 4
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Post-Implementation
Information
Review
System 11
Construction
(Rows 3, 4 & 5 for
remaining Use Cases)
Transition

OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 12
Zachman Framework

CSC Architectural Review
Process
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 13

Well-architected systems realize some or all of
these benefits:
• Developers can build and maintain loosely coupled components more independently,
and even completely replace old components with new technologies without breaking
clients that depend upon them for services.
• Clear definitions of responsibilities often answer questions like "where should I put
this functionality" before they are even asked, simplifying life for those who build
components or try to understand them later.
• Common design patterns, tools, hardware and software platforms allow developers to
move from one system to another and apply their current skills effectively.
• Applications built to a consistent architecture are more easily integrated with each
other to share data and functionality.
• Standards-based technologies are more easily integrated with external business
partners and commercial "off the shelf" products.
• Careful design of the application and the infrastructure yield high availability and
performance.
• The long-elusive goal of reusable components is achievable.
• Robust systems that can survive partial failure.
• Robust designs that can survive extension, adaptation, requirements changes,
platform changes, etc.
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 14

Value Architecture Added:
Access to Architecture Experts
• Consulting architect participated in design sessions and
reviews, provided direction and advice
Consulting architect consulted with other architecture
professionals during the design process to provide additional
direction
Architecture experts became Trusted Advisors throughout the
design process
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 15

Value Architecture Added:
Advice on implementation of
Zachman Framework
• Zachman Framework is generic - it can be implemented in a
variety of ways
The OPS Architecture Groups provided the project team an
understanding of the specific approach to be used within
OPS
Specific approach included checkpoints, templates,
examples, advice from experts.
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 16

Value Architecture Added:
Identified Common Components
that were candidates for re-use
by OnSIS Project
• The OPS Architecture group was involved in the design
from the early states - they had a clear understanding of
the requirements.
Based on their understanding, they helped to identify
appropriate common components for re-use
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 17

Common Components –
multiple uses within OnSIS
application
Component Name
Access Privileges
Data
Activity Logger
Batch User Input
Data Validation
Messaging
Number/ Code
Generator
Output File Generator
Retrieve LDAP User
and Role Information
Scheduled Task
Initiator
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 18

Common Components –
used by OnSIS application and
Other Applications
ESS (ESIP Security System)
• Based on PMI A&A service from CSB
• User is authenticated and authorized to
access OnSIS application through ESS
• The permissible roles and User Groups
(Types) for every user are identified to ESS
via LDAP
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 19
• ESS is also used by OEN, ASA, ESDW
applications

Common Components –
used by OnSIS application and
Other Applications
Address Validation Common Component
• This component validates address
information entered by the users
• Address information is validated based on
source data provided by Canada Post
• Web based component that is accessed by
the OnSIS servers via standard internet
protocol
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 20

Common Components –
used by OnSIS application and
Other Applications
Ontario Education Number application
• This component provides a single unique identifier
(“OEN”) for all Ontario students
• All student data entered into OnSIS is first
validated against the OEN database to ensure the
accuracy of OEN and student bio data.
• Web based component that is accessed by the
OnSIS servers via standard internet protocol
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 21

Value Architecture Added:
Facilitated adherence to Corporate/
EA guidelines and standards
• Information Modeling Handbook (IMH)
•Infrastructure Component Catalogue (ICC)
•Ontarians with Disability Act (ODA) – Section
Six
•Artifact templates
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 22
• TRA and PIA completed

Results: Application Development
Main Technologies:
• Windows Server (clustering and load balancing)
• IIS
• .NET
• Oracle (clustering and load balancing)
• Crystal Reports
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 23

Results: Application Development
• Number of Web pages: 2200+
• Number of Database Tables: 460
• Number of Business Rules: 5000+
• Lines of Code: 2,000,000+
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 24

CISCOSYSTEMS
3Com
hp StorageWorks 41 0
Physical Deployment
Model (production)
Internet
Internet
Web Client
EDU/ TCU
DMZ
("Gb E" LAN)
2 Dell
PowerEdge 4400
Web Servers
with
Load Balancers
EDU/ TCU
and GetAccess
Firewall
Runtime
Checkpoint v4.1
EDU/ TCU
Domain-Backend Subnet
("GB E" LAN)
MSA 1000
Corporate
Firewall
EDU/ TCU
Edge
Router
EDU/ TCU
Firewall
Checkpoint
v4.1 Network Intrusion
Detection System
ISS Real Secure v6.5
GONET
OnSIS
LDAP
Ontario
Server
School
(iSERV)
Information
System 25
EDU/ TCU
Domain-
Middleware
Subnet
("GB E" LAN )
3 X Compaq ProLiant ML370 G3
Database Servers with SAN and
Load Balancers
EDU/ TCU
Internal Router
Reporting
Server
Internal Web Client
subject to auth. and authorization
Component
Services Server
3 Dell PowerEdge
App Servers
Metadata
Repository/ Data
Extract Server

Results: Application Deployment
• OnSIS Release 1 deployed to production December 2004
• OnSIS Release 2 deployed to production January 2006
• OnSIS Release 3 deployed to production September 2006
• OnSIS Release 5-1 planned for deployment to production
Spring 2007
• OnSIS Release 5-2 planned for deployment to production
Summer 2007
• OnSIS Release 4-1 and 4-2 planned for deployment post
Summer 2007 (reprioritized after R5-1, 5-2)
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 26

Results: Application Throughput
• User Base as of Feb 2007: 7200
• Number of Students: 2,377,809
• Number of Educators: 100,000
• Over 96% of submissions completed for 05/06 academic year
• Peak Number of Web page hits per day: 435,277
• Average Batch Files Processed Per Day: 700
• Average Reports Processed Per Day; 10,000
• Average Number of Database Calls Per Hour: 3,769,295
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 27

Challenges: Application
Enhancements
• During the first 12 months of student data collection,
numerous urgent application enhancements had to be done
due to changes in the business requirements
• The risk was that these enhancements could a negative impact
on overall application stability due to the speed at which they
needed to be completed
• Due in large part to the componentized nature of the OnSIS
design, enhancements were completed and deployed to
production with minimal negative impact to the overall
application health.
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 28

Challenges: Application Performance
• During the first 12 months of student data collection, users’ usage
patterns were analysed to determine where the potential performance
bottlenecks
• Numerous potential bottlenecks were identified
• Performance improvements included database tuning, server
configuration tuning, application code tuning
• The risk was that these the implementation of these improvements
could have a negative impact on overall application stability due to
the speed at which they needed to be completed
• Due in large part to the componentized nature of the OnSIS design,
performance improvements were completed and deployed to
production with minimal negative impact to the overall application
health.
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 29

Challenges: New Release Development
• During 2006, while Releases 1,2,3 have been in
full production, Release 4 and 5-1 have been in
development
• Release 4 and 5-1 development teams have been
able extend the existing functionality in order to
meet the business requirements with minimal rework
to existing OnSIS code.
• During 2007, the Community Services I&IT Cluster
will take full custodianship of all OnSIS source
code. While extremely challenging, it is expected
that this take over will go smoothly
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 30

Challenges: Hardware/Software
Failures
• During 2006, the OnSIS application experienced
several hardware and/or software failures that
would have crippled an application that did not
have redundancies build into the architecture.
• OnSIS was able to recover from these failures,
seamlessly in most cases.
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 31

Recommendations to maximize the
value provided by Architecture
• Engage Ministry Architecture groups at the
inception of and throughout the design
process
• Collaborate with Ministry Architecture
groups as partners, rather than gatekeepers
or auditors.
• Ensure the project's design team includes
highly skilled architecture resources
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 32

Thank You!
Questions?
OnSIS
Ontario
School
Information
System 33