Realization of overall informatization program and development of information-controlling system in University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine) are described. The basic principles of advanced integrated university information system creation are considered. Original balanced interpretation of automation aspect of having business-processes and information supporting environment for creation of new technologies and scripts of information processes is offered.
University of Internal Affairs during last years actively realizes a program of complex computerization. In accordance with this program activity of all main university services should be transferred on basis of use of new information technologies, aids of automation, plenty of internal and external sources of information resources. Beginning with proclamation the programs of complex computerization in 1994 year and to nowadays a vast works volume is fulfilled: a) on development, approbation and application of integrated client-server information-controlling university system; b) to creation of corporative computer network, joining on fiber-optic communication links local networks of the university buildings; c) to creation of powerful full-text WWW-depository (more 300 000 pages) of educational, methodical, scientific and reference information; d) to electronic library catalogue reconversion, and also to development and to approbation of original software for supporting of paperless service technology for readers and bibliographic processing of literature; e) services of electronic document circulation, university electronic forums, bulletin board services, Web-archives of official documents of subdivisions; f) distance learning and teaching. Maintenance of these directions on up-to-day requirements level mobilized the considerable financial, personnel and intellectual resources and allows university to be among leading Ukrainian universities.
The most ponderable and at the same time the most laborious work was creation and approbation of client-server integrated information-controlling university system. As seems to us, large universities in Ukraine, Russia and other countries of former USSR in distinction from universities of another countries follow to more centralized model of its activity management, realize guidance all of processes from single center, governing by large specialized subdivisions, which accomplish educational, scientific, financial, economic, commercial activity. On fact the universities come forward as large centralized structured multiple-discipline enterprises with thousands and tens of thousands of staffs. The big problem is also a complicated financial-control activity system keeping from soviet times, dictated from higher organs and at the same time frequently by higher organs changed. As result big quota of attention of administrative personnel expends on activity, obviously unconnected with educational or scientific function of university, and a staff occupied this secondary activities becomes exorbitantly war-swollen. Attempts of local automation of separate groups of processes in higher educational institutions (academic, financial-economic, library, document circulation and handling, personnel and institution structure moving management) do not justify hopes. Too much problems arose on the turn of subsystems, where hand work adapted to link the local computerized subsystems. Information duplicated, mistakes arose, control threads lost, sense of computers and networks use slipped off. All that encouraged necessity to set a problem of creation task of single integrated client-server system, which should supply co-ordinated management of all of basic technological processes, tasks and information streams.
In period 1994 - 1999 years development, approbation and application of such system conducted on the pilot basis of University of Internal Affairs. To the present time, when the first cycle of automation comes nearer to completion, the experience of system application is accumulated, world tendencies and criterions of an evaluation of similar projects were changed, the necessity in development of conceptual base of system improvement has ripened. At the same time it should be tempting to formulate the concept of a typical university system for the coordination of various universities and possible association of their gains on realization of the similar project in Ukraine.
The purpose of the project is the development of an open typical information system connecting on a basis of modern information technologies management by the personnel, financial, material, intellectual and information resources of higher school, ensuring automation of the main technological university processes directed on reaching of the strategic purposes of activity, adapted for individual specificity and dynamic development in future, full-function compatible with other educational information systems and integrated in international information space.
The project envelops a research of a problematic, designing, prototyping, realization and experimental application of obtained solutions on the following problem directions:
The system should be considered as dynamically balanced structure of cooperation of automation of available business-processes from one hand and generation, prototyping, and approbation of new technologies, new scripts of activity, new business-processes from another hand. The aspect of automation should be considered from non-traditional positions and requirements in comparison with used approaches to enterprise automation considering the new tendencies of information systems development and specific character of the university as unique enterprise for production, processing, adoption and use of heterogeneous information resources in the broad sense. The system approach to a problematic of the project in a combination with orientation on modern experience puts forward necessity of consideration of system requirements from various points of view.
Transactional system component should supply current business-processes management in subdivisions of a Higher School, to automate operations of registration, control and computing, to exclude duplication and inconsistency of data, to improve information distribution for managers and staff, to lift technological culture, to reduce staffs of ensuring departments essentially.
Analytical system component must provide: a) multialternative visualization of data, consideration of objects in a completeness of correlation, service of designing of show-windows of data on order and prevalence of arbitrary attributes; b) accumulation of complete archive of significant transformations of objects, services historical reconstruction of a context, analysis of changes and prognosis, methods of the intellectual analysis of data; c) replacement of the rigid task orientation by management of data streams and operations with objects, arbitrary navigation on connected objects, levels of representation and subsystems; d) service of flexible shaping by the user of the arbitrary reports and requests to data bases; e) growth of volume, variety and quality of data for the user, extension of a field of experimentation, monitoring, analysis and prognosis; f) data and services integration on a hierarchy of educational system of Ukraine.
Instrumental-technological component must supply for the developers and managers with complete sets of convenient visual means of designing, prototyping, re-engineering, approbation and monitoring of system functioning.
Resource-oriented component should supply: a) gathering, systematization and cataloguing of information resources from diverse sources: resources of library systems, internal document circulation, external correspondence, reports and outcomes of requests to databases, and external Internet resources; b) service of search and navigation on attributes of metadata and full-text documents; c) refusal from following to rigid technological templates for the benefit of re-engineering and creating of the new technological schemes; d) prompting of the user to failure of psychology of the thoughtless executor for the benefit of orientation to self-disclosure in interaction with information system services and information.
Agent-oriented component should ensure the accumulation of individual information needs, use of service of the information intellectual agents to satisfy the discovered needs, creation of a social medium of interaction of the agents and persons with the purpose of effective realization of their group cooperation and collective management of knowledges.
Geo-information component should simplify spatially - temporary orientation and navigation of the user and to ensure: a) use of space attributes of database classes of objects and geometric objects, space visualization of objects; b) service of process of scaling, geometric operations (measurements, accounts), choice by the user of territories with consequent access to detailed properties of the objects, located on them; c) submission of several stratums of a space visual information; d) development of rough and analytical possibilities of the user by means of using of an additional space coordinate of consideration.
Knowledge - oriented component should be exhibited in intelligence of a system as a consequence of deep exploration and engaging of expert knowledges at the stage of the object-oriented analysis, use of the methodology and tools of the intellectual analysis of data, knowledge-oriented systems and distributed intellectual agents, and also in engaging methods of Knowledge Sharing, Data Mining, Knowledge Retrieval, KQML etc.
Legal base of the system application should become the Law of Ukraine "About Concept of National Program of Informatization". The methodological sources will be concept of development of an Integrated Information Infrastructure of USA, concepts of architecture of management of objects OMG, National Industrial Information Infrastructure, Intellectual Integration Information etc. Technological base of the system development should be technologies of Internet, Intranet, distributed SQL-server databases, Data Warehouse, Agent-oriented programming, DCOM (CORBA), OPEN etc.
Special methodology and on its basis the tool system of supporting of high level object-visual designing and development of integrated information system as prototype of CASE-tools of a 5-level should be also developed. It should add to objects and operations of intentional features of an openness, componentability, interoperability and also suitability for assembly technology on basis of developed typical object components of business-processes, objects, operations and roles of the users, and also designing of new components by means of developed component object scenario-role technology and virtual machine of the interpretation of structural connections of elements of a specified model and initiative of the user in process code generation.
The second main orientaion of the project in addition to automation of business-processes will be creation of intellectual environment of generation, prototyping and approbation of new information technologies and new activity scripts. It supposes investigation, designing and prototyping of realization of assembly technology of creation and use of advanced information service, by components of which must be:
Luganski Alexander - head of Software & Networks Dep.,
Orlov Pavel - vice-rector
University of Internal Affairs,
50-years of the USSR av. 27,
Kharkov, 310080,
Ukraine
E-Mail
alex@adm.univd.kharkov.ua
pavelo@adm.univd.kharkov.ua