Designed to create a structured approach to understanding and improving various aspects of higher education institutions, the Higher Education Reference Models (HERM) provide standardized business and data architectures in areas such as administration, academic processes, and technology integration. These models share best practices that can help improve the value and efficiency of an organization’s architecture teams and facilitate collaboration and the exchange of architectural knowledge within the sector. Originally launched in 2016, the models are curated and managed by the Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) HERM Working Group.
The Origin of the Higher Education Reference Models
A peer of international associations such as EDUCAUSE, UCISA, and EUNIS, CAUDIT brings together universities, further education, and research institutions from across Australasia and the South Pacific and helps these organizations access services that foster leadership, collaboration, and best practice. “The origin of the CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice began with the strategy and architecture teams at Charles Sturt University, who received a grant to develop an enterprise architecture from what was then DEETYA, the Australian Government’s Department of Employment, Education, Training & Youth Affairs,” explains Nigel Foxwell, Manager Enterprise Architecture, Strategy, and Delivery, Technology Solutions, James Cook University. “The grant was extended on the condition that the outcomes of the work were shared back to the higher education community and CAUDIT was nominated as the overarching body to receive and coordinate that sharing.”
This nomination led to the inaugural CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education Symposium, held at Charles Sturt University’s Bathurst campus in November 2006. The event seeded the CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice, with the Symposium becoming the established annual community meeting, held in-person through 2019, and held online since 2020. “Several CAUDIT member universities had undertaken consultancy engagements with a leading consultancy known as enterprisearchitects.com, now named FromHereOn (FHO),” says Foxwell. “Over the years, FHO attended and contributed to the annual CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education Symposium events. Over the course of a decade, FHO began to see consistency emerging in the anchor models they were creating through their work with many different university clients in Australia and internationally. Working with Anne Kealley, then CEO of CAUDIT, these models were shared with CAUDIT in 2016, to be prepared for release as the first version of the HERM. We are grateful that Greg Sawyer, current CEO of CAUDIT, continues to provide amazing leadership support for the HERM.”
Receiving the FHO models catalyzed formalization of the CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice as a formal group under the wider CAUDIT structure and the first meetings of Higher Education Reference Models Working Group (HERM-WG). The HERM-WG is co-chaired by Nigel Foxwell and jeff kennedy, Enterprise Architecture Manager, Organisational Performance & Improvement, The University of Auckland (Yes, this is the proper appearance of jeff’s name). “The HERM was then delivered into the care and custodianship of the HERM-WG under the CAUDIT Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice and work began in earnest partnership between FHO and the HERM-WG to prepare the initial models for release as Version 1 of the HERM,” explains Foxwell. “The first-release HERM comprised the Business Capability Model and the Data Reference Model, both supplied as posters supported by spartan descriptive catalogs. The ongoing work of the HERM-WG, which meets weekly for ninety-minute workshops, has seen the coverage, completeness, and internationalization of the HERM mature and progress over five version releases. Today, the HERM is being used by more than a thousand institutions throughout the world.”
Aligning IT Strategies with Institutional Goals
The HERM serves as a guide for institutions to benchmark their practices, implement improvements, and align with industry standards and emerging trends in higher education. These resources can act as a foundation to fast-track the development of business and data architecture, as a benchmark to identify similarities and unique features within the institution, and as a tool to effectively communicate and engage with stakeholders. “The adoption of these models can provide a common language that bridges and unites different stakeholders and perspectives within and between institutions and jurisdictions,” says kennedy. “The HERM can provide a ready-to-use framework that aids sensemaking in the complex environment of higher education and can connect strategy with execution, particularly through business capabilities serving as the missing link.”
Although the HERM is cared for and extended by groups of enterprise architects, and Enterprise Architecture practices are typically located within IT, the HERM is a fully featured enterprise reference model that can be applied throughout an organization—it’s not just an “IT Thing.” For example, the introduction of the Business Model Canvas provided tools that support scenario planning and strategic modeling. “Mapping traditional IT services and initiatives to business outcomes and broader institutional goals can be challenging,” says Foxwell. “The HERM can assist with achieving those mappings and helping to better understand and communicate the value of IT in the higher-education context.”
“From an IT-specific perspective, business capabilities play a crucial translation role in helping to understand the connections between investment in technology services, the digital products those services enable, the business capabilities making use of those digital products, and the resulting quality of customer experience,” continues Foxwell. “The HERM represents a consistent view of an institution that is highly stable over a long period of time, withstanding organizational restructuring, continual process improvement, and technological change. Other IT-with-the-business connections can be established by techniques such as placing storytelling overlays on the business capability model. This could include suitability for robotic process automation, technology fitness and business value of application portfolio segments, and readiness to benefit from artificial intelligence (AI).”
“From an IT-specific perspective, business capabilities play a crucial translation role in helping to understand the connections between investment in technology services, the digital products those services enable, the business capabilities making use of those digital products, and the resulting quality of customer experience. The HERM represents a consistent view of an institution that is highly stable over a long period of time, withstanding organizational restructuring, continual process improvement, and technological change. Other IT-with-the-business connections can be established by techniques such as placing overlays on the business capability model of factors. This could include suitability for robotic process automation, technology fitness and business value of application portfolio segments, and readiness to benefit from artificial intelligence.”
— Nigel Foxwell
Manager Enterprise Architecture, Strategy, and Delivery, Technology Solutions, James Cook University
Standardizing Business Architectures
Through a business continuity lens, HERM can provide structured frameworks and best practices that ensure the resilience and stability of institutional operations. By defining and standardizing key processes and functions, using these reference models can create consistency, making it easier to prioritize critical functions and resources, manage changes, and recover from disruptions. “Using the HERM as a guidepost can help an institution understand the footprint of significant business-change initiatives, and project that footprint upon the DRM to understand the manifest of data integrations required and any attendant data-quality issues that might need to be addressed,” explains kennedy. “Referencing this framework can also help understand and communicate stories as diverse as strategic objectives mapping, solving business process issues, directing CapEx investments, and assisting with public records management.”
The value of the HERM continues to be enriched by the global higher education enterprise architecture community and special interest groups including CAUDIT, UCISA, European University Information Systems (EUNIS), and EDUCAUSE members through the Enterprise Business and Technical Architects (Itana) community group. “We have seen the HERM in action and how these frameworks can help drive strategic success,” says Foxwell. “For example, a research-intensive university used a health-assessment overlay on the HERM business capability model to inform their strategic decision-making and investment planning for their future research ecosystem. For another university setting out on a Robotic Process Automation journey, the evaluation of the workload types in each HERM business capability underpinned the areas of interest analysis and implementation-governance framework.”
“Mapping the HERM business capability footprint of a transformation program to reimagine the shape and delivery of its curriculum and signature pedagogies enabled another university to focus its investment in areas that contributed the greatest benefit to achieving the desired outcomes,” adds kennedy. “Numerous institutions have utilized the DRM to conduct a rapid startup of data governance and data management initiatives and used it as the foundation for Business Intelligence initiatives. These models have also been used to undertake enterprise-wide assessments of data assets to provide valuable insights to new senior IT leadership. In another instance, an institution used the HERM business capability model to analyze the likely effects of uplifting the digital skills of their people and enabled them to pinpoint where the effects of the necessary investment would show up and articulate the resulting benefits in terms of customer experience, stronger learning outcomes, and more-impactful research.”
Foxwell says the new Application Reference Model was partly developed and tested in a live scenario where a collaborating university was building a multi-year application roadmap for their research division. “This is a great example of how the models can be deployed to support and guide strategic investment in specific areas. The university has since extended this approach through combining application and business capability models to identify strategic investments in other areas such as human resources, core curriculum delivery, and student support functions.”
Promoting Global Collaboration
The HERM continues to evolve through the commitment of a growing network of constructive and enduring international collaborations who are dedicated to the ongoing development and use of the models. “The earliest of these collaborations can be traced back to 2013 and the connections established between the CAUDIT community and the EDUCAUSE Itana group,” explains Foxwell. “Later, the global pandemic forced the EUNIS Congress 2020 to move online, affording the opportunity for us to participate in that event and the privilege to meet for the first time with colleagues in the UCISA and EUNIS communities. The relationships formed there with the leadership of the UCISA Enterprise Architecture Special Interest Group have proven to be valuable and enduring, with the CAUDIT and UCISA teams having now held more than fifty online meetings and workshops together. CAUDIT and UCISA have also partnered and co-hosted the global launch of the HERM alongside its Version 2.6 release in November 2021.”
CAUDIT has established joint statements of collaborative intent to further the HERM together with EDUCAUSE, UCISA, EUNIS, and Higher Education Information Technology South Africa (HEITSA). “The heartbeat of the international collaborations is provided by each association’s own local Enterprise Architecture community, and the approaches differ for each group,” says kennedy. “The HERM-WG partners with EDUCAUSE on weekly Itana core and Itana Business Architecture Working Group sessions. The working group also connects with UCISA through monthly and on-demand meetings and by sharing access to our collaboration environments. In addition, the HERM-WG regularly meets with EUNIS and holds workshops on topics of mutual interest. Every suggestion and every piece of feedback we receive is logged and triaged through the HERM-WG assessment and evaluation process, and this ensures global perspectives and diverse viewpoints are held up and considered carefully against the HERM.”
Foxwell says international collaboration has improved and strengthened the HERM immeasurably and has led to a richer exchange of best practices, enhanced innovation, and more effective solutions tailored to diverse educational environments. “The collective expertise, curiosity, and generosity of the many people engaging with the HERM and contributing their suggestions, provocations, and thoughtful scrutiny about its applied use and potential futures is nothing short of amazing. Weaving together diverse viewpoints has helped foster a truly global and widely road-tested HERM that is ready for use and able to facilitate day-to-day enterprise architecture activities just as readily as it can serve as the foundation for generational digital transformation. The HERM has therefore been tested and developed across many different regions of the world and has proven to be useful and applicable for all.”
“Through the coordinated efforts of our EUNIS colleagues, the HERM has been translated into several languages other than English, including Catalan, Croatian, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, and Latvian,” continues Foxwell. “The effort and academic energy required to translate the reference models into another language has also provided substantial benefits to the clarity and global consumability of the HERM. In addition, joining forces has made the HERM distribution available for each higher-education association to provide direct natural syndicated access to its members. We’ve also seen HERM-inspired papers published at The Open Group, including Spanish Higher Education Enterprise Architecture Initiative and Capability Map and the School Reference Model.”
Adapting to Meet Strategic Initiatives
Since the HERM models are comprehensive, contemporary, and curated for use as a reference architecture, the framework does not require continual updating in response to technological change or strategic-direction shifts. “Even through changes in the higher education sector and various curriculum delivery models, the HERM has not needed major revisions to cope,” shares kennedy. “This includes different learning modal like massive open online courses (MOOC), multi-model teaching, fully online, hyper-flex and the emergence of consumer-facing artificial intelligence. The HERM is adaptable to various university strategic options from hyper-personalized to large-scale inclusivity. For example, the HERM Business Capability model has been used to represent the signature differences in many important business capabilities for each of the Gartner 4U models of universities in the future. The Business Capability Models are relatively stable devices and if somebody from the University of Auckland in 1883 or The University of Glasgow in 1451, for example, encountered the models back in their own time then this lens would likely be perfectly relevant!”
“The Recipe Cards introduced with Version 3.0.0 of the HERM provided the ability to express institution-specific motivations, business outcomes, and future institutional goals using powerful enterprise-storytelling techniques,” continues kennedy. “The selection of recipe cards included with the HERM distribution included Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging and Student Success, each of which will be expressed and achieved in quite different ways from one institution to another. In looking at the Business Model Canvas, it is more playful, adaptable, and flexible than other elements of the reference model and is designed to support scenario-based planning and the evaluation of what-if scenarios. They can adapt to represent the stakeholders, resources, and drivers that surround different types of institutions.”
Later this year, a Technology Reference Model (TRM) will be introduced with the release of HERM Version 3.1.0. “The TRM is probably the most volatile domain across the architecture stack,” explains Foxwell. “The TRM is broadly positioned as a structure of technology services, rather than of devices, things, or specific implementations, and it is expected to adjust over time in response to market shifts, technology convergence, and the ongoing dynamic and rapid shifts in new-and-emerging technologies.”
Meeting Diverse Needs
To ensure the models remain relevant and effective for institutions with diverse needs, their usage is continually tested in the field and questions about their content, structure, or application are funneled through the HERM working group. “We are able to review any feedback to identify necessary changes and improvements, but also ratify the models where changes are not necessarily in line with the global nature of the reference models,” explains Foxwell. “The working group is diligent in ensuring that any feedback we take on as change proposals are supported by relevant references to provide context for their scope and content. It is also important to ensure that as we improve the models, that we maintain the best level of detail for our content and provide a consistent vocabulary within and across the models. The level of detail is important as increasing specificity can rapidly lead to a decrease in usefulness, and if our vocabulary is inconsistent, the value of our definitions also decreases rapidly.”
“The Recipe Cards allow different lenses to be applied over and above the Business Model Canvas and can communicate motivations or outcomes of importance to individual institutions,” continues Foxwell. “The HERM is designed to ensure consistency in how its structures are leveled so that the optimum balance between completeness and usability with theoretical perfection is maintained. The HERM-WG maintains detailed supporting references for all change proposals as part of its responsibility for handling all feedback and suggestions.”
The HERM serves as a guide for institutions to benchmark their practices, implement improvements, and align with industry standards and emerging trends in higher education. These resources can act as a foundation to fast-track the development of business and data architecture, as a benchmark to identify similarities and unique features within the institution, and as a tool to effectively communicate and engage with stakeholders. “The adoption of these models can provide a common language that bridges and unites different stakeholders and perspectives within and between institutions and jurisdictions. The HERM can provide a ready-to-use framework that aids sensemaking in the complex environment of higher education and can connect strategy with execution, particularly through business capabilities serving as the missing link.”
— jeff kennedy
Enterprise Architecture Manager, Organisational Performance & Improvement, The University of Auckland
Imagining the Future
In thinking about the future, kennedy says there are many new features being considered for future releases. “We are looking forward to the imminent release of V3.1 which will include the Technology Reference Model (TRM). This is an important companion to the Application Reference Model, which is also getting important improvements following feedback. Our next major release Version 4.0.0 will introduce additional new features and will take the next steps in migrating the HERM distribution to an open-access platform that ensures fully open and equitable access to the HERM is provided. Our community feedback also tells us that the concept of value streams is gaining prominence in strategic discussions. By providing a view on value streams in the context of the HERM, we would hope to demonstrate another way the business capabilities can be organized to address specific areas of focus for HE institutions.”
“The concept of a service reference model is also gaining significant traction,” continues kennedy. “Services have been a focus for some Australian, New Zealand, and UK institutions as they look to define their value to students and faculty. It is a tricky area with a long history of the service management terminology tied very closely with IT services, but there is a broader context around the growing interest in Enterprise Service Management that may be closely aligned to the HERM.”
Foxwell adds, “Lastly, with the explosion of AI everywhere and the ease of access to these tools, the working group can imagine a future where the next most valuable accelerator to higher education is a tool that can be interrogated using the reference models as its base model. It would be amazing for architects of all kinds, amongst others, to be able to provide an institution’s list of applications and have the HERMbot allocate them accurately to the appropriate application and technology HERM items. Or perhaps provide a list of processes and their brief descriptions while identifying the range of associated business capabilities. The opportunities are extensive, and we may be already behind some existing EA tool vendors thinking in this area. There is much promise for routine and everyday Enterprise Architecture activities for the use and application of artificial intelligence.”
“We continue to see great uptake of the HERM in Europe and there are many active users there. The EUNIS EA community has been particularly active and supportive and continues to educate and advocate around the models. They will also demonstrate their collaboration, advocacy, and advanced use of the HERM at their second EA Week workshop event, held this year at The University of Southern Denmark. Building awareness is key and we look forward to continuing to connect with new institutions and share our excitement about the opportunities the HERM can help unlock.”
How to Get Started
Edge will continue to promote and employ the HERM and work with members to increase awareness and adoption, and show how to leverage the frameworks in strategic and operational analysis, planning, and decision-making. “We are very excited about the opportunities that will arise from Edge’s support of the HERM and helping extend our reach to new institutions,” shares kennedy. “Promoting the HERM through EdgeMarket is terrific and we hope this will support institutions of all sizes to leverage EA thinking in their strategic and operational objectives.”
For institutions interested in using the HERM, getting started could be as simple as mapping a strategy document to the BCM or using the DRM as a map for data-governance responsibilities. “Full implementation is not necessary to take advantage of these models,” says kennedy. “For those using an EA tool, the models should be able to be imported very quickly. Otherwise, you can start by creating a set of spreadsheets to capture basic information using the catalogs as starting points. For example, the open-source Essential Architecture Services has a launchpad offering that contains the HERM as a ready-to-use, out-of-the-box set of artifacts. Adopting the HERM as part of an EA Tools implementation will reduce the time-to-value and can provide immediate, cost-effective benefits.”
“If you want to learn more about the frameworks, we encourage you to get hold of the HERM and explore what’s in the box,” continues kennedy. “You can also connect with or form a local Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education (EAinHE) community of practice. We commend the Enterprise Architecture communities that are established and thriving within UCISA, EUNIS, EDUCAUSE/Itana, and CAUDIT. The HERM Working Group welcomes and invites thoughts, feedback, and suggestions about any changes that will make the HERM more valuable to the institutions that use these resources to help standardize quality, enhance curriculum development, and improve student outcomes through best practices and strategic alignment.”
To learn more about the Higher Education Reference Models and how they provide standardized business and data architectures, visit https://library.educause.edu/resources/2021/9/the-higher-education-reference-models.
To contact the HERM Working Group, email herm-feedback@googlegroups.com.
