Management Information and Administration Systems
From Schoolforge-UK
This page acts as a focal point for Schoolforge-UK efforts to get this vital need met quickly. Please discuss on the schoolforge Discussion_list or the linked discussion page and update this page to document the distilled the wisdom thus gained.
Contents |
The problem
A large number of UK schools use the proprietary School Information Management System (SIMS), developed by Capita Education Services, to support their administration and information functions. SIMS (now SIMS.net) is a Windows-only package based on Capita's proprietary SIMS MS-SQL platform. In most cases, SIMS is licenced to Local Education Authorities (LEAs), and since few schools have the technical resources to adapt the software to their specific requirements, they tend to be "locked in" to this vendor and the Windows platform. If schools or an LEA subcontract development work to provide features for SIMS, Capita may charge for their interface specifications if the end product is likely to have wider commercial benefit. Another system used by schools is Facility produced by SERCO which has similar limitations of a proprietary system.
Becta recently produced a report outlining several shortcomings of these school MIS packages, which have been developed as retail products. Our response, covering several points discussed below, was presented to Becta on 19th September 2005. While Becta proposes a number of steps to remedy the situation, we believe that a FLOSS solution will be attractive because it can better provide a beneficial return for all the stakeholders in the school MIS marketplace. (See [http://perens.com/Articles/Economic.html Bruce Perens article).
Several FLOSS projects currently provide a subset of SIMS functionality, these include FreeMIS, ClaSS, Centre and Hobarte (??Link??). The first release of a more comprehensive project, SchoolTool, sponsored by the Shuttleworth Foundation, is expected around Q2 of 2006. There are also FLOSS packages for specific functions, for example OpenBooking and MRBS for resource booking, Wegister attendance register package, and SchoolBell for timetable and calendar management. All these FLOSS projects are supported by very small teams, often just one person.
Thus there is no FLOSS package that matches the complete functionality of SIMS, which has been developed by a large team over very many years. But even if a comprehensive FLOSS package existed, migrating from SIMS represents a mammoth task, involving substantial costs and risks if the change must be completed by a given deadline.
In addition, there is also a growing requirement for both proprietary and FLOSS school MIS systems to interoperate with VLEs or Content Management Systems such as Moodle or Site@School.
The solution
It is proposed to develop a FLOSS solution that will allow FLOSS admin systems to interoperate with the SIMS, CMIS and other databases. In this way, schools may implement FLOSS packages for particular functions, while retaining the SIMS database until remaining functions provided by the SIMS software can also be replaced. This solution was put forward by Phil Driscoll on the Schoolforge-UK discussion group in the first message "On removing the addiction to proprietary school management systems".
The proposed package will make use of Microsoft's COM based API (Application Programming Interface) to allow external applications to read and write the data held by the system, and provide FLOSS programmers with a uniform set of web based tools to interface with SIMS, CMIS and other systems.
Eventually, it should be possible to write a complete alternative database system driven by the same set of tools, and then the migration to completely FLOSS school administration systems would be complete.
Generic Name
In true marketing fashion can we come up with a nice snappy collective name to give a clear focus?
'MIS' or 'admin' seem too narrow. Perhaps 'MIAS' from title of this page?
How about "Project Bolton" in honour of where it all started (or at any rate, where Phil was travelling from). We're adopting the "bolt-on" approach!
Requirements
This project will not of itself provide the various administration functions needed by a school, such as pupil and staff registration, timetable management, attendance, etc.
Instead, the goal is to develop "an intermediate software module that on the one side reads/writes messages conforming to the open standards that we decide to use and on the other side communicates with the proprietary system using whatever means dictatated by said system".
The product will be freely available under the GPL.
The solution should make use of the existing DfES Common Basic Data Set (CBDS) and Common Transfer File (CTF) specifications, and a version of Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) secification. See here for a primer on SIF.
The SIF Implementation Specification explains how interactions between different MIS applications are handled by messages between Client Agents through the ZIS. In summary, SIF defines a data model, a protocol for exchanging data (essentially HTTPS) and the dynamics to allow a "Zone Integration Server" (ZIS) to coordinate the sharing of data throughout a school. Individual MIS applications communicate with the ZIS and with each other via their "Client Agent" interface. Essentially, SIF enabled systems can publish or subscribe various data elements, and the ZIS keeps all the systems up to date. One big handicap of the system is that it was started too early, pre-SOAP (i.e. before the Simple Object Access Protocol was defined). If SIF was started over, it would use SOAP, which, while problematic, is at least supported by lots of tools.
SIF looked to be dying a slow death, until the US Congress passed a new set of rigorous reporting requirements for schools. SIF was the only existing work that covered how to pass school-related data around, so it has enjoyed a renaissance, backed by the federal government and many state governments. The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) has made a number of recommendations (PDF) for developing an EU version of SIF using SOAP. Moreover, the Becta report (PDF) referred to above explicitly proposes SIF as the way forward:
- "6.33 At its core, our approach relies on developing a UK version of the widely used School Interoperability Framework (SIF), customised to meet local needs and building on the significant work already done in relation to data standards via the DfES Information Management Strategy. It is therefore a 'best of breed' approach."
From our meeting with Capita in October 2005, it would appear they have no plans for developing a SIF Client Agent for SIMS at the present time. However, they would be willing to have Schoolforge-UK join their Partner Programme, which would provide us with the technical information needed to develop such a Client Agent.
Approaches
It is generally agreed that the SIF concept offers the best solution for interoperability between proporietary and FLOSS MIS packages. However, the best way forward is not clear, and these seem to be our options:
- Do nothing - eventually there will be an "official" version of the SIF specification with authorised UK implementations
- DIY project based on SIF concept - develop our own FLOSS project
- Support OpenZIS - help make it a global project
(Please feel free to add to this list if there are other distinct options)
For infomration there is also the JISC funded phosphorix ioNode middleware which is somewhat similar to SIF and implemented in Java.
Follow the links above for further discussion of each of these options.
Obstacles
Intellectual Rights - Are any parts of the approach we adopt protected by software patents?
Privacy - Testing the new package may involve issues of privacy when testing against existing SIMS database
Funds - It's not yet known how much it will cost to develop the package, and where the funds may come from.
Roadmap
- Describe the alternative approaches in sufficient detail to
- estimate costs,
- establish IP restrictions,
- ensure applicability to existing FLOSS MIS packages.
- Select the approach which is a) most technically achievable and b) most cost-effective
- Set up a "forge"
- Obtain funds
- Obtain a MS-SQL test database
- Enlist beta testers
- Develop code
- Grow community
- Incorporate code into existing FLOSS packages
Notes: We want the open schools like Parrs Wood Technology College on board as they share their expertease and support through the local schools cluster communities. Can we get input from Gold INGOT students?
Approach 1
We take an agile (or rapid prototyping) approach so we quickly get something out there that is good enough in the FLOSS tradition. We focus on specifying and creating:
- minimal functionality - e.g. students
- minimal client program (Win32 and/or Linux)
- minimal REST interface required to support it
- minimal Web Service to implement (Win32 and/or Linux)
- minimal backend access to SIMS via COM API (Win32).
- CBDS/CTF/SIF services if required
- Schootool integration if required
4 & 5 are really merged as a sort of middleware (thus avoiding the need for an interface between them).
For 6 we need to decided on client or service hosted. I currently think the service creates/parses the data and the client just passes it on, it is then available for any client to use.
Once that is released we then start on iteration 2 and add the next set of client functionality and develop the other parts to suit. Like COM we can keep old versions of the web service interface to allow old clients to work against newer services. We also abstract the service to work with other backends and as we will have learnt a lot by then will be in a better position to do so. We eventually create our own back end.
Time scales depend on the 1st iteration functionality.
SteveLee 09:05, 19 Jul 2005 (BST)
JohnIngleby 15:36, 29 Nov 2005 (BST)
