3‑3

3 Information System Digital MediaEnterprise Architecture Study for Designand Development of Systems to Support
the Game Operations
WASHIDA ShinichiThis article describes an enterprise architecture study to design and develop systems for supporting game management
Furthermore the article focuses on the methodology used to plan and design a large number of applications with limited
resources and provides insights into how to proceed with the development and operation of applications that are not yet
mature The importance of governance rules and the key points in promoting them are also described
Keywords：Information system Requirement definition Governance rule

1．Introduction

the systems that would play a fundamental role in theorganising committeeʼs operations

such as financial

The development of new systems for the Olympic andaccounting electronic approval and procurement wereParalympic Games Tokyo 2020 (hereinafter referred torequired to be implemented as soon as possible from theas “Tokyo 2020”) started from a situation where

early stages of the project

information on the scale and difficulty of the development was not fully understood

In other words the number of staff will rapidly
increase during the Games and the organising commit-

After the Rio 2016 Games we began a full‑fledged

tee will launch various new operations Therefore it wassystem planning study using the list of applications

clear that if individual systems were designed anddeveloped for the past Games From the list we wereprocured based only on immediate business require-able to obtain information on the kind and number ofments optimization and systematization of the overallsystems developed but we could not obtain detailed

system for the convention would not be realized andinformation on how long and how many man‑hours were

there was a high risk of inefficient development andspent on the development and when they wererework Therefore a project for studying enterprisedevelopedarchitecture was launched in September 2016 and an

It was expected that many business applications

analysis was conducted mainly on business architecture

would be released just before the Games and used mainlyFirst we organized the business operations according

during the Games period As of 2016 many businesses

to the following four elements (Figure 1)

did not yet exist and it was difficult even to specify
business and system requirements On the other hand･Business system : The structure and roles of theentire organization are defined

WASHIDA Shinichi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympicand Paralympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 132‑137 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers132

and businessprocesses and information are modeled･Data system : Defines the data handled by theorganization including where each data originates
how it is processed and when it is deleted

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

･Application system : Defines the functions of thesystem that supports business processes and thecapability to realize them･2．Architecture of Convention ManagementOperations

Technology system : Defines “technology stand-As a result the operations were successfully classifiedards” for the stable construction operation andinto the following four themes by “Downstream Analy-

expansion of information systems in the futuresis”(Figure 2)

By doing this the overall image and outline of thebusiness and systems for which applications must be

Theme 1 : Sports Operations
Group of operations closely related to competition
management : Competition management (operations)developed gradually emerged

medical services doping control accreditation issuancemanagement and so on
Theme 2 : Event Operations
Group of peripheral operations required to organize
and operate large‑scale events which are closely related
to the logistics and transportation of equipment andsupplies : Logistics procurement of goods cleaning andwaste disposal etc
Another group of operations is related to themovement and guidance of the Games officials andspectators : Transportation of people immigration accommodation torch relay signage spectator services
etc
Figure 1

Four Elements for Organising Application

Figure 2

Example of Application Classification by Downstream AnalysisSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

133

Theme 3 : Business Operations
Group of operations related to financial accounting
revenue‑generating businessand public relations

activities : Ticket sales license management food andbeverage sales financial procurement etc

3．Consideration of Business Applications
Supporting Financial Accounting ofGames Management
The “Financial Accounting System” belongs to theaforementioned “Theme 3 : Business Operations” and is

Theme 4 : Facility Operations

one of the core components of the Games management

Group of operations closely related to the construction

operations In 2015 there were only about 300 staff

and operation of venues and infrastructure facilities :

members and the “Financial Accounting System” usedvenue management

at that time was a small‑scale system for small andathleteʼs village management

power supply at each facility security etc

medium‑sized companies After that the system wasupgraded to meet the demands of the Games with theOf the above four types of operations those developed
and operated mainly by global partners (sports opera-participation of 8 000 people and was completely
operational in 2017tions) and those managed mainly by suppliers using

It was also necessary to link the “Contract Manage-

existing tools and methods such as drawing manage-

ment System” and the external “Electronic Bidding

ment and progress management (facility operations)

System” in conjunction with the “Financial Accounting

were limited in terms of the elements that theSystem”

Technology Department of Organising Committee had

operation and linkage in 2017 In the meetings (orand these systems also started full‑scale

to design and build Therefore the following three areas

processes) where procurement decisions are madewere identified as the areas in which the Organising

several hundred cases a year are deliberated and theCommitteeʼs Technology Department needed to focus onlinkage of these systems plays a significant role inexamining business requirements and system procure-smoothly handling the large number of procurementmentcases decided during deliberations
Furthermore the stakeholders discussed the debts of()“Theme 2 : Logistics and Transportation ofGoods in Event Operations”

public interest incorporated foundation the organising()committee cannot directly manage accommodation

in Event Operations”

facilities for the stakeholders()

discussed and organized the division of roles with outside“Theme 2 : Movement and Guidance of People“Theme 3 : Business Operations”

the organising committee and its management As aFor this reason

wevendors and the timing of information coordination InWith only a few engineers available resources are notsufficient for approaching each project individuallyparticular ticket sales to the Olympic and Paralympic
Committees of each country and the payment method

Therefore based on these classifications we assigned

such as when to record sales and how to handle

a full‑time engineer to define application requirements

cancellations or postponements of the competitions wereas relevant as possible and established a system tocomplicated Therefore there were many cases to be

implement business relevance and database commonal-discussed The handling of credits and debts will be theity Then an “Upstream Analysis” was conducted forfocus during each Games event in the future because

the above three areas This enabled smooth linkage andvarious cases can be considered under the laws ofstandardization among applications to meet each systemdifferent countries regarding these themes

requirement that emerged from the business requirements

In most cases when the use of an application used forGames is terminated the system is closed However it

In chapter 3

business applications are groupedis imperative to consider how to close back‑office

explicitly by relevance and the study contents are

systems such as the “Financial Accounting System”

described in each of the above three areas

when the organising committee is dissolved

For

example whether the reduced‑size system should be
retained or whether the data output and saving the date
are needed For a company that is assumed to besustainable the financial data will be retained in the134

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 4
Figure 3

SKUs Affixed on All Goods Stored in the Warehouse

Large Volume of Goods Stored in a Logistics
Warehouse for the Games

the warehouse transportation planning and instructions method of delivery at the venue to removal aftersystem unless the company goes bankrupt However

the Games were conducted daily until late involving all

the Organising Committee is a very special organization

stakeholders Eventually it was decided to introducethat is assumed to be dissolved ; Therefore such a

ATS (Asset Tracking System) which manages goods

discussion was necessary

by SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) codes
The design of the ATS was adapted from an

4．Study of Business Applications that Supportfor Logistics and Transportation of Large
Quantities of GoodEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package forgeneral trading companies The system was designed totreat each venue as a warehouse with operations basedon the assumption that goods are moved in theThe logistics system is one of the most challenging

warehouse Goods procured by the organising commit-applications to define in analyzing the business Thistee are considered purchases from outside and the finalapplication is mainly for transporting goods delivered toreturn or sale of goods to the outside as shipment As aand stored in the logistics warehouse of the Organising

result this system was used not only for logistics but

Committee to the competition venues and other related

also as a management ledger for asset management andlocations The system had to be built to withstand theasset disposal It enabled the smooth disposal of goods

tremendous number of operations

after the Games in consideration of sustainability

including 8 000

trucks (total for the Olympics and Paralympics) and62 000 logistics staff (Figure 3)
The absence of a business owner was an additional

An SKU code is a unit for counting the minimum
number of items in inventory management An 11‑digit
code with a 3‑letters assigned for each Games manage-

Difficulty in determining requirements isment function was defined for each type of item The

usually common in a typical project but in this casetotal number of SKU codes or the number of items

there was no one to determine the requirements in theregisteredfirst place This was because no department could

movement instruction slips input by the ATS wasbundle and promote the systemization of the various

128 264 (including cancellations after movement instruc-items requested to be transported to each venue fromtions)(Figure 4)

problemwas 15 328

and the total number of

Although the system ultimately functioned well andvarious sources
On the other hand given the expected development

contributed to the success of the Games a problem

scale waiting for the business owner to be determined

occurred in the early stages of operation that all goods

would not be allowed us to release the system in timescheduled to be moved were recorded as “they hadTherefore in the summer of 2017 a study task wasalready been moved” in the system The cause was anlaunched under the leadership of the Technology

operator error in which all goods were processed atServices Bureau to promote the project with theonce It should have been recorded that “only the goods

involvement of members of related departmentsthat had arrived were moved” Initially the system wasDiscussions about who would be in charge of tasks

designed to be operated by all the operators in charge ofreceipt of delivered items

each Games management function that requests theacceptance inspection processing method of delivery todelivery of goods However it was concluded that thisranging from ordering

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would be difficult due to the lack of cost and timeincreasingly important to share data of Games officials

available Alternatively a backup operation was im-through the systems that support the movement andproved to manually restore erroneous operations and theguidance of convention officials These systems must

number of operators who operate the ATS system washave data of Games officials

limited as possibleThe accreditation system developed and operated byThis was a critical case that staff should be assigned to

global partners in which the personal information oftrain the operators when operations are not sophisti-

Games officials is registered and managed has uniquecated and the time available for system operation

limitations in its design and operation to meet thetraining is limited Trained operators were also expected

specific requirements of sports operations since the past

to become proficient promptly

and the number ofGames Therefore the information managed by themembers with access to the system should be limited asaccreditation system was used as the master data for thepossible

development and operation of a business application byIn addition

when assigning SKU codes

manythe Organising Committee to support the movement andunexpected situations occurred in actual operations

guidance of the Games stakeholders A duplicate of thesuch as how to count sand used at a beach volleyballmaster data was built on a platform (public cloudvenue as one unit

weservice) independently procured and operated by thegathered all stakeholders to discuss the issue andEach time this happened

Organising Committee as a database of the Games

created various operation workarounds rather thanstakeholders ensuring a degree of freedom in develop-changing the systemment and operation This architecture was adopted fromthe Rio 2016 Games but Tokyo 2020 has the additional

5．Study of Business Applications that Support
the Movement and Guidance of Games
Officials
Firstly for “Theme 2 : Movement and Guidance of

requirement of operating during the COVID‑19 pandemic The database has proven highly effective as a user
information management platform for the rapid andsecure development and operation of new businesssystemssuch as a reservation system for media

People in Event Operations” immigration information

coverage areas to prevent media triangulation and amanagement accommodation and transportation‑re-support system for infectious disease control operations

lated systems were required

for Games stakeholders

Their systems were

especially important because Olympic Games were held

The database holds information on 420 000 Olympic

during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)

and 310 000 Paralympic Games stakeholders Naturally“immigration information

access to the data is strictly restricted The data thatmanagement systems” “accommodation systems” andpandemic

For example

each application must access is defined in terms of which“transportation‑related systems” are a group of applica-

data is absolutely necessary for business purposes intions related to the movement and transportation ofwhich situations how often the data must be updated

peopleand how to manage user privileges and operations for

Although the number of Games officials entering

accessing the information The members in charge ofJapan from overseas was lower than expected due to thebusiness applications that support the movement andimpact of COVID‑19 43 000 people entered the country

guidance of Games stakeholders played a central role infor the Olympic Games (peak entry of 4 200 on July 18

the detailed scrutiny of these issues starting from theand peak departure of 9 600 on August 9) and 11 000 fortime of requirement definition

the Paralympic Games (peak entry of 2 000 on August
20 and peak departure of 4 200 on September 6) Thesepeople had to complete quarantine and other procedures

6．Conclusion

at the airport without delay Then we needed to arrange

As the feature of a limited‑time organization thatfor special vehicles to facilitate smooth transportationplans and operates a public event we faced manybetween the airport the athletesʼ villages and hotels In

challenges such as requiring several days to determine

addition making reservations for places where media

business requirements and developing the needed staff

representatives and other people are likely to be

operation systems For example the detail of require-concentrated was needed For this reason it became

ments for asset management including the disposal of136

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

assets after the event was not always finalized on time

Committee executives of the need for “cyber security

In such cases it was effective not only to “ask to usermeasures” and “cost optimization” was a great encour-requirements” but also to “show the model” Eventually

agement for this activity

business departments could understand the require-

It should be noted that the best design cannot be madements smoothly and decide to proceed with theirwith various technologies techniques and mechanisms

consent

even if we scrutinize the architecture sufficiently Even

Even if there is a delay in determining businesswith only authentication infrastructures for users it wasrequirements or a rework in the process it is importantnecessary to use four or five different designs such as

to have an established technical standard for architec-

for competition information back‑office external users

ture to optimize the overall system designetc

In the development and release of all the applications

Furthermore technology is evolving so rapidly theseit was effective to keep the common governance rules

days that even if the nature of the work has not changed

established as a result of this enterprise architecture

significantly from past Games it is expected that everystudy such as security review of design procurement

Game event will be a challenge especially in terms ofspecifications provision of penetration tests (developedsystem architecture to incorporate new information intoin‑house) and pre‑release judgment meetings The

the activities

design review for the access to the Games stakeholders

Similarly it can be said that the introduction anddatabase described in “5” was also conducted in thisrenewal of mission‑critical systems in companies

framework

Therefore it is essential always to consider and update

It was also important to establish rules that enable thethe proper architecture based on the latest technological

technology department to be involved in all systemtrends for each company In addition the understanding

procurement and outsourcing contracts that handled theand support of top management are also neededbusiness and data of the Organising Committee rather
than leaving system development entirely to suppliers
Although this article focused on applications handled by
the Technology Services Bureau this framework could
also apply to large‑scale projects led by other bureaus(e gticket sales

fleet managementetc )Theframework was designed so that the TechnologyDepartment is always involved in the review of non‑functional requirements (network environment reliability design security design) and release decisions
Furthermore the understanding of the Organising(Received March 15 2022 : Revised March 28 2022)

WASHIDA Shinichi
WASHIDA Shinichi graduated from thedepartment of science Rikkyo University in1998 He joined Canon Sales Inc (2006 : thecompany changed its name to Canon Marketing
Japan Inc ) in the same year He was seconded
to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee inOctober 2015 where he was engaged in theplanning development and operation of business applications in the Technology Services
Bureau He was the section manager in chargeof business applications㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

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