Domain Models and Software Infrastructure for DevelopingElectronic Public Services

Elsa Estevez, Adegboyega Ojo, Tomasz Janowski

Center for Electronic Governance at UNU-IIST

Agenda

1 Definitions

2 Motivation

3 Context – UNU Mission, Policy, Project Framework, Concrete Project

4 Methodology adopted

5 Domain analysis and requirement synthesis 5 Domain analysis and requirement synthesis

6 Major EPS Framework elements

7 EPS Framework design and implementation

8 Using the EPS Framework

9 Disseminating EPS Framework

10 Conclusions

Domain Models

By domain model, we describe a set of related models including:

• Conceptual model and

• Use Case, Architecture, Design and Implementation models

for the technology facet of a domain.

The domain of interest in this work is that of Public

Service Delivery.

EPS Framework

An Electronic Public Service (EPS) Application Framework is part of the overall software

infrastructure for electronic government which provides re-usable components, services and

frameworks to enable the rapid development, deployment and execution of electronic public

services.

Motivation

The need for an EPS Framework in the Open Domain:

1 Investment in e-Government infrastructure cannot deliver any significant value without

commensurate efforts in software infrastructure.

2 Experiences of e-Government leaders such as Singapore, Canada and UK show the

centrality of EPS infrastructure in scaling up innovative EPS delivery.

3 Unlike other aspects of e-Government infrastructure which can be purchased of-the-shelf, 3 Unlike other aspects of e-Government infrastructure which can be purchased of-the-shelf,

software infrastructure is more difficult to acquire in the product style.

4 There are no known e-Government software infrastructure in the open domain; including

the rich EU’s IDABC repository.

5 Learning from good practices in the area of EPS infrastructure software is difficult.

6 Addressing this scarcity for dissemination purposes, particularly in developing countries to

support EPS implementation policy is the purpose.

Context

Guiding mission:

UNU developing capacity in the area of peace and governance

UNU-IIST strengthening capacity of developing countries through education and research in

producing high quality software for support development

UNU-IIST-

EGOV

partnering with developing countries and other international organizations to

develop organizational, managerial and technical aspects of electronic governance EGOV develop organizational, managerial and technical aspects of electronic governance

Guiding policy:

1 Promoting open-standards

2 Supporting open-source

Context –

Program Framework

Context –

Program Instance

Methodology

Adopted an empirical and theoretical approach to EPS framework development:

1 Survey of 100 public services as part of detailed e-readiness study

2 Selected 25 Business Licensing and 6 Social Welfare services for domain analysis – process,

input, output, performance, channels, etc.

3 Producing a generic business process for class of public services

4 Cross validating generic process in (3) with GEA processes 4 Cross validating generic process in (3) with GEA processes

5 Synthesizing domain requirements from generic process

6 Specifying domain architecture model

7 Specifying domain component design model

8 Implementing component design model

9 Instantiating EPS framework for prototype

10 Exploring effective dissemination strategies

Selected Licensing

ServicesNo. Licensing Service No. Licensing Service

1 temporary/permanent electricity license 14 radio network license

2 construction and utilization license 15 radio station license

3 aviation industry license 16 nursing home establishment license

4 certificates of origin license 17 pharmacy license

5 import and export license 18 private educational institution license

6 trademark registration 19 adult education and tutorial centre license

7 temporary and permanent factory license 20 tourist guide license

8 auditing firm license 21 travel agency license

9 media house registration 22 bank license

10 marine operations and works license 23 money exchange agent license

11 marine taxi license 24 remittance company license

12 food and animal origin license 25 financial intermediaries license

13 food and beverage license

Selected Welfare

ServicesNo. Welfare Service

1 social houses

2 financial aids to students

3 retirement pensions

4 financial assistance to individuals4 financial assistance to individuals

5 postgraduate scholarship

6 survivor pension

GEA Service Types

Governance Enterprise Architecture (GEA) typology for Public Services

Certification Public Administration (PA) declares and certifies different states of the world

through the declarative function

Control PA fulfils the imperative function by ensuring compliance

Authorization PA realizes the permissive and supportive functions

Production PA organizes production mechanism

Using the GEA characterization, business licensing and social welfare services are Authorization

services.

Generic Process

Requirements

Id Use Case Actor

U1 Submit Application Entity

U2 Upload Supporting Documents Entity

U3 Check Validity and Completeness Of Application Documents Public Agency

U4 Verify Evidences Public AgencyU4 Verify Evidences Public Agency

U5 Assess Eligibility Public Agency

U6 Notify Entity Public Agency

U7 Track Application Entity

U8 Decide On Application Public Agency

Other Important

Features

Non-functional features of EPS framework:

1 Explicit support for technical and organizational (business process) interoperability

2 Built on open standards and technologies

3 Explicitly supporting customization and localization - primarily purpose for development is

dissemination in different environments

4 Must be conceptually simple, but powerful and easy to evolve

5 Well documented interfaces for support by third-party software houses

6 Implemented within an defined IT Governance Framework (standards)

EPS Infrastructure

Blueprint

Frameworks

Services

e-WelfarexG2G

network

e-LicensexG2G

e-PortalxG2G

Infrastructuree-S

ervices

e-HealthxG2G

Design Time Run Time

functional interfaces

Management Services

deployment

un-deployment

activation

deactivationtesting

monitoring

Frameworks

back office

GovWF

xG2G

…

…

Services

GovW

F …

Infrastructure

front office

xG2G

Com

ponents

functional interfaces

management interfaces

tracking …

notification

download

logging

upload

Architecture –

Static

Architecture –

Dynamic

1 – Front Office

Building Front Office (FO) applications with the following features:

1 receives requests from client applications

2 validates all received requests from clients

3 generates request receipts for applicants

4 supports tracking of applications by applicants4 supports tracking of applications by applicants

5 dispatches requests to Workflow Service

2 – Back Office

Building Back Office (BO) applications with the following features:

1 checks completeness of submitted documents

2 assesses eligibility of applicants

3 supports tracking of applications by BO officers

4 notifies applicants over different channels4 notifies applicants over different channels

5 supports evaluation and decision steps

6 exchanges messages with other BO’s through the Messaging Service

3 – Mid Office

Provides basic business process management functionalities including:

1 receives requests from the FO

2 associates requests with business processes

3 creates BO tasks for execution

4 assigns BO roles to tasks and dispatches tasks to BO4 assigns BO roles to tasks and dispatches tasks to BO

5 Receives task completion tasks from BO

4 – Messaging

Allows agency applications to exchange different kinds of messages:

1 exchanges messages along dynamic channels

2 supports asynchronous communication between BO applications within and between

agencies

3 provides horizontal extensions for channels, e.g. auditing, validation, transformation, etc.3 provides horizontal extensions for channels, e.g. auditing, validation, transformation, etc.

4 provides vertical extensions for channels, e.g. semantics, ordering, etc.

5 – Management

Manages the lifecycle of other infrastructure elements:

1 registers all infrastructure elements and assigns unique IDs

2 logs the actions of other components and services

3 starts-up, shuts down and suspends the operations of services

4 controls the behavior of other elements4 controls the behavior of other elements

5 allows for service or component level management

Instantiation –

Process

Instantiation –

Variable Points

No Common Feature Variations

c1 application application forms

c2 evidence list and form of evidences

c3 completeness same

c4 eligibility check criteria (structured)c4 eligibility check criteria (structured)

c5 evaluation criteria (unstructured)

c6 external opinion types of requests, protocol

c7 decision criteria (unstructured)

c8 communication same

Prototype

Implementation

Prototype implementation is based on open technologies:

1 Web Service for Infrastructure services

2 J2EE for Enterprise Application Development

3 XMLBeans for Java/XML bindings

4 MySQL for Database management4 MySQL for Database management

5 Hibernate for Object-Relational mapping

6 JBoss JBPM for Business Process or Workflow Management

7 JBoss and Tomcat as Application Servers

8 Tapestry for web interfaces

Deployment

Infrastructure deployment is federated:

1 Elements of the infrastructure are deployed in different environments physically managed

by responsible agencies .

2 All logical management centrally done via management intermediaries deployed with

every remote component and service.

3 Behavior of Intermediates is determined by state of infrastructure elements specified in

Resource Files stored centrally.

4 Generally deployment strategy allows for central control of distributed infrastructure.

Beyond Prototyping

Possibilities following successful prototyping:

1 Transferring EPS framework approach to developing countries in the context of a larger e-

government capacity development programme.

2 Trained government staff in collaboration with private sector are required for sustainability.

3 Mobilizing spin off organizations (public-private) to sustain the development efforts in 3 Mobilizing spin off organizations (public-private) to sustain the development efforts in

electronic public services and underlying EPS infrastructure.

4 Although current implementation of the infrastructure is based on open-source technology,

government may adopt any open-standard technology for continued development.

Dissemination

Issues

Some dissemination strategies:

1 presenting EPS Application Frameworks in Workshops, Schools and other events

2 integrating further EPS framework development with training programmes involving IT staff

3 fully documenting EPS framework

Summary

Concluding and looking at what is ahead:

1 an EPS framework developed based on generic domain model

2 EPS framework prototype will be made available in the open domain

3 EPS framework has been successfully instantiated as electronic licensing and welfare

services

4 production-quality version of EPS framework is ongoing, a few components are being

developed

5 presently exploring how to support for other categories of EPS - other GEA types is being

investigated