Final Report Overview

Developing a Structured E-Government Strategy

Introduction

• Many e-governance initiatives have been implemented around the world, especially in the countries like the U.S., Canada, Western European countries, Singapore, and Australia.
• The rest of the world is catching up.
• Many of the e-government initiatives are failing or progressing slowly.
• One of the biggest reasons is poor e-government strategy development.
•  According to previous studies, many organizations said that they were not following a strategy, but a list of short-term goals.
• Research Problem: How can a structured approach be developed for the formation and development of e-government strategy?

Literature Review:

• E-government is at the core of building a strategic sustainable development framework.
• One of its key functions has been to provide an integrated framework of policies, laws and regulations and develop institutions and processes that allow the private sector to provide – and the people to partake of – the benefits of newer technologies.[ United Nations E-Government Survey 2012].
• According to research findings done by means of interviews and questionnaires with a sample comprising of several governmental organizations in the gcc countries, when asked what plans/strategies do organizations have, to go about e-government projects? None of the responding organizations indicated to have an e- government strategy but rather a set of guidelines and short-term plans. [ Electronic Government in the GCC Countries]
• In order for e-government initiatives to truly succeed, we need to develop public trust and confidence to promote diffusion and participation. [E-government Strategies The Case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)].
• The success of e-government programs calls for strategic direction, policymaking and greater coordination among multiple agencies. This necessitates a strategic framework comprehensive enough to visualize and enable the leaders in addressing the potential roadblocks or resistance. [A strategy framework for the risk assessment and mitigation for large e-Government projects].
• Judging from these previous studies, structured strategy formation and development is a key success factor in the e-government implementation.
• In order to move forward with the e-government plan, a detailed study of the number one obstacle, which is the security concern, must be done to develop a suitable solution.

Current UAE E-Government Status

• The first e-government initiative in the UAE started in 2001, it was an electronic card, called eDirham.
• Since 2001, many entities started creating different eservices to be more time and cost efficient.
• Up until 2005, most e-government initiatives were the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. In 2006, a ministerial decree was issued to transfer the e-government program from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Government Sector Development.
• In 2005, The UAE national identity management infrastructure was developed. It is a strategic initiative to enhance homeland security and develop a federated identity management system enabling secure e-government transactions.
• According to The United Nations E-Government Survey, The UAE’s overall rank in the 2010 survey was 49^th, while in 2012, UAE was advanced to rank 28^th, which is the first in Arab countries, and fifth in Asia.
• The official portal of the UAE Government is www.government.ae
• It is part of the federal eGovernment program.
• The purpose of this portal is to provide better services to the citizens and to involve them in government’s policies, laws, and public initiatives to achieve transparency.

What’s left:

• Creating a structured e-government strategy by first understanding what e-government means and why implement it. 
• How to accurately implement the e-government strategy
• How to address the security concerns?

Notes from Saturday November 24th, and Sunday November 25th

• Web service allows interoperability and agility
• Enterprise Architects are like city planners
• Responsibility for ensuring that IT delivers the required business results resides with the organization as a whole.
• Most important aspect for any program’s success is stakeholder involvement
• According to Weil and Ross, governance structures have three characteristics; simple, transparent, and suitable.
• To synthesise a strategy requires a comprehensive architectural model across all elements of the enterprise.
• Non-functional “emergent” requirements include openness, performance, evolvability, security, maintainability, and reliability

Enterprise Architecture in the Singapore Government

Singapore's e-government progress:

• 1980-1999: Civil Service Computerization Program (CSCP)
• 2000-2003: E-Government Action Plan I (eGAP I)
• 2003-2006:E-Government Action Plan II (eGAP II)

E-Government Action Plan I (eGAP I)'s achievements include:

• one of the most advanced e-governments in the world
• over 1600 public e-services have been implemented
• general public satisfaction with the e-government

E-Government Action Plan II (eGAP II)'s goals: delighted customers and connected citizens through networked

Web Services

The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems behind the firewall.

Sources: w3.org, http://www.webopedia.com/

FEAF

• FEAF stands for federal enterprise architecture framework
• It is the enterprise architecture for a federal government
• It provides a methodology for IT acquisition, use, and disposal in a federal government
• The FEA is built using an number of reference models, they are:

1. performance reference model,
2. business reference model,
3. service component reference model,
4. data reference model
5. technical reference model.

• It is designed to ease sharing of information and resources across federal agencies, reduce costs, and improve citizen services.
• Eight components taken into consideration to design and maintain FEAF:

1. architecture drivers
2. strategic direction
3. current architecture
4. target architecture
5. transitional processes
6. architectural segments
7. architectural models
8. standards

• FEA Architecture levels:

1. Enterprise architecture,
2. Segment architecture,
3. Solution architecture.

Resources: wikipedia, whitehouse.gov

For more info: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fea_docs/FEA_Practice_Guidance_Nov_2007.pdf

November 15th and 17th Class Notes

November 15th: Enterprise Architecture Framework for Agile and Interoperable Virtual Enterprises

• Problems of generic enterprise modeling languages: 1)many diagrams but no relations 2) Too general
• Agility: Adaptability, responding quickly
• Interoperability: ability to communicate seamlessly
• Problems with developing VEs: 1) enterprises are diverse and complex 2)many stakeholders 3)business processes are heterogeneous and distributed
• 
  

November 17th: Business Process Modeling as a Blueprint for Enterprise Architecture

• Primary resources for enterprises: 1)users 2)processes 3) technology
• Process is the most important because it connects users and technology
• Tools to support enterprise process modeling: data flow diagrams, and activity diagrams

Chapter + Section Summary

Summary of The Syngenta story

Syngenta ia world leading agribusiness committed to sustainable agriculture through innovative research and technology

The comany's business strategy focuses on three major market areas-agri, consumer-led, and new. Another way of leveling these areas is efficiency, growth, and innovation

Summary of Saturday's class (chapters 21 and 22)

• Modeling processes translate the enterprise specifications to fulfill requirements.
• To deal with a huge project, look for common ground across different functions
• An object is an instance of a class, example: (class: person, object: librarian)
• Metadata is data about data
• An Example of technical metadata: Cust_id( alphanumeric, length, location, database,…)
• An example of a business metadata: Cust_id= customer id number
• Activities are actions, processes are a series of activities
• you can schedule an activity but not a process
• Processes are triggered by events, example: course registration is triggered by student registration request form

Summary of the section Implementation and deployment

• E-governance is emerging as a strategic tool for governance and international relations.
• The design and development of federated ERP is subject to a lot of problems and a lot of work and studies and work is being done to solve them.
• The scope of enterprise architecture is AS-Is, TO-BE, and Governance.
• Effective EA is both a technical and a social activity because both analytical and personal skills are important.
• Modeling processes translate the enterprise specifications to fulfill requirements