Jane Stewart

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Inter-jurisdictional IM and Semantic
InteroperabilityWhat is a Service, Anyway?

• Jane Stewart
• IM Day
• September 15, 2005

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• A story about
• A client-centered, whole-of-government and
  inter-jurisdictional service delivery
  organization
• Facing complex IM challenges
• With a vision of improving service delivery
• By developing IM standards.
• And what happened when we met
• An inter-jurisdictional technical committee
  representing CIO organizations
• Facing complex IT challenges
• With a vision of improving service delivery
• By developing IM standards.

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A little bit about Canada Business

• Multi-channel access service for Canadian
  entrepreneurs
• In person, telephone and web
• Primarily serving aspiring entrepreneurs, small
  and medium enterprises
• A collaborative arrangement among 43 Government
  of Canada departments, and provincial,
  territorial governments
• Managing partners are Industry Canada, Western
  Economic Diversification, Atlantic Canada
  Opportunities Agency, and Canada Economic
  Development for Quebec Regions
• Operating since 1994
• In 2004-05, there were 6 million visits to Canada
  Business national and regional web sites, and
  more than 260,000 assisted interactions

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Canada Business IM approach

• All channels rely on the Business Information
  System
• Used by Canada Business agents (in person and
  telephone)
• Accessed directly by Canadians via the web
• Contains documents that describe programs,
  services and regulations for business
• Consistent approach for both orders of government
• Descriptions are associated with contact
  information and web links
• Canada Business adds metadata to enable precise
  and relevant retrieval and client-centered
  presentation
• Business audience specific location, topic,
  sector, etc.

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Canada Business IM approach

• Descriptions are created by Canada Business
  staff, and validated by partner departments and
  agencies
• Recently converted to a content management
  system, ensuring structural consistency and
  enabling reuse
• But the system remains proprietary
• Used only by Canada Business staff for Canada
  Business purposes
• Implementing the CMS has been extremely
  challenging
• for all kinds of reasons, but thats another
  story.

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Canada Business IM vision

• What if
• The structure of our documents could be
  standardized?
• Meaning
• Departments and agencies (I.e., authoritative
  sources) could create the program and service
  descriptions
• The descriptions could be exchanged and shared
  for multiple purposes, by Canada Business and
  other client-facing initiatives
• That would
• Reduce duplication
• Improve accuracy, reliability and consistency for
  clients

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So we submitted a proposal

• IM Standards for Inter-jurisdictional Service
  Discovery
• Our purpose
• To create an XML schema for describing services
• In doing so, to leverage existing efforts to
  define XML structures within the public sector
• Seeking common data elements, encoding schemes,
  etc.
• And finally to contribute to the Public Sector
  CIO Councils XML Subcommittee and its mission to
  advance the interoperability of government
  information in a pan-Canadian setting

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About the XML Subcommittee

• PSCIOC XML Subcommittee focused in two domains
• Canadian Service Description Mark-up Language
  (CSDML)
• Registry/repository capability to enable sharing
  of reusable artifacts (models, schemas, encoding
  schemes, etc.)
• CSDML is derived from models of the public sector
  enterprise
• Models are created through the discipline of
  enterprise architecture

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We have a lot in common

• A belief that building boutique one-off
  solutions to service delivery challenges is
  increasingly irresponsible
• A belief that interoperability is the key to
  reducing duplication, realizing efficiencies and
  improving how Canadian governments serve
  Canadians
• A belief that technology-independent standards
  (like XML) are the key to interoperability
• A tendency to lay disciplinary claim to
  information. -)

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but different perspectives

• Top-down
• If we have a common understanding of the business
  of government, we can design better solutions.
• Enterprise architecture is the means by which we
  will establish that common understanding.
• We will start with models.
• Bottom-up
• If we have a common understanding of the needs of
  clients, we can design better solutions.
• Information management is the means by which we
  will improve service delivery.
• We will start with understanding our users and
  our information.

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..and some semantic challenges

• What do we mean by service description?
• Top-down
• A description of a service includes the data
  constructs needed to capture its governance,
  providers, target groups, resources, roles,
  processes, outputs, outcomes, and metrics.
• Bottom-up
• A description of a service is a document,
  intended for direct use by clients, that contains
  information about the service its name, its
  purpose, who its for, and how to access it.

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and what is a service, anyway?

• Top-down
• Services produce a final valued output that
  contributes to the goals of one or more
  program(s).
• Business Transformation Enablement Program (BTEP)
• Bottom-up
• The action or process of serving.
• Oxford English Dictionary
• A service is anything the government does to
  address a client need or expectation.
• The primary measure of service excellence is
  client satisfaction.

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What is enterprise architecture?

• A comprehensive framework used to manage and
  align an organization's structure, processes,
  information, operations and projects with the
  organization's overall strategy.
• Wikipedia
• Business and government agendas so often include
  objectives to transform the enterprise, to "join
  up" groups of related processes, to better and
  more consistently serve clients (or
  constituents). Turning these objectives into
  reality requires not only strong political will
  and hard work, but a holistic view of the
  enterprise that transcends lines of business and
  jurisdictional boundaries. The enterprise
  architecture process and disciplines are keys to
  enabling that enterprise view.
• Gartner Group

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Outputs and methods of EA

• EA defines architectural models, patterns and
  frameworks
• Focus on semantics, concepts and logical
  structures
• The Zachman Framework was one of the first, and
  still very influential
• Reference Models
• Models that define and illustrate core enterprise
  concepts
• Government of Canada Government Strategic
  Reference Model (GSRM)
• Unified Modeling Language
• Industry-standard notation and semantics for
  models, use cases, etc.
• See http//www.agiledata.org/essays/enterpriseArch
  itectureTechniques.html

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A public sector reference model

• Chartwell Group

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A definition of information architecture

• Information Architecture (IA) is the art and
  science of structuring knowledge (technically
  data), and defining user interactions.
  Wikipedia
• IA relies on user needs research and usability
  testing to inform design.
• Primarily focused on web-based information
  provision
• Like EA, IA is also an emerging practice that
  blends other disciplines to address the
  challenges of the digital age.

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Effective information architecture
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Outputs and methods of IM and IA

• Traditional IM disciplines include records
  management, classification, and the development
  of terminological standards
• Taxonomies, faceted schemes, controlled
  vocabularies
• IA methods address issues of the client interface
• Classification and labeling for information
  navigation and retrieval
• Designing metadata strategies for digital
  environments
• Emerging IA methods are also addressing the
  challenges of enterprise content management
• Content modeling and standardized content types
• Designing content and processes for
  single-sourcing and reuse
• IM also champions plain language designing
  information for people

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A potentially very fruitful intersection

• EA offers rigour in the definition of key
  concepts
• IA offers demonstrable improvements in service
  interactions based on an understanding of
  information-seeking behaviour
• Client-centricity is an important principle, but
  many client-focused initiatives have failed to
  transform IM practices, particularly with regard
  to web content
• For EA initiatives to deliver value, they need to
  be tested and iterated in service delivery
  settings

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Moving forward

• The IM community can benefit from the conceptual
  work that EA delivers
• Consistent definitions of key public sector
  concepts
• Relating IM practices to business goals
• The EA community can benefit from IM expertise
• In organizing information
• In defining and managing useful and usable
  terminological constructs
• Both communities are concerned with the structure
  and semantics of data, the presentation of that
  data, and the effectiveness of client interactions

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References

• IM Standards for Inter-jurisdictional Service
  Discovery
• http//canadabusiness.gc.ca/xml
• Userid cb Password xml
• James Melzers EIA in Context diagram
• http//www.jamesmelzer.com/bearings/archives/2005/
  05/enterprise_cont_1.html
• Business Transformation Enablement Program
• http//www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/btep-pto/index_e.asp