EForms for EGov: Final Report

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E-Forms for E-GovFinal Report

• Rick Rogers, CEO
• Fenestra Technologies Corporation
• Germantown MD, USA

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Pilot Goals
• Technical Overview
• Technical Advantages, Disadvantages, and
  Challenges
• Business Case
• E-Forms Components
• Problem Domain Assessments
• Recommendations
• Next Steps

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Introduction

• OMB requests CIO Council conduct pilot in
  December 2002
• Task accepted by Brand Neimann for the XML Web
  Services Working Group
• Pilot team stood up in February 2003 under
  leadership of Rick Rogers
• Conducted meetings from March through July 2003

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Pilot Goals

• Determine best practices for changing to an
  e-forms process
• Map the business case to the Federal Enterprise
  Architecture (FEA) Performance Reference Model
  (PRM)
• Assess technologies and standards
• Make recommendations

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Technical Overview

• An e-form is a self-contained collection of
  declarative meta-data that defines how a form is
  to be realized by generalized software
• Distinct from custom-coded data entry
  applications because e-forms are meta-data driven

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Technical Advantages

• Reduced costs
• Component-based architecture
• Reuse and harmonization
• Scalability
• Consistency
• Timeliness and Accuracy

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Technical Disadvantages

• Restrictiveness
• Potential for Vendor Lock-in and Dependency

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Technical Challenges

• Integration with Web Browsers
• Lack of Standard Component Stack
• Security and Privacy

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FEA Business Case

• Mission and Business Results
• Customer Results
• Reducing Response Burden (8.2 billion hours, 320
  billion)
• Customer Benefit Customer Satisfaction
• Service Coverage Service Efficiency
• Service Accesibilty

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FEA Business Case (cont.)

• Processes and Activities
• Financial Savings Cost Avoidance
• Cycle Time Timeliness
• Quality Errors
• Technology (Information Data)

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E-Forms Components

• Nominal set of components suggested, these are
  not standardized
• Example components include
• Authoring Component
• User Agent
• Catalog
• Schema Registry
• Submission Server

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Problem Domain Assessments

• Technologies and standards assessed for various
  problem domains
• Example domains include
• Schema
• Presentation
• Accessibility
• Security
• Archival Records
• Services

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Recommendations

• E-Forms solutions should focus on reducing
  reporting burden
• E-Forms solutions should support XML and XML
  Schema
• E-Forms solutions must support Section 508
  Accessibility requirements
• The government should promote standardization of
  an e-forms component stack

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Recommendations (cont.)

• The government should address the security and
  privacy concerns
• E-Forms solutions should be developed with a view
  towards archival record requirements

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Next Steps

• Comment period on final report
• Release to XML Web Services Working Group, and
  the AIC Components Subcommittee
• Future work will originate in the CIO Council
• Paper available at http//www.fenestra.com/eforms
  /
• http//www.componenttechnology.org/