Download Definition of the service in the local government in CR that uses

Definition of the service in the local government in CR
that uses process management
Marketa Zimmemannova
Department of Information Technologies
University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic
[email protected]
Abstract: The article discusses a definition of service in the local government in CR that uses process
management as part of the EA meta model.. This definition is a follow up of the analysis regarding
effective local government in CR that is based on process management usage together with the
enterprise architecture elements. Service definition in this article is regarding the logic of creation of
business service in the proposed EA meta model, definition of business service against the definition
of ICT service and putting local government service in the wider context of service catalog for public
administration.
Keywords: Service, Business service, ICT service, Local government, Process management, Key
process, Servicing process, EA meta model, SOA, Service catalog for public administration
1.
Introduction
Definition of service as an important asset of information management is a next step in the analysis of
effective local government in CR that proposes usage of the process management and enterprise
architecture elements. The article thus further elaborates proposed EA meta model of local
government in CR (that is based on process management) in its part that regards services.
The goal of this article is to define a business service as a process interface, to define it against the
ICT service as a mean of business service implementation and consider involvement of thus defined
services for local government in the service catalog for public administration. Mentioned goal is based
on study of current approaches to service determination, research conducted within the Parma project
and own experience as a system integration consultant. Critical evaluation of some of the current
approaches, service granularity discussion, appropriate mapping of ICT and business service design
and related usage of SOA in the ICT service implementation are part of this analysis. As a result of
this analysis this contribution will also offer a reworked EA meta model of local government in CR that
uses process management.
2.
Basis for the analysis of services in local government
As a basis for this contribution I am taking over the results of previous
[Zimmermannová,2012; Zimmermannová, Řepa, 2011]that can be summarized as follows:
analysis
For effective local government it is beneficial to use the process management together with the
elements of enterprise architecture,
o under the term “process management “ used in this article, we will understand the enterprise
architecture approach that considers business processes as a key architecture element
directly derived from the strategic goals defined within BSC (in this article represented by
Method of modeling and analysis of business processes – MMABP); Repa describes process
as a set of activities that transform the input into an output-the resulting value for the customer
[Repa, 2009]. These activities are not performed within one department or hierarchical level
but throughout the whole organization. This factor significantly differentiates process
management from the traditional hierarchical model of organization management that is typical
for public administration. The difference that this approach offers can also be the reason why
process management implementation despite its advantages (such as adherence to strategic
goals of the organization, decreased costs, increased flexibility, clear responsibilities etc.) has
not yet been adopted in wider extend in this area as it changes not only traditional division of
responsibilities but gets even deeper to the nature of how local government should function
and which functionalities it should fulfil.
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
19
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
following EA meta model of local government that is based on process management (own
construction in the Fig. 1) will be the basis for further analysis,
it is necessary to elaborate in detail particular parts of mentioned meta model, in this case it is
a part regarding services,
EA meta model of the local self-government in CR that uses process management
Business level
Information level
Data layer
Strategy layer
Information
flows
Defines
Objectives
Metrics
Validate
Business layer
Functionalities
Defines
Define
Define
Apllication layer
Define
Internal
Services
Define
Define
Data
Apllications
Processes
External
Services
Define
Support
Support
Supports
Technology level
Defines
Supports
Technology
Defines
Figure 1: EA meta model of local government in CR that uses process management
[Zimmermannová,2012]
Besides mentioned general meta model the service definition will be based on following resources:
Analysis of existing service definitions in the way that especially some EA frameworks are defining
it,
research conducted within the Parma project(Public Administration Reference Model Architecture)
[Řepa, 2012]; the project has been taking place at University of Economics, Prague since 2003
with the objective to create the reference model for public administration (local government in
particular) that is based on usage of process management with the participation of several tens of
students
activities conducted in public sector that aim to the proposal of service catalog for public
administration [Voříšek, 2011],
own experience as a system integration consultant.
3.
Current service definition
3.1
Service definition in EA frameworks
Regarding the context of service definition that will be used in this article it is relevant to consider
mainly how the service is defined in the current most popular EA frameworks. Based on the analysis
of EA frameworks worldwide usage conducted within the Infosys research from 2008/2009 [INFOSYS,
2009], the frameworks Togaf [OPEN GROUP, 2009] and FEA [Federal Enterprise Architecture
Program Management Office, 2007] have been chosen. According to this research, Togaf has been
evaluated as most used framework both in private and public sector while FEA has been designed to
serve public sector purpose and as such has been marked as the second most used framework in
public sector. Considering its interesting concept also EA modeling language Archimate [THE OPEN
GROUP, 2009] will be mentioned.
Togaf (created by Open Group) is mentioning „business service“, which is being considered as one of
the cornerstones of its meta model. „A business service is a thing that a business does that has
a defined, measured interface and has contracts with consumers of the service. A business service is
supported by combinations of people, process, and technology. A business service operates as
20
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
a boundary for one or more functions.”[THE OPEN GROUP, 2009] In Togaf´s meta model extensions,
the IS service is also mentioned as a mean of business service realization in applications..
Modeling language Archimate is another product of Open Group and is compatible with Togaf. Main
reason why Archimate is used in this article as an inspiration for the service definition within the EA
meta model of local government is mainly the existence of its own meta model that puts emphasis on
services. Archimate also defines business service within its behavior concept as „a coherent piece of
functionality that offers added value to the environment, independent of the way this functionality is
realized internally“[ THE OPEN GROUP, 2009] and makes distinction between two types of business
service: “ external business services, offered to external customers, and internal business services,
offering supporting functionality to processes or functions within the organization“[THE OPEN
GROUP, 2009]. The framework also stresses within the internal behavior elements to distinqish the
process view (brings value to the customer that can also be another process) from the functional view
(offers functionality for one or more processes).
Concept of services in FEA [Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office, 2007] is
a little bit different. It relates to the concept of segments where business service is defined as a
segment regarding supporting functionality in the organization (contrary to the key functionality). The
framework also mentions “enterprise service” as a functionality used across organizations. The
Service model itself is also functionally oriented, for the process approach is therefore less useful then
the frameworks mentioned earlier. In FEA it is possible to find the inspiration for the part of the
organization agenda that does not have to be process oriented (Services of the supporting processes
mentioned below).
3.2
Process management and SOA
The important status of service in the local government that uses process management can in
principal meet the conflict of two paradigms: process management and service orientation
(represented by SOA). The compatibility and benefit of these solutions is subject to discussions in
professional journals and on relevant discussion forums, e.g [Chakrabarti, 2007, Moe 2009, WarDutton, 2009], general agreement here lies in the benefits of BPM and SOA combination that can be
summarized thus that BPM provides business context for SOA implementation.
What Togaf says about the SOA approach is also related to the necessity to give SOA business
context. This framework mentions important approaches to SOA: “Business-led SOA” and “Developerled SOA”. First approach asks what services are needed and how they will be managed and fulfilled,
second one is regarding the best way how to design, build and operate services. Although Businessled SOA and Developer-led SOA lie in a different view, their activities are complementing and meeting
in the concept of the „service“ [THE OPEN GROUP, 2009] In other words, SOA does not necessarily
mean only the way of implementation, it is also regarding the consistent logic that is beneficial to use
within the identification and composing of important architectonic solution elements that we call
services and what parameters it is necessary to assign to them for maximum control of their execution
effectiveness and for their comparison.
By applying what Togaf says about SOA back to the possible BPM and SOA combination, it is
possible to solve the issue of what services are necessary to define from the „Business-led SOA“ point
of view. It is with the approach based on process identification within BPM. This approach is also
supported by the probably most famous SOA author, Thomas Erl, who mentions BPM as one of the
possible approaches to identification of business services. Business service can thus „represent the
process step, partial process of the bigger one or even the whole process.“ [Erl, 2009] Although T.Erl
does not make the division in the same sense as Togaf, business service is the closest term to the
business level .Business services are „tasks relating to some activity [Erl, 2009]“ that represent
management logic in SOA. The separation of so called business service layer enables that „automatic
representation of business process logic can be developed independently from the apllication logic on
technology level .“ [Erl, 2009] According to Erl, the application logic should then be separated into an
independent layer of so called application services. For SOA implementation, Erl suggests to use
either top-down approach (from business services to application services), bottom-up approach or the
agile strategy which combines these two approaches.
Specification of how to combine the service orientation with the process management should with no
doubt be part of the service definition in local government that uses process management. Especially
for this purpose I will base my detail enterprise architecture model on Parma project [Řepa a kolektiv]
and on definitions of Řepa who recognizes processes according to their meaning as follows [Řepa]:
Key processes – the result of such a process is directly meant for the customer
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
21
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
Supporting processes – support key processes, key process can not function without the
supporting one
Side processes – other activities in the organization
3.3
Services granularity and categorization
While defining services in local government in CR (and public administration as such), chosen service
granularity is very important. Service granularity is mainly important when we try to put the services for
local government into wider context of services for public administration. There is a concept [Voříšek,
2011] currently arising in CR regarding this matter which comes as first with the need of such services
specification. Service definition in local government in CR thus gains another justification as a mean of
comparison and especially control of costs in the public administration in general.
Service granularity is to the wide extend dependent on service categorization which is at the most
general level represented with what will be further called business service and ICT service.
Let us have a look on two possible approaches to services categorization. First one is the already
mentioned SOA concept of T.Erl, second one is the approach of J.Voříšek[Voříšek, 2008]. Although
Erl mentions the service in the sense of a unit encapsulating certain logic (even possible at the whole
process level) which in theory means that it can be the service not necessarily supported by IT
technology he does not mention such a service explicitly and his concept is regarding services
implemented by IT technology. Voříšek on the other hand namely mentions ICT service as a service
which „is created by ICT processes that consume ICT resources (hardware, software, data, people)
[Voříšek, 2008]“, and which either supports partial activities of business process that delivers business
service or the ICT service is directly delivered as a complete business service (e.g. E-banking).
Service categorization itself respects two from possible points of view regarding services that can be
used for different purposes. Erl´s point of view (resp.SOA as such) is a practical implementation
approach to the architecture of an enterprise. Erl follows basic IT architecture of an enterprise and
puts the layer of service interface between the business process layer and the application layer. The
same logic is applied for already partially mentioned service categorization into business services,
apllication services and orchestration services [Erl, 2009].
Voříšek´s point of view is regarding wider concept of ICT service as an important asset of ICT
management and therefore it views the appropriate categorization as „one of the basis for IT support
of business [Voříšek, 2008].“ This concept offers couple of different categorizations; the most
important one for our purpose (mainly because of its connection to the mentioned architectural
concept) is the categorization according to the service subject. It is regardiing services that „directly
support business processes and end users. They are: information services (provide required
information), application services (regard business application functionality), infrastructure services
(build and operate ICT infrastructure) and support services (provide for other services) [Voříšek,
2008]”.
What these two approaches have in common is that they view ICT services as a layer on the interface
between business (represented by business process layer in Erl´s point of view) and enterprise IT
(Erl´s application layer).
It is beneficial to consider these approaches to the service categorization while defining service in the
local government in CR. Positives and negatives of using SOA in the solution for local government will
therefore be explored lower in this article as well as the logic that should be used in service
categorization. This categorization will be considered as the ICT management service categorization
which in the model using process management will be derived from the categorization of processes.
4.
Service definition in the local government that uses process management
4.1
The logic of service creation in the EA meta model of local government that uses
process management
Previous analysis regarding the EA meta model of local government that uses process management
considered various specifics of local government of CR and involved them within the application of
private sector approaches into the public sector. Created meta model thus respects the necessity of
implementation of measurable outputs that provide value for the customer at the process output as
well as at the process interfaces where they can be applied to monitor the course of the process and
are a possible way not only how to improve these processes continuously but also how to derive the
22
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
employees evaluation from them and thus increase their motivation. Business service is such an
interface.
General meta model (see above) also respects Řepa´s process division and works with the term
external (business) service as an output of the process that brings final value to the customer and
fulfills strategic goals of the organization – key process. The meta model further works with the term
internal (business) service which is an interface of the process that supports key process –
supporting process. This division corresponds roughly to the division presented by Archimate.
Such a definition of business service in local government of CR is very general, for its elaboration into
bigger detail, it is necessary to specify further and slightly modify Řepa´s process conception as
follows:
Relationship between key process (KP) and supporting process (SP), SP options
For identification of external and internal services, it is important to know ways in that SP can support
KP. Following relationships are traceable from the processes that are being modeled within the Parma
project [Řepa a kolektiv]:
1. SP type 1 – is a necessary condition for the course and termination of the KP; it regards the
group of activities in the KP that it is possible to set aside as a logical unit from various
reasons such as existing practice, higher KP transparency etc.
2. SP type 2 – is a variant in the course of KP, therefore does not have to be necessarily done to
enable KP to continue; this process can theoretically exist on its own
3. SP type 3 – is a supporting process to other SP
All types of supporting processes can have also a so called cross-sectional character which means
that particular supporting process can be used by more than one of the key processes. According to
[Řepa, 2007] such a process has „relatively independent logic of the course, it serves many of
surrounding processes that it provides partial services for according to their need.“
Servicing processes
There is a significant amount of processes in the organization that secure its operation that Řepa calls
side processes. This name may signify the possibility to give those processes less attention which
might be logical from the process management point of view that works with the strategic goals of the
organizaction and connected key processes, from the whole EA of the organization it is however not
possible to omit these processes that indeed will have a big influence on the organization
infrastructure and capacity and management of IT resources. This is why I choose the name servicing
processes that better expresses their relationship to key processes and to the organization mission as
such.
From the point of determination of services that are being provided by these processes, it is possible
to make following basic division of servicing processes.:
1. Servicing processes related to the management, operation, maintenance and implementation
of IS ( Helpdesk, Data management, Security ETA.)
2. Other servicing processes (Finance management, HR, Analytical business processes ETA.)
The reason for this basic servicing process division is a decision whether to list their outputs –
services – into the service catalog for public administration or not. The implementation of the first
group of servicing processes is in fact very often based on standards (ITIL, Cobit etc.) and is a subject
to the decision of particular organization. Therefore the extend and the way of standards
implementation will differ. Unless the usage of particular standards or other criterias for
implementation of such services in organization is set legally, I assume that it has no sense to involve
these services into service catalog for public administration.(classification of services in local
government into the service catalog for public administration will further be discussed later in this
article).
From the point of IT management we can therefore define two basic types of business service in local
government based on process division into key and servicing processes.
Business service of the key process
Business service of the servicing process
This categorization is a little bit different from the categorization made by Voříšek but it respects one
basic criterion that further influences the way for service determination and the related way of their
implementation. We will understand under this criterion the relationship to business (or more precisely
strategic goals) of the organization. While the first group of services supports business directly, the
influence of the second one is indirect. This division roughly corresponds to the one made by Voříšek
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
23
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
where information and application services support business directly and infrastructure and supporting
services support business indirectly (it is not completely accurate though as the application services
can be part of e.g. infrastructure services; suitability of this categorization will be discussed later in this
article in the section regarding difference between business and ICT service). It is however important
what Voříšek says about possible variants of approaches within the application services structuring.
These variants are „application services according to the business processes, application services
according to the software installed and available at the market and application services according to
the user type and to the organization departments [Voříšek, 2008]“. Should this categorization be
applied to the business service defined above, the division of services into those directly and indirectly
supporting business provides me with the strong tool to determine which one from the mentioned
approaches to choose.
Business services of key processes are connected to the strategic and business goals of the
organization and are derived from their business processes that are specific for particular
organization. In the local government that uses process management thus logically makes no sense to
use other approach to determine services than exactly the one that determines services according to
the business processes. On the other hand the business services of servicing processes are not build
to such an extend on process orientation. It is also possible to view the group of servicing processes
as a group of objects with specific functions and thus can the services of these processes be defined.
Group of these services will be less specific for particular organization than its services directly related
to the business (key) processes and it is possible to determine it either according to the best practice
represented for instance by the available package solution or according to the interests of particular
users or organization departments (however I would not consider this last approach as optimal from
the reason of its high rigidity) .
Following table is to summarize above mentioned approach to business service definition within the
meta model of local government that uses process management, followed by the example of process
„Assistance with the realization of a business plan“:
Table 1: Logic of business service creation in the meta model of local government that uses
process management
Type of business
process (BP)
Type of business service
(BS)
Approach to BS
determination
Example of BP
Relevant BS
Key process
External
According to
business process in
relation BP:BS = 1:1
Assistance with the
realization of a BP
1
(Pomoc
s realizací PZ)
Establishing of
business
(Založení
živnosti)
Supporting process
- type 1
Internal (unless KP is not
finished by SP )
According to
business process in
relation BP:BS = 1:1
Establishing of
business (Založení
živnosti)
Trade licence
(Živnostenský
list)
Supporting process
- type 2
External (if KP is finished
by this SP, SP is an option
of external BS relevant
directly to this KP)
According to
business process in
relation BP:BS = 1:1
Assistance with
grants (Podpora
získání dotací)
Providing
information for
grant obtaining
(Poskytnutí
informací pro
získání dotací)
Supporting process
- type 3
Internal
According to
business process in
relation BP:BS = 1:1
This process does
not occur within KP
in example
Servicing
– type 1
process
Internal
According to best
practice in relation
BP:BS=1:N
Security
management
E.g.Identificatio
n and
autentication
Servicing
– type 2
process
Externí
According to best
practice in relation
BP:BS=1:N
Human resources
E.g.Hiring
1
Business plan
24
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Figure 2: Key process Assistance with the realizationof a Business plan (Pomoc s realizací
podnikatelského záměru) - example
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
25
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
The key process in example „Assistance with the business plan“ solves the citizen requirement to
realize his or her business plan so that at the end of a process the business is established. After initial
application checks, citizen has an option to ask for an assistance with the communication with the
state institutions, with the creation of his or her own business plan (Pomoc s tvorbou PZ) or with the
assistance with grants to support this business plan (Pomoc s dotacemi). All of these options are
optional, this is why these processes are categorized as supporting process – type 2. In the process in
example regarding this type of process with the name „Assistance with grants“ (Pomoc s dotacemi) –
mentioned in the table above – it is regarding consulting activities of the office in the area of gaining
grants and support from EU funds that lies in providing of basic information, in the formal checks and
in the consultancy regarding the project content. Furthermore it is a process which it is possible to use
in other key processes and this is why it is designed as cross-sectional.
Key process further continues with the check whether the business can be established in the process
with the cross-sectional character „Administrative procedure“ and as long as this process has a
positive ending, the business is established in the process „Establishing of business“. Both of these
processes are a necessary condition for finishing the whole key process, this is why they are
categorized as supporting process – type 1.
4.2
Business service versus ICT service in the EA meta model of local government
that uses process management
The approach when the service is defined as an output (or interface) of the process means that it is
not specified at this level how the service is arranged and no implementation details of the service are
being solved. These details are hidden to the customer and business in general and this is why I will
call these services business service.
In the next step also the way in which business service is implemented is however necessary to
define and thus the ICT service is defined in the meta model of local government that uses process
management. Such an ICT service definition mostly corresponds to the Skála definition [ Skála,
2004]“ICT service is a particular function provided by information and communication technologies
that enables the course of some particular business process.”
The concept which defines business service against the ICT service as a mean of business service
implementation (this implicitly means that the business service does not have to be necessarily
supported by ICT technologies ) roughly corresponds to the Togaf service specification in its part
regarding „Business-led SOA“. If we accept the Togaf specification, we can talk about SOA already
while defining business and ICT service without mentioning particular way of implementation.
Considering however more current SOA understanding in the sense of particular way of
implementation at IT level, for this phase of service specification I would prefer to choose the name
„Service oriented analysis“.
It is more difficult to find the analogy of the described service categorization into business and ICT
services with the Voříšek categorization. Although Voříšek applies the criteria when „information can
be a product of software application however the application function is not important for the service
receiver“[Voříšek, 2008] while separating information ICT services from application ICT services,
similar logic is not applied within the other ICT services specification and thus also the services where
the application function is not substantial for the service receiver are included in the application ICT
services.(Services such as submission of an application, permit issue etc.) Categorization of services
into business and ICT services together with the division of services into key and servicing (above)
deals with this inconsistency.
26
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Tabel 2: Concept of services in the meta model of local government that uses process
management vs. ICT services categorization according to the subject by Vorisek (in bold)
Service categorization according to the basic granularity
Service categorization according to the process type
Service
type
Service of the key process
Service of the servicing process
Business
service
Information
ICT services
InfrastructureICT
services
(excl.ICT
application services
to their support )
Other services at
the interface with
the customer
ICT service
Majority
of
supporting
ICT
services (excl.ICT
application
services to their
support )
Application ICT services
Service categorization into business service and ICT service respects basic service categorization.
Service granularity is than derived from the service type according to the type of process – the service
of key processes or the service of servicing processes.
Using Erl´s terminology, under business service I will understand the business service that will be
determined by top-down approach. Analysis will further be derived from the type of business service:
business services of key processes will be determined based on processes, business services of
servicing processes will be determined functionally according to the best practice. Determination and
implementation of ICT services follows this approach as well. Following table shows the mapping of
ICT services and business services:
Table 3: Logic of ICT service creation in the meta model of local government that uses process
management
Type business
service (BS)
Approach to ICT service
(ICTS) determination
Business
process
(BP) example
Relevant BS
Relevant
ICTS example
BS of key
processes
According to business
processes regarding
relevant BS in relation
BS:ICTS=1:N
Assistance with the
realization of a BP
(Pomoc s realizací
PZ)
Establishing of
business (Založení
živnosti)
Data entry
BS of servicing
processes
According to particular BS
usually in relation
BS:ICTS=1:1
Human resources
e.g.Hiring
Hiring
Using this logic for mapping of business processes (BP) and business services (BS) and for mapping
of ICT services (ICTS) and business services means that while relation of BP:BS is 1:1 for key
processes, for servicing processes the relation BP:BS is 1:N. This is caused by the approach which
views servicing process more as an object with specific functions and the relation of BS:ICTS is
derived from it. Regarding services of key processes, ICT services correspond to particular
step of the process and relation of BS:ICTS is thus 1:N. Logic of their creation in particular
process will be similar to SOA logic in the sense of creation of service layers (business,
application and orchestration) made by T.Erl. On the other hand, considering business
services of servicing processes, we will try to set particular fuctions in the way that makes
them also an ICT service (or application function – see below) as the market provides enough
best practice and package solutions where these functions have already been optimized.
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
27
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
Relation BP:BS = 1:N for the services of servicing processes does not however exclude the
possibility to identify only one business service for particular business process. In this case it
is possible that the BP will be too complicated (spread over more then one interface or
demanding further sub processes) to use only one ICT service to implement it and this is the
case where it is necessary to consider the same logic for ICTS solution as for the services of
key processes.
From the information architecture point of view, also the question regarding usage of SOA (in the
„Developer-led SOA“ meaning) is relevant while implementing ICT. Nowadays when this architectonic
approach have already been discussed for couple of years it will be sufficient to mention only its basic
positives and negatives. The benefit of this concept is that by implementing SOA, organization gains a
technological platform independent solution, systems suppliers independent solution and when
structured right, services are naturally reusable and scalable and the architecture is thus flexible. On
the other hand, it is a highly demanding investment regarding time, resources and finances with the
long term benefits. Nevertheless the questions stays not whether to implement SOA but mostly to
what extend and where specifically.
Let us mention at least some of the criteria that we can use when deciding about SOA usage.
1. Service granularity
According to Voříšek [Voříšek, 2008], for the SOA implementation it is appropriate to have fine grained
services that are typical for specific processes of the enterprise while the coarse grained services of
less specific processes it is more suitable to cover by standardized SW packages. This division is very
much applicable within service categorization into services of key processes that are specific for the
organization and the services of servicing process that are standardized. Despite this it is beneficial to
consider following criteria to decide whether to use SOA or package solution even in the case of
servicing processes.
2. The extend to which package SW covers services of servicing processes
Regarding current offer at the market and the option to customize SW this should not be a problem, it
is however beneficial to lower the amount of potential customizations to minimum.
3. The costs of SOA implementation vs. costs of acquisition of package SW
In this case it is necessary to include among acquisition of package solution also the future costs
caused by the „dependency“ on SW supplier. For instance significant extra costs can occur within the
upgrade of the system to newer version because of additional analysis and the implementation
generally more complicated by the amount of mentioned customizations of previous version.
4. Current status and usage of information systems in the organizations in public sector
In case that organization is already using package solution for its servicing processes, the shift to SOA
solution will very likely be a more expensive option.
One of the main focus in this area should be a connection of the organization to the Information
systems of public administration (Informační systémy veřejné správy (ISVS)), connection to other
potential systems and also usage of various communication channels.. SOA is an appropriate solution
in the integration and communication sense and the flexibility offered by the technological platform
independency is a very important factor for choosing SOA especially in the communication with the
surrounding environment. Although SOA can be an effective solution in this case, it will also generate
requirements on the way of communication with the surrounding systems (mentioned ISVS especially)
that it is necessary to analyze.
It is possible to involve the decision about SOA usage into EA meta model of local government that
uses process management considering above mentioned criteria in each particular case and based on
following rules:
1. Business services of key processes are specific for local government, they are usually handled by
more than one application and are usually fine grained. These services are therefore appropriate
candidates for SOA. Mapping of ICT services to business services will be done according to particular
process steps. Regarding the fact that the IS architecture will very likely not be built on green field, the
service granularity will be defined by „agile strategy“[Erl, 2009]. This strategy combines top-down
approach (definition of business services in our case) with the bottom-up approach (definition of ICT
services in our case), which takes into account existing application services or current IS
functionalities. ICT services in case of such a business service can be created by the combination of
these ICT services:
Application ICT service
28
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Data ICT service
Communication channel ICT service
External interface ICT service
2. Business services of servicing processes are usually coarse grained, handled by one application
and are therefore suitable candidates for package solutions. Although so far we have been using the
name ICT service even for this kind of services, it is not an ICT service in „Developer-led“ SOA sense
but merely:
Application functionality
Data operations
3. It will be useful to use the above mentioned ICT services in SOA sense when defining also business services of
servicing processes when the required function is not covered by the package software or the function is being
handled by more than one application/interface. For such functions it is necessary to determine process steps and
map ICT services to those steps with the same logic as for the business services of key processes. The business
services of servicing processes should however be designed in a way that lowers number of such services to
minimum.
Changed meta model will therefore look as follows:
Fig. 3: EA meta model of local government in CR that uses process management with included
services
4.3
Services of local government in the context of services for public administration
Conducted analysis can also serve as the basis for the categorization of services in local government
into the service catalog for public administration. The objective of the catalog is to „lower the costs of
public administration services and enhance the quality of providing of the services” [Voříšek, 2011].
This is why the services fulfilling at least following criteria should be involved in the catalog:
1. The service fulfills strategic goals of the organization or contributes effectively to its operation
2. The service has not been implemented as a part of IT management standard implementation
(e.g.ITIL)
3. The service and its costs are specified at such a level of detail which makes its implementation
on current information and technological architecture not unnecessarily expensive
Application of first two criterions means that:
- business services of key processes as specific representatives of local government should be
included in the catalalogue
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
29
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
- business services of other servicing processes (those processes not connected with the IS
administration, operation, maintenance and implementation very often based on standards – see
above) should also be included in the catalog. These services are main candidates to be included into
the catalog as services not specific only to local government.
Application of the third criterion means that:
- we are gaining main justification for the service categorization into business and ICT services.
Primarily the business services should thus be included into the catalog as they are being defined
regardless of the current implementation environment. Following the same logic, it is not necessary to
include ICT service into the catalog as the mean of business service implementation. It is however
essential to determine appropriate relation of business service and ICT service within the particular
process and optimal costs of business service. When using SOA to the wider extend, it would be
convenient to consider also the possibility of usage of existing ICT services in shared repositories.
- there are some business services that only serve fulfilling other business services and do not exist
on their own. Therefore it is not necessary to include them into the catalog. Categorization of particular
business services into the service catalog for public administration is therefore derived from the type of
business service (internal/external) as follows:
Tabulka 4: Categorization of business services into the service catalog for public
administration
Type of business
process (BP)
Type of business
service (BS)
BS included into
the service catalog
for public
administration
Example of BP
Relevant BS
Key process
External
Yes
Assistance with the
realization of a BP
2
(Pomoc
s realizací PZ)
Establishing of
business
(Založení
živnosti)
Supporting process type 1
Internal (unless KP
is not finished by SP
)
No
Establishing of
business (Založení
živnosti)
Trade licence
(Živnostenský
list)
Supporting process type 2
External (if KP is
finished by this SP,
SP is an option of
external BS relevant
directly to this KP)
Yes
Assistance with
grants (Podpora
získání dotací)
Providing
information for
grant obtaining
(Poskytnutí
informací pro
získání dotací)
Supporting process type 3
Internal
No
This process does
not occur within KP
in example
Servicing process –
type 1
Internal
No
Security
management
E.g.Identificatio
n and
autentication
Servicing process –
type 2
Externí
Yes
Human resources
E.g.Hiring
Intended service catalog for public administration[Voříšek, 2011] will contain also service parameters.
From the point of view of service defined in this article, it is necessary to consider mainly following
factors:
1. Business services derived from processes will adopt the business process parameters. (e.g.
administrator, number of users, costs and revenues etc.) Metrics especially will be an
important parameter adopted from the business process. They will serve costs determination
and will be reflected in related SLAs.
2. SLA will not only be determined for the services included in the catalog (external business
services) but also for other services(internal). This need arises from viewing business service
as a process interface that enables controls also on the communication among processes.
3. Service catalog should also contain ICT services that are participating at the public service.
Considering viewing ICT service as a mean of business service implementation, particular
2
Business plan
30
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CR THAT USES PROCESS MANAGEMENT
number of ICT services should be stipulated rather by the amount of costs of business
service than by their number. In a suggested approach to service definition in local
government, the relation of business service to ICT service is 1:1 for the services of servicing
processes and therefore the costs of business service will include usage of only one ICT
service. In case of services of key processes( and also smaller part of services of servicing
processes) the optimal costs of business service implementation are related to the current
system architecture that could differ in particular organization. While composing the service
catalog, approximate number of ICT services should be stipulated for these services (e.g. by
the expert estimate) so that the corresponding amount of costs of whole business service can
be determined.
4. The costs of business service have to reflect especially the option to provide some of the
business/ICT services (services of processes with the cross-sectional character and services
of servicing processes in the first place) by the Shared Service Center, to reuse SOA services
from repositories while implementing ICT services etc.
5. Regarding business services of key processes, it is necessary to distinguish the number of
supporting processes of a type 2 (those that are variants in the course of the process). There
is a difference between whether the service is accomplished by the simple process or whether
this process uses several other processes for its fulfilling (in a process in example „Assistance
with the realizationof a BP“ it is possible to use for example the process „Assistance with
grants„. „Assistance with the communication with other institutions“ etc.) This is also one of the
reasons why business services of supporting processes of a type 2 are considered as external
– when used within the key process it is not difficult to add their parameters (costs, duration
etc.) to this key process.
5.
Summary
The definition of the service as an important enterprise IT management asset is a next step in
the analysis of effective functioning of local government in CR which proposes usage of the business
process management and the enterprise architecture elements. The article also elaborates proposed
EA meta model of the local government which uses business process management in its part
regarding the services.
The goal of the article was to define, based on the study of current approaches to service
determination, on the research within the Parma project and on my own experience as a system
integration consultant, the business service, to specify the business service against the ICT service
and consider the options for including such services for local government into the catalog of the
services for public administration..
Conducted analysis of the services within the mentioned EA meta model should be considered as an
initial thought on the options of conception of these services. It defines the basic granularity of these
services that lies on the categorization of the services into business service (defined as a process
interface) and the ICT service (defined as a mean of implementation of the business service). Main
reason for this division is a transparent access to the services for the customer who is not interested in
implementation details, e.g. in the service catalog for public administration.
Determination of the business services, further service granularity and particular mapping of ICT
service to the business service is derived from the categorization of services into Services of the key
processes (that support business goals directly) and into Services of the servicing processes (that
support business goals indirectly). The benefit of this division is that it makes the service determination
more transparent and easier. Mentioned division represents the different approach to service
determination – first group follows the process approach, where services are determined according to
the processes and particular process steps ( ICT services are fine grained and are therefore suitable
candidates for using SOA for their implementation), second group follows the functional approach,
where services are determined as a functionality based on best practice (ICT services are coarse
grained and therefore it is more suitable to use package solution to implement them).
Local government services are planned to be included in the service catalog for public administration.
Following services should be part of service catalog when using mentioned service categorization:
External business services of key processes
Business services of servicing processes that are not connected with the IS administration,
operation, maintenance and implementation (as these are very often based on standards that
could differ in particular organization and therefore the comparison might get difficult).
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4
31
MARKETA ZIMMEMANNOVA
To proceed with the analysis regarding service definition in local government that uses process
management, it is necessary to conduct an analysis of available best practice for the services of
servicing processes in order to determine these services and also to map current IS state in local
government organizations as well as technological options of ISVS for final optimization of ICT
services implementation. From the service catalog point of view, it is necessary to identify options for
optimization of business service costs by defining relevant services of servicing processes (mainly
with cross-sectional character) for their possible implementation by Shared Service Centers and
further in a SOA sense for the reuse of ICT services.
References
Erl, T., 2009: Servisně orientovaná architektura – Kompletní průvodce (Service Oriented ArchitectureConcepts, Technology and Design), Computer Press, a.s. Brno,ISBN 978-80-251-1886-3
INFOSYS, Enterprise Architecture Expands its Role in Strategic Business Transformation,Infosys
Enterprise Architecture Survey 2008/2009, available at http://www.infosys.com/offerings/itservices/architecture-services/enterprise-architecture/pages/index.aspx
Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office, OMB, FEA Practice Guidance, 2007,
available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fea_docs/FEA_Practice_Guidance_Nov_200
7.pdf
Chakrabarti, B., 2007: BPM * SOA = BPOA, available at www.soainstitute.org
Moe, J., 2009: Why you need BPM and SOA, available at www.soainstitute.org,
Řepa, V., Úvod do procesního řízení (Business process engineering), available at
ftp://ftp.panrepa.org/BPM_BPR_uvod.pdf
Řepa, V., 2007: Podnikové procesy - Procesní řízení a modelování (2.aktualizované a rozšířené
vydání), (Information Modelling of Organizations), GRADA Publishing, a.s. ISBN 978-80-247-2252-8
Řepa, V. a kolektiv, Public Administration Reference Model Administration (Parma) Project, available
at http://parma.vse.cz
Řepa, V., 2011: Building the Processed-managed Organization by Means of Services, Journal of
Systems Integration, Vol 2, No 2, pp. 11-16
Řepa, V., 2009: Analýza, modelování a řízení podnikových procesů, (Analysis, modelling and
management of business processes), KIT, VŠE Praha
SKÁLA, J., Praha: Omnicom, 2004, Best Practice řízení ICT služeb (Best Practice in ICT services
management), available at http://nb.vse.cz/~ridelj/vsomis/MIS_LS03_ITIL_clanek.pdf
THE OPEN GROUP: The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). [Online] s.l.: The Open
Group, 2009. ISBN 978-90-8753-230-7
THE OPEN GROUP: The ArchiMate 1.0 technical standard . [Online] s.l. : The Open Group, 2009
Voříšek, J., 2011: Katalog služeb pro veřejnou správu (Service catalog for public administration –
blueprint), in: NOVOTNÝ, O., VORÍŠEK, J. a kol.: Digitální cesta k prosperitě. Praha: Professional
Publishing, ISBN 978-80-7431-047-8
Voříšek, J. a kolektiv, 2008: Principy řízení podnikové informatiky (IT management principles and
models), Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, Nakladatelství Oeconomica,Praha,
ISBN 978-80-245-1440-6
Ward-Dutton, N., 2009: Bringing BPM and SOA Together for Maximum Business Value, available at
www.soainstitue.org
Zimmermannová, M., 2012: Enterprise architektura procesně řízené územní samosprávy (Enterprise
architecture of local government that uses process management), Systémová integrace, 19 (1),
pp. 26-48, ISSN 1210-9479
Zimmermannová, M. -- Řepa, V. 2011: Vztah Procesního řízení a Enterprise architektury (The
relationship between Business process management and Enterprise architecture), Systémová
integrace, 18 (1), pp. 7-21, ISSN 1210-9479
JEL Classification: H11, M15
32
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 2013/4