Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
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