Each of the existing methodologies assessed include a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Whilst the Service-Oriented Modelling and Architecture methodology offers a pragmatic combination of a top down and bottom up approach to service identification, its focuses on a technical approach to implementation, which is beyond the scope of this study. The Service Oriented Design and Development Method, on the other hand, is well documented and offers an iterative approach to service identification, however fails to define an appropriate level of granularity. The Component Identification approach meanwhile provides an interesting component identification process, but its formality is at once a strength and weakness - it provides a proven approach, which is though difficult to understand for the non-initiated reader. Whilst the Service-Oriented Architecture methodology is very detailed and well illustrated by case studies, it lacks the necessary criteria for reuse. The BTEP is the only model which is already used in government context and therefore provides a common language, which is commonly used in the public sector. Its presentation as Toolkit, rather than a fully described methodology and lack of granularity represent however a disadvantage.
21 Given this study’s objective to identify the building blocks of public services including ‘Fundamental Services’, elements of the existing methodologies have been combined to develop a new top-down service decomposition model. It consists of three steps and is illustrated in Figure 17 below.
Figure 17 – Three Step Service Decomposition Methodology
Step 1: Define the overall scope and life events
The first step is to define the scope of public services or domain. The UN Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) is the prevalent system for the classification for public services in public sector literature and statistics.40 Given that the functions identified are designed to apply to the government of different countries, however it provides a long, general list of categories of public services.
As noted in Chapter 1.2, this study therefore adopts a ‘life events’ approach to the identification of public services. For the purpose of the case studies, the focus is placed on the life cycle of a business.
The European Commission has adopted a common ‘life events’ approach, providing practical information about online government services provided to businesses in the different Member States.41 It identifies eight major groups of life events (these are also called ‘business episodes’): Starting up, Managing, Research and Innovation, Expanding, EU Market, Responsible Business, and Exit Strategy. The life cycle is illustrated in Figure 18 below.
This common approach provides a framework for application of the proposed service taxonomy and enables the involved actors to be identified per life event. The aim of the study is however not to create an exhaustive overview of public services provided throughout the life-cycle of a business by all public administrations. A number of life events have therefore been selected.
40 The UN Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG), UN Statistics Division (n.d.)
41 Your Europe, European Commission (n.d.): http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/
22 Figure 18 – Scope example: Life Cycle of a Business
Step 2: Identify the laws, input and output
In the second phase, information concerning the service delivery process is analysed.
According to Trochidis, Tambouris and Tarabanis (2007) and Peristeras, Loutas and Tarabanis (2008), a service requires input and provides output in order to operate. A public service therefore contains a certain ‘logic’ which is specified in the rules.. The legislation which defines the public services which are part of the life event is therefore identified. This relationship, in which public services rely on each other and other sources for input and output, can be illustrated by the concept of
‘nested services’ in Figure 19 where PA is a public administration, s represents a service and i an input.
Figure 19 –The Concept of Nested Services (Peristeras 2006)42
42 Governance Enterprise Architecture - GEA - for Reengineering Public Administration, Peristeras, V., (2006).
23 Following desk research and interviews, a set of services is identified and described, based on an abstraction of the steps which businesses need to carry out in order to complete the life event.
Step 3: Create the service maze and identify services
The third step is to analyse the identified services in terms of the input, output and rules related to the public services. In this step, the identified services are mapped in accordance with the service taxonomy, according to the definitions presented above.
The approach illustrated in Table 1 is proposed as a method to visualise the building blocks of the different public services, as well as their input and output, once the relevant legislation has been identified. These can subsequently be presented in a ‘service maze’.
Table 1– Building blocks for the Service Decomposition Methodology
Building Block Meaning
Life Event
Process Public Service (PPS) / Composed Public Service (CPS)
Basic Data Service (BDS)
Basic Logic Service (BLS)
Data
“depends on” relationship: B depends on the output from A.
“uses” relationship: B uses the data in the case.
“are part of” relationship: B is part of life event.
24 Based on this ‘service maze’, a list of public services categorised in accordance with the service taxonomy can be identified. This process contributes towards the development of a definition of
‘Fundamental Services’ and exploration of the potential for and impact of providing the building blocks of public services in an open and interoperable way in line with the ‘cloud of public services’ concept.
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3 Identifying public services and fundamental services
The proposed methodology presented in the previous chapter was implemented and tested in three Member States in the form of case studies. This chapter provides a synthesis of the results of these case studies, by presenting:
the most relevant findings per group of life events;
the implications for re-use and ‘fundamental services’;
the implications for the methodology as such and lessons learned.
The aim of the exercise was to test the methodology detailed in the previous chapter as well as to investigate the concept of fundamental services. In total 239 different services were identified in the case studies, which shows that by using the methodology one can identify the services or building blocks. Several examples were also encountered that provide an insight into how public administrations have already moved towards closer cooperation between public administrations, opening up and sharing services between actors (including third parties) and the application of SOA principles to achieve such implementations.