Public Sector CIO Council XML Subcommittee

Enabling Service Discovery Using XML

Canada Business Service Centres Proof of Concept Project
Findings and Recommendations

Concurrent Session
Lac Carling VIII
May 17, 2004
 Presenters

Robert Smith
Executive Director
Canada Business Service Centres National Secretariat
Jane Stewart
Director, Information Management
Canada Business Service Centres National Secretariat
Dave Wallace
Corporate Chief Technology Officer
Government of Ontario, Management Board Secretariat
Norman Lee
Senior Co-ordinator, Business & Information Architecture
Government of Ontario, Management Board Secretariat

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 2
 Contents

• Context Setting
• CBSC Proof of Concept Project
• Interjurisdictional Business Model
• Proof of Concept Deliverables
• Public Service Info Model & XML Architecture
• Preliminary Findings
• Issues and Next Steps
• Q&A

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 3
 Setting the Context

• The Canada Business Service Centres

– Created in 1993
– An interjurisdictional, multi-channel information “discovery” and
pathfinding service for Canadian business
– An early example of a single-window approach, integrating
information across jurisdictions in a client-centric manner
– A CBSC in each province and territory, with 356 regional access
sites
• Successful track record
– Over 300,000 assisted and 4.8 million self-serve client
interactions in 2003-04
– Awarded the UN Public Service Award 2004
• CBSC mandate
– The goal of the CBSCs is to provide business people in every part
of Canada with access to accurate, timely and relevant
information and referrals. The CBSCs reduce the complexity of
dealing with various levels of government by serving as a central
resource for Canadian business information

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 4
 CBSC Information Management

• The CBSC Business Information System (BIS)

– The CBSC BIS database contains descriptions of programs,
services and regulations relevant to business, across two
orders of government
– Basis for both assisted and self-serve interactions across
all delivery channels (telephone, in-person, online)
– A tremendous asset, but times have changed
• The BIS and e-Government objectives
– Represents a type of information that is the DNA of all
orders of government, and of all “discovery” interactions
– Enormous potential for re-use and re-purposing of BIS
structure, for both businesses and citizens
– Potential to move to a more open and interoperable
approach using XML and related technologies

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 5
 CBSC XML Proof of Concept Rationale

• A relatively rare example of consistently structured content

across two levels of government
• Basic information required by all types of “discovery” services
– call centres, single-window portals, directories, and
program/service web sites
• XML and related technologies are ideal for enabling a “single-
source” approach
– Descriptions are authored once, with program/service authority
• Service improvement: ideally, clients should receive identical
information through all access points
• Potential for re-use: individual elements contained in the basic
BIS, if standardized, can be extracted for different purposes
– Example: contact information for blue page listings
• Potential for extensibility: the component elements of a BIS
document represent a core that can be extended for service
delivery and transaction purposes

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 6
 Proof of Concept Objectives

• To leverage XML and related technologies as a means of

transforming a labour-intensive, closed and proprietary
information management approach to a standards-
based, open system
• Support for distributed authoring, data interoperability,
and expanded contexts of re-use
• To resolve “authoritative source” issues for CBSC
partners (program and service owners)
• To improve efficiency by reducing or eliminating
duplication of effort in the realm of broadly-defined
“discovery” services
• To improve accuracy and consistency for clients
• To contribute to the creation of Pan-Canadian IM
standards enabling e-government

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 7
 CBSC XML Proof of Concept Approach

• “Expose” the structure of a BIS document

• Review the component elements against existing XML
and metadata standards and leverage these wherever
possible to create a draft schema
• Demonstrate how a standards-based approach to the
creation of program and service descriptions could be
enabled (CBSC wizard)
• Demonstrate how content authored using the wizard
can be reused and transformed
• Contribute these efforts to the XML Subcommittee to
inform discussion of required interjurisdictional IM
standards, authorities, models, architectures and
infrastructures relevant to XML-enabling e-government

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 8
 Current CBSC Business Service Process
Service Description Development Service Description Delivery

Common – but proprietary

IT solution enables National
Secretariat and Provincial
Partners to create their own
websites using a
combination of Federal and
province specific business
services descriptions

All use common

Business Service
Description
Publishing System
(ensures
consistency)
Publish
All Publish
to a
Common
database

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 9
 POC Conceptual Architecture for CBSC Business Process
Common XML Schema Development
Service Description Delivery
PSCIOC XML International Standards,
OASIS, UN/CEFACT, OPS models,
subcommittee Dublin Core, W3C

Develop Common Canadian models,

Develop XML Schema
models, schema
Standards

CBSC XML Schema and Presentation Templates Development

Businesses
Develop CBSC and
CBSC Service
XML Service Individuals
Schemas XML Schemas,
Provincial and Federal
Develop XSL Style sheets
Develop CBSC
Context XML
Templates

Federal
Services (XML) Present Service
Descriptions
Provincial
Publish Services Services (XML)
Publish
(Authoring Tool)
Provincial
Services (XML)

Provincial
Services (XML)
May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 10
Publishing Federal and Provincial Service Descriptions
 eGovernment Framework

Framework Components

Collaboration Interoperability
Communities

Information Management

The framework shows all aspects of collaboration and

interoperability where IM can play a role

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 11
 Interjurisdictional Communities Vision & Needs

– Transforming from “stove-piped”

service to a horizontal, integrated
service delivery supply chain
– Adaptation of customer care model Service Manager
to enable baseline of seamless, 24
x 7 customer care
– Adaptation of change management
models to accommodate 24 x 7
and the complexity implicit in
integrated services Service Agent Program Areas

– Supported by enterprise-wide common services and the reuse of

enterprise-wide common components
– Need to adapt collaborative workflow to accommodate new roles
and new relationships among Service Manager, Service Providers
and program areas

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 12
 Characteristics of Interjurisdictional Communities

• Will work with horizontal

service delivery agendas
• Dynamic changes in
Service Manager
business/policy requirements,
technology configurations will
also make them volatile
• Modeling the operational state
will lead to a high cost/high
maintenance environment Service Agent Program Areas

• We must model above the

volatile zone – we must model
the community context
• We need to build flexibilities in
the model to allow for
flexibilities and volatilities of
the inter-jurisdictional
environment

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 13
 Enterprise View of Community of Interest and its
Stakeholders, Enablers & Governance

• COI will be enabled by

IM standards
• IM/XML standards based
on interjurisdictional
models and industry
standards
In
Intteerr
ju
jurriisdi
sdicc
tt
iiona
onall
Arch
Archiittec
ectture
ure • To be effective, needs to
&& Mode
Modellss be well-defined
governance processes

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 14
 Contributions from XML Subcommittee

1. Proposed Interjurisdictional Business Model

2. Public Service Information Model

3. Pan-Canadian Taxonomic Architecture

4. Proposed Canadian Service Description Markup

Language (CSDML) and instantiation into CBSC
Schemas

5. Model-driven XML design methodology

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 15
 Purposes of Information Model

• High-level view of generic public service

information structure for program, service,
process
• Formal information taxonomy
• Foundation of interjurisdictional Information
Management
• Basis for development of semantic rules in
Service Description XML schema design

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 16
 Public Service Information Model

Jurisdictions
Provider Client
Governance
Organizations Outcomes Organizations
& Impacts
Programs
Accomplish

Roles Accountability Services Individual

Outputs Clients
Deliver
Responsibility

Processes
Authority
Used in

Resources
May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 17
 Program definition

Program is a mandate
Jurisdiction Organization Administered Administers
& resources conferred
Administrator
by legislative or
Limit Accountable party administrative authority
to recognize needs of
Accountable
Limits Mandate Mandate
for Position designated groups
Program within a jurisdiction
based on a strategy.
Recognizes Recognizer User Uses

End Means

Program
Target
Strategy

End Means

Measures Helps
change in
Indicator Goal End
achieve

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 18
 Service definition
Service is a means
Jurisdiction Organization Administered Administers to create desirable
change in targets
Administrator of one or more
programs by
Limit Accountable party

Limits Coverage Mandate

Accountable managing delivery
Service
for
Position of valuable
Achiever Implemented outputs or
resources in
Provider response to
Implemented
requests of
Achieves Provides
by
authorized clients.
End Provided Means

Service Service
Goal Delivery Life Cycle
Unit Process

Valuable
output

Creates
desirable End Target
change

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 19
 Pan-Canadian Taxonomic Architecture

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas
Transact Schemas

Transact Schemas
Public Service

Public Service

Public Service

Public Service

Public Service

Public Service

Public Service

Public Service
Public Service

Public Service
Common Common Common Common Common
Schemas Schemas Schemas Schema Public Schemas
Health Education Documents Safety Security

International Standard Canadian Service Description Markup Language: Address,

Schemas: I.e. Dublin Core, Party, Jurisdiction, Program, Services, etc.
GML, HL7/CDA

International Common Data Elements Schemas I.e. CIQ, XNAL, XAL, ..

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 20
 Two aspects of Pan-Canadian Taxonomic
Architecture - Composition and Taxonomy
y
m
no
xo
ta
CSDML
layered composition

Public Service CSDML

Schemas

Public Service Schemas

CSDML Party Contact Schemas

Party Contact Schemas

Public Service Schemas

Location Address
Schemas Location Address
Schemas
Party Contact Schemas
Party
Schemas Level 2 – GOC/Provincial/
Party Location Address Territorial/Municipal/COI
Schemas Schemas

Level 1 – Pan Canadian

Level 0 – International (not shown)

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 21
 CSDML

Public Service Schemas

Common XML Message Envelope Schema

Process Description Schemas

Composition Structure of

Service Description Schemas

Target Groups, Goals and Program Schemas

CSDML Architecture

Party Contact Schemas

Party Schemas Address Schemas

Organization

US Address

International

Telecomm
Individual

Canadian

Location
Physical
Address

Address
Address

International Common Data Element Standards

May 17, 2004 XML Schemas /CIQVIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session
Lac Carling Slide 22
 CSDML Design Goal

• CSDML allows program owners to define their

business services and their XML schemas in an
implementation-independent way.
• CSDML empowers program owners, service
providers and service designers control by
interacting with common services,
components, central managed service registry
in enabling inter-jurisdictional messaging
• A standard for service description
vocabulary

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 23
 Model driven method for XML design

• Generic Information Model development as the

starting point for XML design method
• Transformation and alignment of multiple
levels of Information Models based on national
and international standards to drive XML
schema design

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 24
 Model Driven XML Design Public Service
Methodology
Information Model

International and National Meta

Data Standards, XML Schema
Logical DM
for example Canada Post,
Dublin Core XML Schema
Design Model

International XML
XML Schemas
Schema Standards

XML Instances
May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 25
 Preliminary Findings: Information Management

• IM standards are key to e-government objectives

– Common data structures, models and vocabularies will
help all orders of government realize efficiencies, enable
interjurisdictional service delivery, and deliver on service
transformation goals: the broader the agreement, the
greater the return
• “Building block” approach offers flexibility
– CSDML offers a comprehensive service description
vocabulary that can be extended within specific domains to
enable interoperability in service delivery or transactional
settings
• The benefits are real
– The project has demonstrated both quantitative and
qualitative improvements to client service and improved
internal efficiencies, with potential for achieving short- and
long-term cost savings in an interjurisdictional service
discovery setting

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 26
 Preliminary Findings: Architecture

• Interjurisdictional Business Model

– An Interjurisdictional Business Model is essential is
establishing the necessary framework for the development
of related IM standards which demonstrates the business
benefits of policy flexibility and resultant improvement to
client service.

• Need for Pan-Canadian registry to manage common

objects
– PoC project initiated the discussions on the governance
issues and architectural alternatives of a proposed Pan-
Canadian registry for the storage and management of
common and reusable objects including reference models,
vocabularies, and schema definitions

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 27
 Key Conclusion

• Information Management standards are the

foundation for e-enabled service discovery and
potentially for transactional services and service
transformation

– The session will support its conclusion with key findings

and demonstrate how this Proof of Concept and related
research work have achieved the re-use of inter-
jurisdictional IM standards. The results can be leveraged in
future development efforts in all jurisdictions. These
project results include an integrated service delivery
business model, service description vocabulary (CSDML),
XML architecture, XML development methodology and Pan-
Canadian registry architecture.

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 28
 Next Steps

• Research and recommend standards governance model

including processes for standards development,
adopting, validation, change control
• Setup and test Service Registry Proof of Concept (based
on industry standards) as input to business case for the
Pan-Canadian Service Registry
• Develop a business case for the Pan-Canadian Service
Registry including funding, confirmed governance model
and requirements for XML standards
• Establish linkages with Privacy, Security, IAA and ISD
subcommittees in identifying requirements for IM/XML
standards

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 29
 References

• Community of Interest Model – Final Report (Ontario)

• Reference Information Model for Government Program
and Services (Federal, Ontario, Municipal)
• Common Data Elements Model for Party, Address
(Ontario)
• CBSC Schema design documentation
• Data Model driven method for XML schema design
(Information Modelling Handbook section 6)
• IM eEnablers presentations (TBS)
• Previous XML subcommittee presentations at PSCIOC
and Lac Carling conferences
• Available on CDROM (to be distributed at tomorrow’s
Workshop)

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 30
 Subcommittee Members

• Jane Stewart – Industry Canada (Lead)

• Don Black – Saskatchewan
• Greg Boettcher – Manitoba
• Ed Buchinski – Treasury Board Secretariat
• John Chandler – Alberta
• Patrice di Marcantonio – Quebec
• Jim Evans – Ontario
• Vance Hanson – BC
• Anthony Kwiatkowski - Nunavut
• Adnan Kulenovic - Consultant
• Norman Lee – Ontario
• Gerry Matte – MISA BC
• Glenys McLaughlin – New Brunswick
• Diane Nadeau – New Brunswick

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 31
 Workshop (May 18, 7:15 a.m.)

• Demo of Collaborative Business Model in

action – MCBS, Ontario Government
• Demo of XML Wizard tool – CBSC National
Secretariat
• Demo of Architecture to XML schema design
methodology and tool set – Ontario
Government

May 17, 2004 Lac Carling VIII: PSCIOC XML Subcommittee Concurrent Session Slide 32