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National Enterprise Architecture Framework
eGovernment Authority, Kingdom of Bahrain
Bahrain

The Problem

Bahrain Government organization /agencies are delivering services to the citizen through Information Technology in an ad-hoc way and the ministries and Agencies do not have proper Business, IT alignment. Therefore an unwanted / old technology been used & more investment on those technology. And some are not very scalable enough to handle in peak stage solution. Data’s are chattered across the ministries and agencies which are very close to citizens. It’s tough to integrate and collect that information in one call. Document, knowledge, intellectual management are been used very old traditional way. Because of that management does not have clear idea and tracking mechanism on their valuable investment across the government / agencies.
On the other hand the Information / data sharing perspective the government are working on very traditional way approach. Due to this there is no proper control / transparency across the government to implement / allow the vendor, solution provider to provide their solution in a very savvy manner and access those in a high Degree / policy oriented.
Service delivery to the citizen by the government organization /agencies which are not having a proper service level agreement across them and there is no proper control mechanism. Standards and Guidelines are made individual ministry to use the Information technology in an ad-hac way.
Main reason for the issues are across the eGovernment environment is that it does not have a proper architecture framework to address the issue and trends been followed by the government organization /agencies. Due to the improper architecture view eGovernment unable to visualize the major impact on Business, IT alignment and investment on technology, resources.
There is no governance mechanism to govern the business, IT alignment across the ministry /agencies to guide on Enterprise Information management, data sharing, and standard information life cycle to be followed on.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The first phase of the initiative to identify the main issues and trends been followed in a traditional way in the kingdom. To do that we have undertaken a strategy program called as “National Enterprise Architecture Framework “ for the kingdom which implicitly study current situation in the kingdom and pain areas across the government organization/ agencies. This strategy program assists us to identify the Architecture Gaps, Governance, data sharing issue and information management lacking across the ministries.
This National Enterprise Architecture Framework program has been contacted around 24 ministries / agencies as a pilot model to study their current architecture environment which provides the service to the citizen. This phase been called as “As-is Study “phase where we have measured their environment quantitatively and qualitatively. And produced as-is Architecture report on individual ministries / agencies. Based on these we have analyzed thoroughly their existing information management system and their business contribution to the citizen and organization. After the analysis we have ascertain certain amount of gaps across the ministries which are addressed in the above issue column.
To fill the gaps, pain areas and issues been addressed by the individual ministries / agencies we have arrived a international standard “Target Architecture framework” for the kingdom which solve their most of the issue and compliance mechanism and Govern them on policy issuing and decide architecture /technology to adopt. However to achieve the Target Architecture framework we have drive our Enterprise Architecture program to plan a better solution and transparent transition plan to address and solve those issue in diplomatic and technology driven pattern. Which we used to call as
“Transition/ Migration plan “for the identified 24 ministries / organization. The based on this transition plan we have identified around 10 (five) national level project which directly / indirectly assist the G2G, G2C, G2B. Some national strategy based projects are National Gateway Infrastructure consisting of Enterprise Service Bus, National email and SMS gateway. National Data Set which covering the national Data hub, Meta data Repository and data Governance, “Enterprise Management System setup and implementation” which monitor and manages the critical Information Technology infrastructure in the government. “Enterprise Architecture repository “which governs and monitor all the information on technology across the ministries / agencies. “Information Technology Knowledge management System” it not only address and provide the national level Knowledge management Information technology and also provide the information Business IT alignment across the government organization. “Integrated Disaster Recovery system “which takes care and address the business continuity capability and disaster management on Information technology across the ministries in integrated capability.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution / initiative are been proposed by Bahrain eGovernment Authority (eGA) partnership with Wipro consulting services. The main design initiative of National Enterprise Architecture framework program is in its completion stage based on this program 60 projects are been identified across the ministries/ agencies as a solution to implement. The eGovernment Authority has identified the stake holders who should implement those projects along with National Enterprise Architecture framework.
Based on this initiative eGovernment Authority already released a “National Gateway Infrastructure” (NGI) as an international tender to participate with eGovernment Authority to execute the program in two phase approach as Infrastructure setup and implementation of enterprise service bus. The stake holder for this initiative has been identified eGovernment Authority (eGA) as a sponsor and implementer and Central Informatics Organization (CIO) as an operational partner and Ministry of Finance and Civil service Bureau as a strategic partner and stakeholder.
Another strategy initiative program” Enterprise Architecture Repository” been already started and getting execute by eGovernment Authority. Currently eGovernment Authority is going to execute the first phase as pilot implementation to educate the all ministries. And in near future it will dedicate those to respective ministries in the kingdom.
The other initiative project National Data Set (NDS), Enterprise Management system (EMS) are in the initial discussion stage. Most properly eGovernment Authority and Central Informatics Organization (CIO) going to execute these projects high national level interest with collaborative partnership.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
As and when need arises, government entities (ministries, agencies, etc) implement software systems that address specific needs of the business that these systems support. Ministries have some common objectives; they all serve the citizens, businesses and other government entities. The ministries need to have a common understanding of their customers. Services delivered by different government entities should have consistent quality. Hence there is a need to have a holistic view at government as one single entity from the systems perspective.
Systems are both assets that have to be leveraged for better Return On Investment (ROI) and cost centers that have to be acquired and maintained. The systems that are older and are running on obsolete technologies have to be replaced by newer technologies. The cost of acquiring, maintaining and replacing these systems has to be minimized. Standardization of Information Assets and sharing them across different government entities is important to deliver consistent and better quality of services to customers.
In Government Context, EA initiatives are taken to:
1. Make Service Delivery to Citizens Simpler and Faster.
2. Provide Flexibility to Citizens to consume the Services through channel of their choice including Service Centers, Interactive Voice Response System, Web Portal, Mobile, Kiosks etc. Provide single window to Citizens for any Government related services
3. Make integration between various ministries, Government Bodies and Enterprises smoother to enable improved efficiency and provide composite innovative services to citizens.
4. Achieve Cost Benefits of Consolidation and Standardization. Reinvest the savings into modernizing the service delivery and provide more innovative services to citizens.
In order to achieve the above, National Enterprise Architecture framework is the strategic initiative been taken up by Bahrain eGovernment Authority and been successfully completed the To-Be architecture stages of Transition of 24 ministries environment and proposed a Target Architecture and Transition Plan (Migration plan) to the 24 ministries.
The main objective of the National Enterprise Architecture framework is that to improve the efficiency of Service delivery by customer facing process improvement, Standardization of processes, Inter-office document exchange and quicker deployment of services by Re-using the service component, Standardizing service deployment and reduced total cost of ownership by making common Infrastructure, consolidation of service delivery functions. More over the National Enterprise Architecture framework provides a framework that aligns the vision of the business with the technical requirements, guiding investment and design decisions. And it also defines and specifies standards, interfaces and common services for the deployment and management of IT assets and defines an environment in which both future known systems and solutions to unforeseen requirements can be built.
The following drivers are the main key pillar to implement strategy are simplify and speed up services deployment to Citizens, Diversify Services Delivery Channels, and ease and improve integration between various ministries, government bodies and enterprises, achieve cost benefits of consolidation and standardization. Reinvest the savings into modernizing the service delivery and provide more innovative services to citizens.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
National Enterprise Architecture (EA) Framework is a Conceptual Blueprint of an Organization (Government or Non Government), organizing various resources or Components of an Enterprise so that they work in tandem to achieve the Business Goals in most efficient way.
EA links Customer Services, Processes, Applications, Data and Infrastructure together and also defined how these various components interacts with each other as well as with the Customer and Supplier Enterprises.
EA is normally divided into following architectures:
1. Business Architecture (Business Strategy, Functional Organization, Services, Business Processes, Process Key Performance Indicators, etc)
2. Information Systems Architecture (Applications, Data Models, Metadata, Integration)
3. Technology Architecture (Platforms, Hardware, Network etc)
There are various Frameworks adopted to implement Enterprise Architecture including
1. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) from the Open Group
2. Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework
Understanding the Enterprise Architecture Stages
In general, the stages for the Enterprise Architecture are:
1. Understand the Current State (As-Is Analysis)
This stage consists of
* Data Collection to assess the current Enterprise Architecture
* Assess the current Architecture and Map different domains
* Assess the capability to deliver the outcome defined in the Strategy
* Assessing the gaps as per the best practices and standards
Overall Methodology for As-Is Analysis
The data collected from various ministries gave very good idea about the stage the country is in terms of Enterprise Architecture. In this stage, the following Analysis and activities are conducted to identify the current status of government Enterprise Architecture, i.e. As-Is status.
In this stage, the following Analysis are done:
i. Data Collection Analysis
a. Completeness of As-Is Data Collection Filled-In Template
b. Logical Correctness of given Data
c. Identification of Logically missing Data
d. Cross checking different Domain related Data for the Correctness
e. Analysis of Data required to define the NEAF
ii. Architectural Analysis
a. Identification of the Relevant Reference Model
b. Identification of Architecture Building Blocks
c. Viewpoint and View Analysis
d. Integration Analysis (Internally)
e. Integration Analysis (Externally)
iii. Maturity Level Analysis
a. Administration
b. Architecture Planning
c. Architecture Framework
d. Architecture Blueprint
e. Communication
f. Compliance
g. Integration
h. Involvement
iv. Gap Analysis
a. Against the Best Practices
b. Against the Standards
2. Define Future State
This stage consists of defining the National Enterprise Architecture Framework for the Kingdom of Bahrain which can be adopted by each ministry to define its own Future Enterprise Architecture.
3. Fill Gaps
This stage covers the
* Identify Gaps against the Capability Framework defined for the Ministries
* Recommend the Migration Plan to close the Gaps
4. Transform Current Assets
This stage covers
*Define the Governance Model to be adopted by each ministries/Government Agencies covering
o Conceptual Structure covering Policy Management, Compliance Assessment and Environment Management
o Organization Structure
o Architecture Governance Strategy
* EA Training as Train the Trainers program

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
While executing the National Enterprise Architecture framework strategic program, Bahrain eGovernment Authority have gone across lots of challenges and obstacles to execute and manage to overcome by a diplomatic way.

Historically, different organizations having different businesses and supporting Information Technology had faced several challenges to communicate internally between different business entities as well as other ministries and organizations. Most of the time these kinds of challenges are handled in the name of One Technology, One Vendor Solution (preferably) on a common platform to ensure inter-operability and seamless integration. There were also cases of deploying point-to- point integration between different entities and even from ministry/organizations to ministry organizations. And it worked as instant relief but then even those solutions become unmanageable in the long run. Business-IT alignment is another debatable area, where organizations tend to either ignore this completely, or adopt after numerous investments in IT, to support the businesses. Even business owners tend to ignore the fact that some of the IT initiatives, can really bring down their cost of providing necessary business services. Governance and Compliance were never seen as show stoppers for these organizations, because business would still continue and IT would still be able to support these businesses. Mostly the compliance validations are adopted on ad-hoc basis which ensures that nothing stops. Even if there are critical issues, Quick Fix patches are ready to be used.

Some obstacles are Commitment from individual ministries /agencies to implement, recommendation in true spirit. And eGovernment Authority have overcome those by addressing the concerns of ministries through Constant communication, Capability to demonstrate/measure the success of the initiative, Simple and practical architecture, Driving the transformation across ministries through Change Management.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
National Enterprise Architecture framework initiative has been handled with very sophisticated and experienced human resources in Bahrain eGovernment Authority and Wipro Consulting partners. To explain on the resource mobilization and advisory model, first we have identified the mechanism / model to work on it. That’s Executor (eGA) executes the project along partnership with Wipro consulting for the Client (Government organization/Ministries / agencies) across the kingdom.

The executor implies has a group of Technocrats and Director. The Project Director, who has 20 + years of experience in Strategy, Enterprise Architect, Financial planning and Program management. And a project manager who has a very strong experience with client management (Ministries and agencies), project management with around 12 + years experience on those. And an IT Architect who has around 12+ years experience on International and enterprise level Application, Data, Technology Architect and as well project management experience and IBM certified Architect. And Quality Assurance and Security team are behind to support the executor.

These executors have identified and executed the project with the partnership of Wipro consulting service. Wipro consulting team had mobilized a 10 members group of technocrat who are well experienced with international exposure on Enterprise Architecture practice and Architecture cum project management certificate resource with hands on around 10 + years over the domain. Which consist of Enterprise Architecture Global head, Project director, Project manager, Chief Architect, Enterprise Architects from Wipro consulting group.

Cost associated with project is around 1.5 Million US dollars.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
This initiative mainly focused and frame worked on sustainability and transferable over all subject area’s like Social and economic, cultural, environmental, financial, inistitutional and regulatory. As narrated in above one of the section this Enterprise Architecture program is directly touch base with the above mentioned subject area ministries wise and their Business ,IT alignment were examined and advised those ministries / agencies to adopt the National Enterprise Architecture frame work to adopt and ensure to achieve the sustainability among the Kingdom level.
In the National Enterprise Architecture program we have transition / migration plan stage as discussed in one of the above section. In that eGovernment Authority have recommended the Standards and Guidelines, Projects to follow and implement to align with the National Enterprise Architecture framework the frame work been designed as such transferable to the individual ministries and agencies to adopt.
It has been deemed with international level interest to accommodate to transferrable enough to adobt the framework in a very transparent manner.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Bahrain Enterprise Architecture Framework has created a clear IT blueprint for the Kingdom and will therefore enhance the capability of the eGovernment programme to scale across ministries and deliver best-in-class and integrated solutions to the customers. The Bahrain Enterprise Architecture Framework will act as a governance mechanism for the IT initiatives in the Kingdom thereby not only providing higher Return on Investment (ROI) on all our projects but also emphasis the Architecture compliance and enforce importance of the standards and guidelines on Enterprise Architecture principle.
The project provided a clear insight on the existing landscape of the IT systems of the Kingdom and the biggest realization was to understand that sustenance and business continuity of eGovernance is fully dependent on creation of a country wide Enterprise Architecture.

The project emphasized and provided the target architecture framework for the nation and also it has provided a high level road map and migration plan to achieve the national enterprise architecture frame work. Based on this initiative, have identified around 60 plus projects and 3 national level centralized project which needs to be align with IT to achieve the vision 2030 kingdom of Bahrain.
And also most important milestone to achieve and get the real fruit, the eGovernment Authority initiated to educate the National Enterprise Architecture framework to the Government Organization resources by the mechanism of Training the Trainer (TTT) program me.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   eGovernment Authority, Kingdom of Bahrain
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Dr. Zakareya Ahmed Al-Khajah
Title:   Director, Policies and Business Processes Re-engin  
Telephone/ Fax:   +973 17388334, +973 39911102
Institution's / Project's Website:   +973 17388338
E-mail:   zahmed@ega.gov.bh  
Address:   10th Floor, Euro Tower, Bldg No 485, Road No 1010
Postal Code:   PO Box 75533
City:   Sanabis
State/Province:  
Country:   Bahrain

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