Questions/Answers

The objective is of this initiative is to assist GoB through Bangladesh Computer Council to design, develop, deploy and use National e-Service Bus and shared platforms/e-services, as part of the National Digital Architecture (NDA) and e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF), to facilitate developing strategies, processes, plans, structures, technologies and systems across the Government, thereby developing an environment that enables the Government agencies to achieve its key objectives and outcomes through increased interoperability, better asset management, reduced risk and lower procurement costs. This project has been envisioned to deliver a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of the Government of Bangladesh and a common integrated interoperability platform or service gateway for information exchange and introduce shared platforms/e-services to disseminate service and electronic information to citizens (G2C), businesses (G2B) and govt departments (G2G). Based on the envisaged BNDA and e-GIF structure, Government agencies would then be required to detail out their strategic transformation roadmap, that includes plan for utilizing national e-service bus and shared platforms/e-services, to migrate from its current state in terms of business processes, technology and information systems to its desired target state. The national e-service bus will ensure seamless data and information exchange in a secure way among citizen services/e-services and overcome existing interoperability issue. Shared platforms/e-services will ensure cost reduction and optimization is achieved while improving process, information systems and technology support in a disciplined and planned manner.

National e-Service bus is linked with the following category --- iv) Promoting digital transformation in the public sector National e-Service Bus is an essential element of BNDA framework. It’s considered as a reform Blueprint for establishment of e-Governance in Bangladesh. BNDA framework got international recognition from The Open Group in 2019 for innovation and excellence. It got recognition as WINNER from ITU (International telecommunication Union) in WSIS Prizes 2019 competition. We believe that these awards are meant for impact of BNDA framework in digital transformation in e-Governance sector of Bangladesh. So, National e-Service Bus, being a core component of BNDA framework, is also contributing in digital transformation in e-Governance sector of Bangladesh.

National e-Service Bus is sitting at the middlelayer and enabling citizen services to be in the front end and exchange or interact with each other. Hence, contribution of individual citizen service or application systems to SDGs can be considered as a contribution of National e-Service Bus to SDGs also. Because, those citizen services or application systems are dependent on e-service bus to execute their functionalities. SDG 1: NO Proverty The National e-Service Bus is enabling Government agencies to deliver integrated citizen services to all classes of citizens : Rural, Semi-Urban and Urban. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic growth It's enabling transparent recruitment in Government of Bangladesh. It's also ensuring Govt application systems to protect critical data and information, thereby preventing fraudulent practices. SDG 15: Life on Land National e-Service Bus is enabling agencies protect environment, foster sustainable growth and ensure progress.

National e-service Bus along Bangladesh National Digital Architecture Guideline define the pathway to interoperability and reusability of different govt. services, information and data. At present there is no financial charge for using the National e-service Bus. Govt agencies use National e-service Bus to deliver and integrate their services to other agencies or to consumers. If needed and agreed financial charge can be introduced for usage of national e-service Bus.

Here we will illustrate process simplification using National e-Service Bus. In Bangladesh, citizen authenticity is determined by NID (National ID). There are many govt websites/portals and schemes that requires NID info for citizen authentication and verification purpose. Again, there are large application systems and e-services that also requires NID. Again these application systems and e-services need to interact and exchange info/data with other govt websites/portals and schemes. This creates a very complex and zig-zag information flow path among the systems/services as shown in the picture below. Also, it creates demand to deploy smart network and huge load balancing facility on specific systems/services (e.g NID system) and it’s owning agencies (e.g. Election Commission) that doesn’t fall inside the agency’s core responsibility. This complex information flow can be simplified using the e-Service Bus concept. So the e-Service Bus will sit in the middle as a secure middleware platform having capabilities like load balancing, traffic throttling, routing, transformation and so on. Govt application systems, Citizen services, Govt websites/portals and schemes will be connected with e-Service Bus to interact and exchange data/info with other systems (e.g NID). On the other hand, it shifts the smart networking and load balancing needs to BCC, owning agency of e-service bus, that is technically very much capable in this regard. It will also enable agencies (e.g Election Commission) to focus on their core functionalities. This illustration assumes NID for simplicity, but the same concept is applicable for other heavily needed govt systems/services, such as, Birth & Death registration system, Govt Employee Database, Passport & Immigration system, National Data Center services etc.

National e-Service Bus, due to the nature of it's operation, is not directly linked to address gender inequality. However, there are citizen services, e-services and govt application systems that addresses geneder inequality and those serivces/applications systems are using e-service bus for exchange data/info with other applications system/services. For example, Tottho Apa project(http://totthoapa.gov.bd/) is working for women empowerment and gender inequality. On Feb 2018, they used BCC e-Recruitment system to recruit 1500 (approx) female officers. These female offficers will be positioned in Upazillas (smaller administrative unit) across the country. BCC e-Recrutiment system successfully processed 67,000+ online job applications in this regard and entire recruitment process of 1500 peoples was completed electronically. It has resulted in 91% effort savings for TotthoApa project. This recruitment system utilizes National e-Service Bus for identity verification. In this way, e-service bus is contributing in addressing gender inequality and women empowerment. There are several other application systems/services where e-service bus is playing similar role.

Target Group is mainly govt agencies citizen services, e-services and govt application systems. Main target was process simplification, ensure security during data exchange and alleviate interoperability issue. Process simplification is already illustrated in 4.a section. Govt application systems and citizens services need a secure medium if there is need to exchange data and information among those. Due to security risk and concern, many govt officials still don’t feel interested to expose interface for other application systems and e-services to consume their data. National e-Service Bus is a great relief for such type of security risk and concern. It’s deployed in secure infrastructure of National Data center, a 3 Tier certified one. Also, e-service bus resides in private LAN of National Data Center. Moreover, BNDA guideline has made it mandatory to conduct vulnerability analysis, penetration testing etc of any application system or citizen service that is supposed to be connected with e-service bus as a service producer. Those are allowed to register with e-service bus only if security testing result is satisfactory. Because of security assurance and process simplification, the outcome are as follows – (a) Election Commission has started to recommend requesting organizations to take NID verification service from national e-service bus of BCC. (b) Porichoy (porichoy.gov.bd), The NID verification gateway, has started to use e-service bus for identity verification. (c) More than 22 govt application systems, e-service and citizen services are now communicating with each other via national e-service bus. (d) 7-8 more application systems and citizen service are in pipeline to connect with e-service bus. (e) Based on success of national e-service bus, ICT Ministry has added provision in BNDA guideline for implementing sectoral e-service bus. It has paved the way for large ministries and Govt agencies to implement small scale e-service bus to connect and integrate intra-ministry citizen services and application systems.

National e-Service Bus was implemented as part of establishment of BNDA framework. BCC, after a rigorous and competitive selection process, awarded Ernst & Young (EY) as consulting firm for implementation of National e-Service Bus. Numerous meetings and discussions with different ministries and govt. agencies were conducted to finalize requirements, enterprise integration patterns, security compliance etc. After consolidating and analyzing those requirements, design and development plan was prepared for National e-service Bus. Two types: high- and low-level design were prepared. Once the system design was approved, the next customization phase started. In this phase, solution architects and senior software engineers started configuring and integrating the entire system. Once the customization was completed and it was deployed in the testing environment, testing team started testing the functionality of the entire system. During testing, bugs found by quality assurance and testing team were fixed. Once the software testing phase was over and no bugs or errors left in the system then the final deployment process started. It was put on evaluation usage for 2-3 months. During this time, 2-3 application systems and citizen services were connected to it. BCC consultants monitored system behavior closely, noted system deviations and anomalies, several clarification sessions was conducted with Consulting firm and finally the solution to the anomalies were incorporated and final version of National e-service Bus was released. National e-service bus was made live on Jan 2017 and it’s now operating in full swing for the last 3 years! Technical Specification of National e-Service Bus National e-service bus is built with Open source tools/technologies. We are using WSO2 product suite (API manager, ESB, Identity Server, Governance Registry, Data Analytics server etc), these are based on SOA architecture . It's deployed in secure infrastructure of National Data Center. • Design and prototype APIs: Supports publishing SOAP, REST, JSON, and XML style services as APIs o API Routing, transformation o Scale API Traffic and Traffic throttling o Control Access and Enforce Security o Business Process Manager o Business Rule o Multi-tenancy Support o Message mediation • Deployed behind firewall in private LAN • High available infrastructure is used • 2 clustered servers for API Manager and Governance Registry • 2 clustered servers for Identity Server • 1 server for Data Analytics server • load balancers for API manager, Identity server • Database servers for API manager, Identity server and Data Analytics server • TPS capacity: 5000 API calls/second

There were no laws or guidelines related to interoperability and reusability of government services in Bangladesh. As a result, we had to face some difficult issues regarding implementing National e-service Bus. To overcome this obstacle Bangladesh National Digital Architecture Guideline was introduced which legalized the use and implementation of National e-service Bus. Lack of Knowledge about service bus and related concepts - This is the very 1st initiative to establish NDA in Bangladesh. Stakeholders and Project team had lack of knowledge about implementing it. BCC appointed external implementation support partner to improve knowlege gap. Several trainings, workshops, hand holding sessions were conducted to over come the challenge

Prior to National e-service Bus (an element of BNDA) there was no initiative to ensure interoperability, availability and reusability of government services, information and data. Information Systems across the Government of Bangladesh were functioning on disparate component-run architectures. As a result there was no smooth data exchange and interoperability between the information systems. This has also caused a fragmented hosting, networking and storage architecture, which is difficult and expensive to operate, creates unnecessary duplication of data and impedes effective information sharing and consolidation. National e-service Bus, a SOA driven middleware platform is the first of its kind in Bangladesh to integrate citizen services, e-services and govt application systems in order to accelerate seamless sharing and security of information and data of different ministries, department, directories and govt. agencies. BCC followed TOGAF framework to implement BNDA for Digital Bangladesh. This SOA based e-service bus is a technical reference model as per TOGAF framework. Realizing the benefit and importance of National e-service bus, ICT ministry has addressed it very well in BNDA guideline. As of now, we see no competotir of e-service bus in our country. As of now, It's being considered (by relevant stakeholders) as a foundation building block for Digital Banlgadesh.

National e-Service Bus was implemented as per TOGAF framework and focusing local context. Many conuntries have already implemented TOGAF in national level. We assume those implementation also addressed establishment of SOA based middleware. However, we don't have any concrete info. Meghalaya (a state of INDIA) state has showed interest for implementing e-service bus as part of State Government Architecture. They have started communicating with BCC. BNDA team has delivered several presentations for their knowledge and understanding. We are expecting to receive formal request from them seeking technical assistance. This is a clear indication of e-service bus as a successful initiative that drew attention in the neighborhood.

ICT Ministry is satisfied about the accomplishments of national e-service bus. So it has included e-service bus in BNDA guideline. Also, it has kept provision for samller scale sectoral e-service bus for individual agencies or line minsitries, if they feel it necessary to connect their intra organization/ministry application systems and citizen services. National e-Service Bus was implemented as per TOGAF framework and focusing local context. Many conuntries have already implemented TOGAF in national level. We assume those implementation also addressed establishment of SOA based middleware. However, we don't have any concrete info. Meghalaya (a state of INDIA) state has showed interest for implementing e-service bus as part of State Government Architecture. They have started communicating with BCC. BNDA team has delivered several presentations for their knowledge and understanding. We are expecting to receive formal request from them seeking technical assistance. This is a clear indication of e-service bus as a successful initiative that drew attention in the neighborhood.

National e-Service Bus has full potential to be replicated in other citizes, countrie or regions. This type of middleware is recommened in TOGAF framework for EA (Enterprise Architecture) based implementation. National e-Service Bus has flavour of ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) and API gateway. ESB is an essntial part of SOA based architecture. It helps in simplyfiying scenarios where enterprise integration pattern is related. APIs are the essential building blocks of digital businesses—assembling data, events and services from within the organization, throughout ecosystems, and across devices. This is driving new demands for organizations to create and monetize APIs and API products; maximize adoption and reuse across internal and external portals and API gateways. Typically, API Gateways handle all the tasks involved in accepting and processing up to hundreds of thousands of concurrent API calls, including traffic management, authorization and access control, monitoring, and API version management. API gateway is also very important for services or application systems following modern microservice based architecture. For the aforementioned reasons, we see very high potential for spreading usage of e-service bus in near future.

Consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) and corresponding representatives from different ministries, department, directories and govt. agencies were involved in implementing National e-service Bus. We used WSO2 product suite (open source version) to implement National e-Service Bus Technical Specification of National e-Service Bus National e-service bus is built with Open source tools/technologies. We are using WSO2 product suite (API manager, ESB, Identity Server, Governance Registry, Data Analytics server etc), these are based on SOA architecture . It's deployed in secure infrastructure of National Data Center. • Design and prototype APIs: Supports publishing SOAP, REST, JSON, and XML style services as APIs o API Routing, transformation o Scale API Traffic and Traffic throttling o Control Access and Enforce Security o Business Process Manager o Business Rule o Multi-tenancy Support o Message mediation • Deployed behind firewall in private LAN • High available infrastructure is used • 2 clustered servers for API Manager and Governance Registry • 2 clustered servers for Identity Server • 1 server for Data Analytics server • load balancers for API manager, Identity server • Database servers for API manager, Identity server and Data Analytics server • TPS capacity: 5000 API calls/second

We are assuming 'sustainability' as the ability of the National e-Service Bus and shared platform/e-services to continue far into the future. All projects have to end eventually, but the project impacts need to continue. Peoples want to see how the its impact will outlive their direct involvement in the system. A project can be sustainable in three main categories: organizational/social, economic, and community sustainability. Organizational/social: BCC is spearheading continuation and expansion of the National e-Service Bus and shared platform/e-services. National e-service bus is hosted in national data center (maintained by BCC itself) and carrying out operation & maintenance of the system with the help of regular employees and consultants. BCC has drafted BNDA Act and policy to enforce and mainstream framework and related guidelines by line ministries. Again, BCC has hired a renowned International Consulting firm to conduct feasibility study for WoG (Whole-of-Government) approach and NDA mainstreaming. Economic: BNDA promotes standardization and shared service implementation as part of the framework guidelines. it's expected to reduce govt ICT expenditure to a great extent. Again, BCC is providing managed service for other govt agencies using national e-service bus. It can act as a revenue generating source through imparting services. For example, BCC can take service charge from organizations for connecting services, load balancing the connected services etc . It proves the system can be financially sustainable also. Community: Govt agencies will be able to save effort & expenditure that was otherwise needed due to ad-hoc planning and piece meal based approach in ICT goods/service procurement. BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services) has shown keen interest to work with BNDA team for knowledge gathering and utilize related opportunities. BCC is also preparing to educate private sector on National e-Service Bus, shared platform/e-services and BNDA related stuff. This capacity development will be beneficial for line ministries during EA design and implementation.

Yes

KPMG India conducted a WoG (Whole-Of-Government) strategy development task based on BNDA implementation status. It took into consideration outcome and impact of National e-Service Bus as part of BNDA framework implementation. KPMG submitted a final report that on strategy and Technical Assessment of BNDA (ref: https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/application-architecture.jsp). The report clearly identifies National e-Service Bus at the core of ‘Functional Analysis’ for Integrated Digital Services Platform and in ‘Service Architecture’ for Integrated Digital Government. Another thing, BNDA initiative was evaluated and awarded by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and The Open Group. As National e-Service Bus is a component of BNDA, we can calim that it was evaluated by ITU and The Open Group. Bangladesh National Digital Architecture (BNDA) and e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) use national e-service Bus. In World Summit on Information Society Prizes 2019 arranged by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Establishment of BNDA and e-GIF was awarded as the Champions in Category-6: Enabling Environment. e-Recruitment portal of Bangladesh Computer Council and GeoDash Portal use National e-service Bus. E-e-Rrecruitment portal won President’s Award and GeoDash Portal won Award of Distinction in The Open Group Awards - Kochi 2019.

The KPMG report clearly identifies National e-Service Bus at the core of ‘Functional Analysis’ for Integrated Digital Services Platform and in ‘Service Architecture’ for Integrated Digital Government.

Please visit the following link https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/nda-strategy.jsp https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/framework.jsp https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/business-architecture.jsp https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/application-architecture.jsp https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/data-architecture.jsp https://nda.bcc.gov.bd/bnda/strategy/technology-architecture.jsp

Cabinet Division and ICT Division has agreed to promote National e-Service Bus to connect important and heavily used citizen services/e-services. Govt agencies have started asking BCC to connect citizen services and application systems with National e-Service Bus. National e-Service Bus is also focused in BNDA guideline (1st version link) to be a national level middleware platform for connecting citizen services and govt application systems. Many Departments have requested BCC to help them implementing e-service and connecting the services with national e-service bus. News Links on National e-Service Bus: https://businessnews-bd.net/bangladesh-to-introduce-national-e-service-bus/ https://www.thedailystar.net/city/govt-share-online-services-thru-unified-digital-platform-510283 https://dailyasianage.com/news/17591/govt-to-integrate-data-with-natl-e-services-bus http://lict.gov.bd/main/pdetails/35 http://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/top-bureaucrats-for-integrating-services-with-bnda/18608 https://www.observerbd.com/details.php?id=198589 http://thedailynewnation.com/news/216263/bureaucrats-for-integrating-services-with-bnda.html

Sr. No. Department/Ministries Roles 1 Cabinet Division  Providing technical and managerial guidance  Assistance to get coordination/response from line ministries 2 ICT Division, Bangladesh Computer Council  Guide and Monitor Project progress  Facilitating approval of all the technical documents like o Functional Requirement Specification o System Requirement Specification o Roadmaps for various Departments/Directorate 3 Directorate of Primary Education  Active involvement of stakeholders in sharing As-Is process  Reviewing and finalizing To-Be process  Regular testing of e-Pension system, Digital Service Book System and provide feedback 4 Directorate of Food  Regular testing of Food Grain Procurement Management System 5 Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission  Active involvement of stakeholders in sharing As-Is process  Reviewing and finalizing To-Be process  Regular testing of SIM registration system and provide feedback 6 Bangladesh Election Commission  Active involvement of stakeholders in implementation of NDA bus for establishing inter-government interoperability 7 Finance Division  Active participation and guidance from the department in integration of Pay Fixation APIs with NDA Bus. 8 All ministries and agencies  Participate in several Workshops/Seminars

• Mandate and Regulations for Open Government is must to proceed • More promotional campaign is required for full-fledged adoption of NDA framework • Identification of ‘Champion’ among GoB agencies will create a competitive environment during implementation BCC has a clear plan to carry forward the National e-Service Bus and spread it's usage Several Ministries and agencies are already in talk to connect their application systems and citizen services with e-service bus.