Case Study - An e-GIF for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Project Scope

The Ministry of Public Administration and Information in Trinidad has developed fastforward, the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy for Trinidad and Tobago. fastforward is intended to accelerate social, economic and cultural development for all elements of society, and will play a central role in Trinidad and Tobago becoming a knowledge-based society and achieving its goal of developed country status by the year 2020.

A critical milestone to the fulfilment of the vision of fastforward is the development of an e-Government Interoperability Framework that supports the provision of Government services through electronic means, including on-line via the Internet. There is the appreciation that in order to maximise these new channels of delivery, there needs to be an enterprise-wide approach to service delivery. To facilitate such operational interaction across ministries and agencies, it is essential that common technical standards underscore the ongoing development of Government’s investment in ICT.

The objectives of the development of the e-GIF are therefore:

• To ensure that inter-operability and alignment to common practices are underscored in all ICT initiatives of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
• To ensure that any such framework of standards and guidelines aligns with international best practice, conforms to the trajectory of development of the associated technologies and is so structured that it evolves with the requirements of e-Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the prerogatives of the global ICT market.

Project Description

The project comprised four phases.

Phase 1 was an international best practice review. We started this by creating a "long-list" of potential e-GIFs to study in more detail. We did this using three resources:

• A search of the Internet, including using onward links from other documents such as the UN Development Programme review of e-GIFs.
• Our own knowledge of the international market, gained through participation in international standards efforts.
• The OASIS eGovernment Member Section mailing list.

  We selected thirteen e-GIFs initially, then narrowed the selection down to eight that have particular relevance to the requirement of Trinidad and Tobago. These eight were studied in more detail, and a report produced indicating the scope of each e-GIF, the standards areas covered, the particular strengths of each and tabulating the standards adopted in each of several categories. The conclusion of the paper defines interoperability as understood b the Government and recommends a contents page for the Trinidad and Tobago e-GIF based on international best practice. It also lists other features of the examined e-GIFs that should be adopted and pitfalls to avoid. In doing this, our experience in the actual operation of the UK e-GIF, and our discussions through the OASIS eGovernment Member Section, have been invaluable.

  The second stage of the project was to look at the current state of interoperability in Trinidad and Tobago. We reviewed current policy documents, and interviewed stakeholders from both the public and public sectors.

  The third delivery was the e-GIF itself. This includes an introduction based on international best practice, lists the standards to be used and includes sections on how the classification of standards is to be maintained and the governance of the e-GIF as a whole. The standards themselves are described using an XML format that is compatible with databases and allows easy maintenance as well as rendering in a variety of formats (web, print and word processor).

  The final deliverable was a "gap" report that indicates where future work is required.

  
  

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