Towards a Dutch Interoperability Framework

Electronic government (eGovernment) can improve public sector effectiveness by augmenting traditional channels of interaction among citizens, businesses, and government agencies. To realize this vision, eGovernment services eServices) must be interoperable: they must work together, sharing compatible and meaningful information to help reduce the cost of government, increase its cost-effectiveness, coherence, consistency, accessibility, and responsiveness, and potentially improve democracy by making government more transparent, accountable, and credible. Significant challenges to creating interoperable eServices of this kind stem from functional, technical, procedural, cultural, and semantic differences among the organizations that provide them. This report presents the results of a study intended to help the Forum Standaardisatie develop a Dutch interoperability framework (IF), which is seen as a key step in promoting eGovernment in The Netherlands, as well as Dutch participation in emerging pan-European government Services. The report analyses a sample of existing IFs as well as related enterprise architecture efforts, in order to identify the range of potential goals and components of an IF. It then maps the goals of an IF to its composition, in order to develop recommendations for which components should comprise a Dutch IF. Adoption and success factors for existing IFs are also analyzed, along with key features of the Dutch social and governmental context, including the relationship between an IF and the Nederlandse Overheids Referentie Architectuur effort. These factors are used to develop recommendations for how a Dutch IF should be developed and governed.