Summary
In 2021, the Government of Canada put forward an enterprise architecture white paper on how to provide Canadians with a “more cohesive and sustainable digital landscape when interacting with the Government of Canada.” The Government’s Policy on Service and Digital drives this paper. The Policy directs the Government to consider the needs of the client when offering digital services. It guides the Government on an “enterprise-wide, integrated approach” to adopting emerging information technologies.
Policy on Service and Digital
The Service and Digital Target Enterprise Architecture puts this policy into practice. The key objectives of this Architecture are to,
- adopt technologies that support service delivery to Canadians
- ensure cohesiveness in user interfaces, regardless of the department offering the service
- adopt emerging technologies or modernize older solutions while maximizing re-usability of components to reduce redundancy across the Government’s suite of services
Target Audience
The target audience of this white paper are,
- Deputy heads of federal institutions and chief information officers
- Suppliers of enterprise solutions
- Canadians and the international community
The Problem
With the constant advancements in information technologies, Canadians have come to expect Government to provide services that are similarly accessible and uniform in delivery. The technical debt accumulated across legacy Governmental IT has made it cost prohibitive to replace each system piecemeal. Legislatively independent Government departments with separate budgets make a unified approach to IT system management more difficult.
The Framework
Figure 1: Service and Digital Target Enterprise Architecture
The diagram shown in Figure 1 visualizes the digital architecture’s future state. It is based on “The Open Architecture Framework” and it identifies the services, business requirements, stakeholders, interfaces, and application and technological architectures involved.
It identifies the following key guidelines,
- Evaluating new IT solutions or modernizing old ones on whether the needs of the users are met
- A unified identity management system, Sign-in Canada, that enables “authentication and authorization” of Canadians and external stakeholders across all departments
- GCPass to enable “authentication and authorization” for internal stakeholders such as employees and elected officials
- Every service to be made accessible on mobile, voice-activated smart speaker, call-center, or in-person kiosk
- A consistent and accurate data management system that differentiates between personal and non-personal data and adheres to the Privacy Act
- Interoperability between services supported by a set of common API standards
- Using Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service according to data processing and security requirements
- Ensuring IT continuity by strengthening networks, satellites, and internet infrastructure
Target Outcomes
The expected results of these efforts are,
- Reliable digital service delivery to Canadians with a cohesive user experience
- Standardizing IT infrastructure across all departments to keep pace with technological advancements
- To capitalize on economies of scale thereby reducing costs
- Attracting and retaining talent by showcasing the Government’s commitment to adopting state-of-the-art IT systems
Commentary
The consistency across the Government of Canada’s websites fascinates me. There’s a sense of cohesiveness and uniformity that a user might take for granted. But when considering that each department has its own legislative mandate and budgets, it becomes clear that this is no small feat. This is why I sought out this enterprise architecture white paper despite a few years having passed since its publication.
What strikes me about the paper is the clarity of purpose derived from the interpretation of the Policy on Service and Digital and an honest review of the status quo. Articulating the vision and accurately assessing the present are essential to driving change. This paper also clearly distinguishes between those who will ultimately benefit from the digital architecture (Canadians, government employees, officials, international partners) and those who will drive the change to get there (CIOs and deputy heads of federal institutions). The content of the paper is, for the most part, in plain language and accessible to any reader. It is also specific enough for IT decision makers to use as a reference in their deliberations.
The paper visualizes the framework for the proposed digital architecture. At first glance, it may appear as too much information (and jargon) to take in at once, but there are multiple follow up diagrams breaking down its components into easily understandable chunks. Each follow up diagram focuses on a group of components of the overall architecture that makes following its conceptualization easier. The paper makes consistent call backs to its objectives to remind the reader how each part of the framework works as per the Policy.
The paper does suffer from some repetitiveness, especially: focusing on the user, increasing re-usability of components, and advocating for a whole-of-government approach on the matter. Some repetition is needed to drive home and cement the link between objective and action. But there is a risk of the reader feeling too familiar with the subject being discussed and skimming over it. It’s a difficult balance and it appears as though the publisher has decided to err on the side of caution.
Overall, I find this to be quite an educational enterprise architecture white paper no matter your current knowledge on the subject. It sets out to educate Canadians on what their Government is doing to keep abreast of technological developments in its service deliveries and the paper does so in simple language. This affirms my belief that a well written white paper can make the most complex of concepts easy to understand.
If you would like to provide feedback on this review, or if you would like to discuss writing a white paper for your organization, please contact me.