ens.wiki

The tabs cover various aspects of EIRA©.

The EIRA© has four main characteristics:

1. Common terminology to achieve coordination: It provides a common understanding of the most salient Architecture Building Blocks needed to build interoperable public services.
2. Reference architecture for delivering digital public services: It offers a framework to categorise (re)usable Solution Building Blocks (SBBs) of an eGovernment solution. It allows portfolio managers to rationalise, manage and document their portfolio of solutions.
3. Technology- and product-neutral and a service-oriented architecture (SOA) style: The EIRA© adopts a service-oriented architecture style and promotes ArchiMate® as a modelling notation. In fact, the EIRA© ABBs can be seen as an extension of the model concepts in ArchiMate®.
4. Alignment with European Interoperability Framework and TOGAF:
   • The EIRA© is aligned with the New European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and complies with the context given in the European Interoperability Framework – Implementation Strategy (EIF-IS).
   • The views of the EIRA© correspond to the interoperability levels in the EIF: legal, organisational, semantic and technical interoperability which are already anchored in the National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) of the Member States.
   • The EIRA© provides an additional view that lists the interoperability principles that are outlined in the new EIF.
   • Within TOGAF® and the Enterprise Architecture Continuum, EIRA© focuses on the architecture continuum. It re-uses terminology and paradigms from TOGAF® such as architecture patterns, building blocks and views.
   • This not only assures a high level of quality but also allows architects to easily understand EIRA© and relate it to existing work.

To support both architects and portfolio managers in their use of the reference architecture, a set of tools are provided:

• an ArchiMate® file that can be used with common Architecture software
• the "Cartography tool" in the form of an open-source plugin to the Archi®4 modelling tool, which allows documenting Solution Building Blocks according to the EIRA© (by means of stereotyping and adding attributes) and discovering reusable solutions from a documented cartography, such as the TES (Trans-European Solutions) in case of the European Commission, or a national cartography for Member States.

The EIRA© has the objective to respond to the need for interoperability by supporting

• enterprise architects
• systems architects (solution architects)
• business analysts
• business information managers (portfolio managers)

in the following scenarios:

• Designing: accelerate the design of eGovernment solutions that support the delivery of interoperable digital public services (across borders and sectors) affecting e-competences in the areas of Planning:
  • A.04 Product/Service Planning
  • A.05 Architecture Design
  • A.06 Application Design
• Assessing: provide a reference model for comparing existing architectures in different policy domains and thematic areas, to identify focal points for convergence and reuse affecting e-competences in the areas of Managing:
  • E.01 Forecast Development
  • E.05 Process Improvement
  • E.06 ICT Quality Management
  • E.09 IS Governance
• Communicating and sharing: help documenting the most salient interoperability elements of complex solutions and facilitate the sharing of (re)usable solutions affecting e-competences in the areas of Building and Running ICT solutions:
  • B.01 Application Development
  • B.02 Component Integration
  • B.05 Documentation Production
  • C.01 User Support
• Discovering and reusing: ease the discovery and reuse of interoperability solutions affecting e-competences in the areas of Enabling and Managing:
  • E.04 Relationship Management
  • E.05 Process Improvement
  • D.03 Education and Training Provision
  • D.10 Information and Knowledge Management.

A common use of the EIRA© when developing, assessing, and communicating about eGovernment solutions will result in network effects, enhancing the coordination between public administrations at EU level and within the Member States.

The use of the EIRA© leverages the advantages coming from the application of Enterprise Architecture principles, including:

• A more efficient business operation
• A more efficient IT operation
• Better return on existing investment, reduced risk for future investment
• Faster, simpler, and cheaper procurement

The EIRA© will contribute to an increased awareness and usage of Interoperability principles and recommendations.

Also, interoperability applies at different organisational and geographical levels (of scope):

• Inside an organisation the main benefit may lie in the composition of generic building blocks which are interoperable with others.
• Across organisations interoperability is indispensable for the efficient execution of business processes.
• For customer- (or citizen-) facing components, user-centric interoperability aspects enable the transition from traditional channels to digital service delivery.
• When it comes to cross-border interoperability, organisational and legal aspects are of special importance and become crucial to maximise the potential of the Digital Single Market.

A common use of the EIRA© will provide the following high-level benefits:

• Proving a controlled vocabulary
• Decoupling functionalities in Architectural Building Blocks
• Facilitating the identification of Interoperability Specifications
• Providing the key interoperability enabler Architectural Building Blocks
• Accelerating the development cycle
• Enabling cartographies
• Promoting discovery and reusability of existing solutions
• Supporting portfolio management decision making
• Supporting public policy formulation

EIRA© has views for the Interoperability layers of the European Interoperability Framework. The views contain a narrative, a graphical notation of the EIRA© ontology and a description of the most salient Architecture Building Blocks. These are the views:

• Legal view
• Organisational view
• Semantic view
• Technical view - application
• Technical view - infrastructure
• Underlying principles view (EIF)

The EIRA© provides several viewpoints that conform to EIRA© views, the viewpoints provide a perspective with specific stakeholders concern in mind:

• High-level viewpoint
• Interoperability Governance viewpoint
• Interoperability Specification viewpoint
• Integrated Public Service Governance viewpoint
• Interoperability Privacy viewpoint
• Interoperability Security viewpoint

EIRA© uses the ArchiMate® language as a notation and extends by using two of the extension mechanisms foreseen by ArchiMate®: specialisation (stereotyping) and attributes.

The EIRA© ABBs are defined as a specialisation of ArchiMate® model elements.

Specialisation is an extension mechanism for the ArchiMate® language that is foreseen by the ArchiMate® specification. For example, the ABB ‘Public service’ in EIRA© is a specialisation of the ArchiMate® model element ‘Business Service’.

For the binding of Solution Building Blocks (SBBs, for instance 'Declaration of birth') to Architecture Building Blocks (ABBs) EIRA© recommends the use of stereotyping, using the notation '«Public service» Declaration of birth'. A Solution Building Block can relate to multiple Architecture Building Blocks by delimiting the list as such : «ABB₁, ABB₂, …, ABB_n».

For EIRA© building blocks some Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS) attributes are defined, amongst others:

• Description (dct:description): a description of the Solution Building Block.
• Landing page (dcat:landingPage): A Web page that can be navigated to in a Web browser to gain access to the Solution Building Block.
• Status (adms:status): The status of a Solution Building Block. Suggested values are ‘completed’, ‘deprecated’, ‘underDevelopment’, and ‘withdrawn’.

The default views of the EIRA© leverage the standard colours of ArchiMate® to depict the corresponding Architecture Building Blocks: business (yellow), application (blue) and infrastructure (green). However the EIRA© recognises the architects’ needs to leverage colour codes for communication purposes. It therefore does not impose any colouring rules.

The EIRA© terminology is based on TOGAF®¹. These are the key concepts of the EIRA©:

• the Interoperability layers of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) (also called levels and dimensions in the EIRA©). They cover legal, organisational, semantic and technical interoperability. Each layer deserves special attention when a new public service is established.
• the 12 underlying Interoperability principles of the EIF; These general principles of good administration are relevant to the process of establishing public services.
• EIRA© view: The EIRA© consists of several views, including one view for each of the EIF interoperability layers. The EIRA© views contain a graphical notation of the EIRA© ontology.
• EIRA© viewpoint: The EIRA© provides several viewpoints that conform to EIRA© views, the viewpoints provide a perspective with specific stakeholders concern in mind.
• Architecture Building Block: Based on the TOGAF® definition, an Architecture Building Block is an abstract component that captures architecture requirements and that directs and guides the development of Solution Building Blocks. An ABB represents a (potentially re-usable) component of legal, organisational, semantic or technical capability that can be combined with other Architecture Building Blocks. An Architecture Building Block describes generic characteristics and functionalities. Architecture Building Blocks are used to describe reference architectures, solution architecture templates or solution architectures of a specific solutions.
• Solution Building Block: Based on the TOGAF® definition, a Solution Building Block is a concrete element that defines the implementation and fulfils the required business requirements of one or more Architecture Building Blocks. On the technical view, a Solution Building Block is a specific product or software component and may be either procured or developed.
• Solution Architecture Template (SAT).
• Reference Architecture which is complemented with an end-to-end generic domain neutral approach to design the architecture of an enterprise or a solution. The goal of an enterprise architecture is to align IT-related activities with the overall goal of the enterprise. The particular context of the EIRA© and its mission is interoperability, and architectural patterns are typically captured in the form of solution architecture templates.
• Solution architecture.
• Solution (in operation).

Similar to how the EIF serves as blueprint and inspiration for the National Interoperability Frameworks, the EIRA© can serve as the basis for reference architectures at other levels (European national, regional, local or even inside an organisation), taking the specificities of the respective level into account (e.g. national law) while remaining compatible.

Where the EIRA© itself is domain-neutral, it can be extended to create domain-specific architectures.

Viewed as an architecture content metamodel, the EIRA© provides for coordination and alignment between derived reference architectures.
The EIRA© consists of the following components:

• A set of EIRA© architecture core Architecture Building Blocks to meet interoperability needs;
• A set of interoperability specifications;
• A narrative for each view.

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• European Interoperability Reference Architecture

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• European Interoperability Reference Architecture

The (ontological) order of European Interoperability Reference Architecture is the Techno Order.
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