UNCLASSIFIED
DRAFT – NOT A STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY V1.0
UK Government
Reference Architecture
Government ICT Strategy
January 2012
(Draft – not a statement of Government policy)
Contact details:
Steve Walters - HMRC Head of Strategy & Architecture
Email: steven.walters@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk Tel: 07795 127754
Paul Turton - HMRC Strategy & Architecture
Email: paul.turton@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk Tel: 07795 978263
UNCLASSIFIED
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1
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 3
2
FINDINGS ........................................................................................................... 5
2.1
Background – Approach for gathering Findings ................................................................................. 5
2.2
Content Comparisons key findings ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3
Reaching Consensus is a challenge ....................................................................................................... 6
2.4
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 6
3
UK GOVERNMENT REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK ............... 8
3.1
Structure ................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2
Contents of the Boxes ............................................................................................................................. 9
3.3
Responsibilities ..................................................................................................................................... 10
3.4
Benefiting from the Model ................................................................................................................... 11
3.5
Costs ...................................................................................................................................................... 11
4
4.1
BRM – BUSINESS REFERENCE MODEL ....................................................... 12
BRM Descriptions ................................................................................................................................ 14
5
DRM – DATA REFERENCE MODEL ............................................................... 23
6
ARM – APPLICATION REFERENCE MODEL ................................................. 24
6.1
7
7.1
8
2
ARM Descriptions ................................................................................................................................ 25
TRM – TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL ..................................................... 34
TRM Descriptions ................................................................................................................................ 35
NEXT STEPS .................................................................................................... 37
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1 INTRODUCTION
This Government is committed to reducing the costs associated with delivery and
maintenance of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) services.
Efforts to create a common infrastructure and improve the sharing and reuse of
solutions and services have historically been hindered, in part, by the lack of an
agreed set of proven structures and common definitions, defining the critical
elements that make up the UK Government’s ICT landscape.
In order to address this gap, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), as part of the
ongoing ICT Strategy published in March 2011, are leading the development of the
UK Government Reference Architecture (UKRA).
This work is delivering a common set of vocabulary and definitions for each of the
key components which make up the UK Government ICT estate, based on proven
templates and methods known to support effective technology decisions, when
adopted in the context of an Enterprise Architecture based governance approach.
In collaboration with other parties, HMRC are creating a baseline set of Reference
Architecture materials, which will be formally transferred for ongoing maintenance to
appointed governance bodies, anticipated to be in place by March 2012.
The other parties who are/will be engaged in this are:
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Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) ;
government departments;
academia;
suppliers;
industry analysts;
local authorities;
impacted ICT Strategy Action Leads;
CESG.
Developing an architecture framework is a large undertaking and one that is never
really finalised. As a result we believe it will be necessary to release the UK
Government Reference Architecture (UKRA) in a series of versions, with each new
version building on the last.
This version is an initial consultation paper intended to elicit the views and
suggestions from those interested in and impacted by the activities of the United
Kingdom Government and its supporting agencies and suppliers.
We do not propose to force agencies to replace any existing frameworks with the
UKRA. However, for those who do not already have an architecture framework in
place, or have one that is under review, we strongly recommend that you adopt the
UKRA.
A sound architecture framework will support government by providing a context for
decision-making and help agencies develop capabilities needed for the future.
In particular, it will support agencies to operate across traditional boundaries to
improve service delivery and deliver more responsive policy implementation.
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The UK Government Reference Architecture is required to enable re-use and
interoperability across government. For this to be successful it must provide a
framework which allows departments to describe ICT capabilities in a way that
allows them to be consumed and shared across government.
Therefore the purpose of this reference architecture is to:

Provide a framework to enable activity, process and complex systems to be
broken down into small modular components, with known attributes,
functionality, interfaces and dependencies.

Record those components in a way that business process owners, ICT
service designers and solution providers can readily identify common areas of
functionality.

Provide a framework against which common process and procedure can be
developed to enable the effective reuse of solutions and services across
government.
The benefits of a single consistent Government Reference Architecture include:

Greater SME engagement in government projects through use of open
standards and reference architectures and the componentisation of
government ICT projects.

Reduced risk and increased future proofing. The use of consistent
infrastructure helps ensure that as technology develops; public sector ICT
assets can be easily adapted.

Improved interconnectivity, and agility, facilitating timely delivery of new,
joined-up services and inter-organisational processes.

Shorter ICT project and procurement timescales.

Cross-border working with European administrations to improve citizen and
business service delivery.

Government becomes a more informed customer and has intelligence it can
use during supplier negotiations/renegotiations.

Architecture is comparable across departments and public sector bodies,
reducing ambiguity and duplication of requests.
Financial benefits are primarily derived from the re-use of existing assets/services
and the enhanced competition delivered through componentised ICT projects and
easier transition between suppliers and products.
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2 FINDINGS
Background – Approach for gathering Findings
2.1
A working group was created, formally consisting of representatives from:
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HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
Department for Work & Pensions (DWP)
Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
Department Of Health (DoH)
Home Office(HO)
Ministry of Defence (MoD)
Cabinet Office (CO)
Department of Education (DoE)
Each member of the working group was requested to supply existing materials
representing their Departmental Reference Architecture content. The group also
reviewed the US Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEA) & Australian
Government Architecture (AGA) framework models agreeing that the UK Reference
Architecture should adopt a similar approach.
The content of these models was subsequently compared & contrasted, revealing
the following key findings:
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
Most departments seem to have a ‘Technical Reference Model’ (TRM) but
other models seem to be used to a lesser degree

Language/ terminology used – lack of consolidated / consistent language

All materials shared represented very departmentally focussed outputs, rather
than a Government wide perspective
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There are some areas of commonality between the UK material and those of
the FEA and AGA
 many similarities were identified & comparisons drawn and agreed
 All of the group recognised that one consistent approach across
government was required and agreed there was significant benefit to
be realised from a cross Government Reference Architecture.
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The models discussed focussed on very similar areas, providing and defining
models covering the activities and needs of Departmental needs surrounding:
 Business Activities
 Information / Data Service
 Applications / IS Services
 Technical Platforms
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Different terminology used across departments to represent similar things

Different approaches for representing the overall structure of the various
model contents are adopted
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
2.2
2.3
Different IT tools have been adopted to capture, maintain and publish
architecture content
 Examples include: Microsoft PowerPoint; Excel; Visio; Casewise
Corporate Modeller; Mood.
Reaching Consensus is a challenge

It has been acknowledged that the development of a single set of reference
architectural materials will ideally be based on a consensus across all
Government Departmental and Agency representatives.
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Reaching this consensus has been an identified risk throughout the work, and
continues to be managed. This document provides the formal platform from
which this consensus is aimed to be delivered.
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Danger that the initiative will become ‘shelf ware’ and gather virtual ‘e’ dust. It
will be imperative to gain agreement from all stakeholders to extend use of the
reference architecture definitions. A requirement must exist to carry out
ongoing maintenance after Ministerial agreement has been received.

A perception exists around the FEAF & AGA models that the governance
around the models is lacking and there is no process to continually improve
the models. This has made the use of these models ineffective.
Conclusions
It is essential that the UKRA gains the necessary ownership & ‘buy in’ from
stakeholders to ensure that it is adopted & adapted accordingly
The risk of protracted debates on architectures and standards could result in long
lead times or “academic argument.” It may be tricky to gain a consensus across all
Departments to an agreed single reference architecture.
Collaboration between the main departments is vital, the need for consensus may
result in winners & losers and there may be a need for compromise if we employ a
single consistent approach.
Results will need to be pragmatic, to ensure a final deliverable that is a blend of
existing and industry collateral
Component definitions continue to evolve from other streams making it challenging
to baseline reference architecture. We need to ensure that we work with all other
relevant delivery streams to feed in materials (e.g. desktop definition).

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There is a strong desire to establish some common definitions
Engagement and conversations have been lively and active, with passionate
views expressed and an eagerness to contribute to a successful outcome
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
A Reference Architecture does not equal Architecture Management
There is broad acknowledgement that the reference architecture must be robustly
supported by a significantly strong governance model, if the content of the model
is to be adopted through agency delivered projects.

There is a fear that this work will result in “e-shelfware”
Danger that the initiative will become ‘shelf ware’ and gather virtual ‘e’ dust. It will
be imperative to gain agreement from all stakeholders to extend use of the
reference architecture definitions. A requirement must exist to carry out ongoing
maintenance after Ministerial agreement has been received.

The reference architecture is a moving target needing constant adjustment
of sights
Component definitions continue to evolve from other streams making it
challenging to baseline reference architecture. We need to ensure that we work
with all other relevant delivery streams to feed in materials (e.g. desktop
definition)

There are strong feelings of ownership for locally developed methods
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3 UK GOVERNMENT REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK
The Reference Architecture Framework is set out in the following 12 box model:
Technology
Applications
Information
Business
WHAT
Conceptual
HOW
Logical
WITH WHAT
Physical
Government
Strategy
How is the
business logically
structured
Which physical
buildings, people
etc…
Government
Information
Strategy
How is the
information defined
and related
Government
Applications
Strategy
How are the
application
components
defined and related
Government
Technology
Strategy
How are the technology
components defined and
related
Which data storage
and transfer
mechanisms ?
Which packages &
bespoke software?
Which h/w,
systems s/w &
networks
It is no accident that the framework has been designed to resemble a large filing
cabinet. This is how it should viewed: as structured storage containing ‘drawers’
which can be opened to view specific aspects of the strategy or architecture. It
ultimately should contain, or reference, material ranging from the high level
government strategy to the low level IT physical assets. The current focus of this
Reference Architecture work is the middle ‘filing cabinet’ which focuses on the logical
definitions of architectural components ranging from business to technology.
3.1
Structure
The architecture has three columns that describe the conceptual, logical and
physical view of the enterprise. The ‘how, the ‘what’ and the ‘with what’.
8

The conceptual column sets the strategic vision against which each of the
other columns needs to deliver.

The logical column provides a coherent and consistent representation of the
enterprise into logical groupings.
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
The physical column shows what actually exists across departments and
references them to the logical structure.
These columns are then related to four rows:

Business Layer – the Government business activities.

Information Layer – how we describe and interact with information across
government.

Applications Layer– The applications and services that allow us to create
modify share and store information.

Technology – the technological components that allow us to deliver
applications and services.
3.2
Contents of the Boxes
Each box in the Reference Model is described below as follows:
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
Government Strategy. All activities that the Government undertakes should
ultimately be traceable back to this top level strategy.

Business Reference Model – A model for government that describes its
activities. These describe the business needs in order to achieve government
outcomes.

Which Physical Buildings, People etc – A framework model showing how
government is actually made up as distinct from the logical activities that it
undertakes.
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Government Information Strategy

Data Reference Model – The logical model that represents the key
information assets that the government needs to manage to achieve its
business outcomes and the key metrics to manage it throughout its lifecycle.

Which data storage and transfer mechanisms - The physical data and
information holdings of government against which consistency and
interoperability can be judged.
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Government Applications Strategy
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Application Reference Model – a logical decomposition of the Information
services and applications that government requires to be provided and a
description thereof.

Which packages and bespoke software? – The cross government
applications and services categorised to represent the logical model.
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
Government Technology Strategy

Technical Reference Model – A logical description of the technological
components that are required to support the delivery of applications and
services.

Which hardware, systems, software & networks? - The government ICT
register that contains the actual holdings of equipment across departments.
Technology
Applications
Information
Business
WHAT
Conceptual
HOW
Logical
Government
Strategy
How is the
Business
business logically
Reference
structured
Model (DRM)
Government
Information
Strategy
Data
How
is the
information defined
Reference
and related
Model (DRM)
Government
Applications
Strategy
How are the
Application
application
Reference
components
defined and
related
Model
(ARM)
Government
Technology
Strategy
Technical
How
are the technology
components defined and
Reference
related
Model (TRM)
WITH WHAT
Physical
Which physical
buildings, people
etc…
Which data storage
and transfer
mechanisms ?
Which packages &
bespoke software?
Which h/w,
systems s/w &
networks
The focus for this version of Reference Architecture is each of the 4 models
identified above in the ‘logical’ column.
3.3
Responsibilities
Value from the Model will increase as more information about the physical
environment is added, and as the logical maps of process, information, applications
and equipment mature. However, work will be necessary firstly to publish the initial
model, then to populate it, and thereafter to maintain its currency.
Overall responsibility rests with the Government CIO delivery board, who will take
responsibility for provision of the hosting environment, the initial publication,
instructions for completion, and overall quality control through an empowered cross
government enterprise architect
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
The Strategy Box’s on the left hand side of the model are linked directly to the
strategy documents that are produced by cabinet office

Business Reference Model Box - each department is responsible for ensuring
that the business services defined here adequately meet their operational
objectives.

Application Reference Model Box - each department is responsible for
ensuring that their core information needs are adequately addressed by the
information services identified here.
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3.4

“Which packages & bespoke software?” Box – Each department is
responsible for ensuring that their applications are correctly reflected in the
register and that they accurately reflect the logical service for which they
provide supporting functionality.

“Which data storage and transfer mechanisms?” Box - Each department is
responsible for ensuring that their information assets are correctly reflected in
the register and that they accurately reflect the logical information for which
they provide supporting functionality.

Data Reference Model Box – Open standards board is responsible for
delivering the logical description of information across government.

Technical Reference Model Box – The components are the responsibility of
the CIO delivery board. Each category has a RACI, policy and standards that
are to be maintained by the responsible owner.
Benefiting from the Model
While the model is being updated, Departments will progressively be able to see
what exists elsewhere, and identify possible opportunities for re-use of assets. The
overall logical and physical models will also be taking shape. It is the set of activities
to tidy the physical implementations (i.e. moving the physical closer to the logical)
that will generate the financial savings. Consolidation of assets and processes
should lead to economies of scale), while awareness of existing components will
reduce the danger of unnecessary duplication of effort. A separate concept of use
document will be issued with guidance and policy on how departments across
government should use the model in order to achieve these benefits
3.5
Costs
The central costs of creating and hosting the Model will be low and based entirely on
existing technology.
The Departmental costs will vary, according to how well they have documented their
existing processes, information, applications and hardware. Those departments who
are well advanced will be expected to post their material into the model early and
then subsequently offer advice to other departments who are starting from a lower
base.
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4 BRM – BUSINESS REFERENCE MODEL
A Business Reference Model (BRM) is a functional (as opposed to organisational)
view of the business of government. We have identified 2 high level BRM’s: firstly the
internal capabilities required to run the government i.e. ‘Managing the Government’
and secondly a ‘Services for Citizens’ BRM that identifies the services provided by
government. Neither implies any organisational construct.
This model can be viewed as the top down entry point into the Reference
Architecture and It supports the primary aim of the architecture which is to promote
reuse and standardisation. Identifying common business capabilities enables us to
identify the opportunities for developing common supporting ICT capabilities.
The ‘Services for Citizens’ capabilities will tend to be department specific, although
may help to identify areas that are common across several n departments.
Describing the government around common business areas instead of a department
by department view helps identify areas for Cross Government collaboration.
Managing the Government
Administrative
Management
Business
Management
Financial
Management
Human
Resource
Management
Information &
Knowledge
Management
Support
Infrastructure
Management
Services For Citizens
Support for
Businesses
Community
Services
Communications
Media
Policing
Employment
Defence
Justice
Education &
Training
Healthcare
Science
Sports &
Recreation
International
Relations
Immigration
Cultural Affairs
Multi Cultural
Affairs
Tourism
Trade
Primary
Industries
Economic
Management
Environment
Maritime
Services
Natural
Resources
Transport
Credit &
Insurance
Revenue
Collection
Statistical
Services
The focus of our work to date has been on the ‘internal’ capabilities required to run
any large organisation. In our case this is the ‘Managing the Government’ BRM. This
is where the strongest opportunities for re-use of ICT exist.
Note: there is a potential overlap with the Shared Services initiative within the
Cabinet Office. The project team developing the Reference Architecture will engage
with this work ahead of the next release.
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4.1
‘Managing UK Government’ BRM
KEY:
= Best early opportunity for Shared IT Services
The Business Components, illustrated in white:
• Are parts of the UK Government enterprise, using resources to fulfil unique
business purposes
• Can operate independently, as a separate organisation or a part thereof;
• Must work together to achieve a common goal.
Each component exists within a ‘Business Competency’ (illustrated as columns in
the model), which represent UK Government’s five key ‘Shared Services’, each with
their own characteristic skills and capabilities. These are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Risk, Security and Assurance
Customer Management
Financial Management
Business Management (incl. HR Management)
Information, Knowledge & infrastructure Management
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The BRM is represented in three rows, which characterise the scope and intent of
activity and decision making for each specific component. These are:
• ‘Strategy’ - Strategy, overall direction and policy;
• ‘Management’ - Monitoring, managing exceptions and tactical decision
making;
• ‘Operations’ - the activities of the function
The Business Components in the model describe key ‘Capabilities’ that are required
across all UK Government Departments and at the ‘Strategy’ and ‘Management’
level the vast majority of these functions will be undertaken and provided in a
specific manner that is relevant to the individual Government Department, hence are
not functions that we anticipate delivering Shared IT Solutions for. However, there
are a number of Business Components at the ‘Operations’ level which could be
provided in a consistent way using the same technology across Government
Departments and these are identified as ‘Shared IT Services’ and are highlighted in
the model above in yellow.
‘Managing the UK Government’ BRM Descriptions
What follows below is a detailed view of these Level 0 ‘Business Components’ within
the ‘Managing UK Government’ BRM, catalogued by competency:
Risk, Security and Assurance
Description: Risk, Security and Assurance represent the key functions that protect
the UK Government through the effective management of Risk
Strategy - Strategic Risk Assessment – The Strategic Risk Assessment component
involves understanding the environment & the potential impact & risk to the
Government Department
Management - Risk Management Effectiveness Development and Improvements The Risk Management Effectiveness Development and Improvements component
involves the monitoring of Departmental risk management effectiveness,
development and improvements to both internal and external risks (ALL risk areas to
UK Government Departments)
Operations - Internal Compliance Assurance – The Internal Compliance Assurance
component involves the audit function to cover all aspects of internal compliance for
the Government Department (e.g. Health & Safety, Data Security, People Policy)
Operations - Service Access Control – The Service Access Control component
involves the authentication and verification of a registered customer's identity and
defines the roles to a given service (or services) and associated data.
Operations - Internal Business Risk Management Delivery – The Internal Business
Risk Management Delivery component involves the day to day protection and
management of security with regards to staff, physical assets, data and information,
products and processes and business continuity.
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Operations - Law Enforcement Execution - The Law Enforcement Execution
component is concerned with the execution and management of criminal
investigations and criminal proceedings in accordance with the law, collecting and
managing evidence to the appropriate standard.
Operations - Risk Intervention Delivery – The Risk Intervention Delivery component
involves the day to day execution and feedback of outcomes of risk assessment,
campaign management and interventions to protect the Government Department’s
business.
Customer Management
Description: Customer Management encompasses all elements of customer
contact, from identification and registration through to contact management, support
and education. This Business Competency allows for inbound and outbound
interactions across all channels, with a customer, an agent or an intermediary
Strategy - Customer Strategy Development - The Customer Strategy Development
component outlines the strategic direction of customer strategy, to achieve long term
goals of a UK Government Department to achieve its objectives. It includes
considering the needs of customer and how the Government Department delivers a
service (or services) to them, taking in to account external factors such a customer
demographic changes.
Management - Channel Strategy Development - The Channel Strategy
Development component focuses on the strategic approach, vision, objectives and
goals of this area through an understanding of the external channel environment.
Management - Customer Relationship Management – The Customer Relationship
Management component covers the ability to understand customer needs to develop
and enhance the customer contact through all channels and customer segmentation
types. It incorporates the review of a customer and their use of channels to develop
and improve the relationship that the Government Department has with customers.
Operations - Customer Identity Management – The Customer Identity Management
component includes the ability to establish a single identity record for each customer,
providing the foundation for all interactions with them based upon a single, up to date
picture of who they are. It will also ensure that a customer identity record can be
located based on full or partial identity information. This component is indicated as
a potential early candidate for a cross government Shared IT Service.
Operations - Customer Profile Management – The Customer Profile Management
component is concerned with the allocation of roles to a given service or services
and data relating to a particular product to registered customer and the registration of
a customer who is legally authorised to act on the behalf another customer
Operations – Customer Contact Management – The Customer Contact
Management component encompasses all aspects of the day to day execution of all
contact with a customer through both inbound and outbound interactions across all
products/regimes tailoring to the customer segment. It encompasses both routine
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contact as part of a process step (such as the issue of a standard form or letter),
non-standard queries (such as a phone call from a customer) through to the
management of complaints, appeals and management of exceptions.
Operations - Customer Support and Education – The Customer Support &
Education component includes the day to day delivery of providing focused guidance
to the customer, tailored to their needs, guiding them rapidly to accurate and
complete advice that is readily understood and that gives consistent and clear
information. It also includes the support of agents and intermediaries who are
interacting with customers on our behalf. This component is indicated as a
potential early candidate for a cross government Shared IT Service
Financial Management
Description: Financial Management involves the Agency / Department use of
financial information to measure, operate and predict the effectiveness and efficiency
of an entity's activities in relation to its objectives. The ability to obtain and use such
information is usually characterised by having in place policies, practices, standards
and a system of controls that reliably capture and report activity in a consistent
manner.
Strategy - Strategic Financial Management Development - The Strategic Financial
Management Development component is concerned with working with Treasury and
defining the financial management direction which implements the Treasury
requirements.
Management - Financial Planning and Control - The Financial Planning and Control
component is concerned with the annual planning and ongoing control of the
financial performance of the Government Department. This component consolidates
each of the business plans from each of the Government Departments to the UK
Government wide plan. This component also monitors financial flows.
Operations - Trust Accounting - The Trust Accounting component is involved with
the production of trust accounting, including customer accounting. This component
is indicated as a potential early candidate for a cross government Shared IT
Service.
Operations - Resource Accounting - The Resource Accounting component is
involved with the production of resource accounts. This component is indicated as
a potential early candidate for a cross government Shared IT Service.
Operations - Payments and Receipts Management - The Payments and Receipts
Management component is concerned with financial transactions which include
receipts and payments from/to customers, payroll to staff, banking and debt
collection. This component is indicated as a potential early candidate for a
cross government Shared IT Service.
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Business Management
Description: Business Management involves activities associated with the
management of how the government conducts its business and changes to that
business in order to achieve planned outcomes and outputs. Included are
capabilities in developing strategy; monitoring performance against objectives;
managing change; resource management of both human and physical assets; and
managing commercial relationships.
Strategy - Strategy Development and Direction – The Strategy Development and
Direction component involves the development of Government Departments’
strategies. This involves understanding of the external environment [political,
economic, social, technology] and its impact, plus the development of the
Department’s main aims and objectives including; financial and non financial targets,
alignment of its organisation, people and skills development, the way in which the
Government Department will respond to legislation, decisions on strategic
commercial services to provide internally or procure externally [insource vs
outsource], the services which the Government Department will act as a supplier of
to OGCs and the way that the Department will approach strategic partnerships.
Strategy - Policy and Legislation Development – The Policy and Legislation
Development component is involved with influencing the development of policies and
legislations through building strong relationships with the key stakeholders such as
the Treasury in order to uphold the integrity of a Government Department’s
organisation, processes and systems.
Management - Business Performance Management – The Business Performance
Management component is concerned with the monitoring and review of government
from all aspects of the organisation. This includes regular or ad-hoc management
reviews on the delivery of key performance indicators against targets, identification
and resolution of business performance issues and actions tracking.
Management - Process Design and Improvement – The Process Design and
Improvement components reviews and monitors performance of business processes
and triggers redesign in order to improve business performance.
Management - Change Management – The Change Management component is
concerned with the planning and monitoring of change programmes / projects /
initiatives including the identification of change solutions, prioritisation, risk and
issues management, resourcing the change teams to support the departments
implementing the changes and associated benefits tracking.
Management - Commercial Partnership Management – The Commercial
Partnership Management component ensures that the necessary Service Level
Agreements (SLA’s) and Performance Indicators (PI’s) exist for commercial
partnerships [both for suppliers to the Government Department and for the
Government Department itself as a supplier of services to OGDs] and, in turn, that
these documented SLA’s and PI’s are effectively monitored and achieved.
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Management - Resource Forecasting and Planning – The Resource Forecasting
and Planning component is involved with the planning and forecasting of resources
to achieve a Government Department’s objectives and targets. The definition of
'resources' includes both people and physical assets such as buildings / estates, IT
equipment, office equipment and consumables.
Management - Communications Planning – The Communications Planning
component ensures that both internal and external communications are planned,
executed and are effective. External communications includes both public relations
and marketing while internal communications includes communications to the
Government Department’s staff. Communications planning covers all available
channels of communication.
Operations - Commercial Partnership Operations – The Commercial Partnership
Operations component includes the day to day selection of suppliers, the
selling/marketing of services between government departments and the
management of the commercial contracts.
Operations - Communications – The Communications component includes Internal
and external communications where external communications include PR and
marketing. This component is indicated as a candidate for a cross government
shared service.
Operations - HR Management – The HR Management component covers the day to
day management of the Government Department’s staff including recruitment of
staff, development and training, redeployment or retirement and ongoing appraisals /
performance management. This component is indicated as a candidate for a
cross government shared service.
Operations - Facility Management – The Facility Management component is
involved with the day to day service support of facilities [e.g. building maintenance,
cleaning], meeting room bookings, ordering / delivery / disposal of physical assets
such as desks, chairs, consumables and PCs. This also includes the storage and
disposal of seized and sensitive assets.
Operations - Legal Operations – The Legal Operations component involves advising
government on the day to day legal running of its business and the resolution of legal
issues involving government including conducting civil litigation.
Information, Knowledge & Infrastructure Management
Description: Information Management focuses on the processes used to create,
capture, use and securely store information of all kinds. Knowledge Management
involves maximising the value of information and turning it into knowledge, leading to
more informed decision making. This competency is also concerned with the
development of Information Systems to enable the manipulation, movement and
storage of the Government Department’s data / information.
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Strategy - Information Management Strategy Development - The Information
Management Strategy Development component includes the definition of the types
of data and information to be stored, the storage and retrieval methods for that data
and a clear definition of how the Government Department will comply with legislation
for data and information.
Strategy - Information Systems Strategy Development – The Information Systems
Strategy Development component includes the development of the vision of how IS
will support the delivery of the Government strategies. This includes the definition of
the IS expenditure targets such as the proportion of IS spend for ongoing support
and maintenance versus investments, strategic architecture vision and strategic
application development plans.
Management - Information Structure Management – The Information Structure
Management component is involved with the development of the management
structures for information which includes Meta data definition and update, data and
information storage structures and processes which ensures that the use of data is
efficient.
Management - Information Lifecycle Planning and Control – The Information
Lifecycle Planning and Control component is involved with the monitoring of the
usage of information and intelligence, and to ensure that information held by the
Government Department is used appropriately and to the maximum for decision
making.
Management - IS Effectiveness, Development and Improvement – The IS
Effectiveness, Development and Improvement component ensures IS effectiveness
covering both development and support operations. Development includes
investment portfolio definition and investment portfolio management, whereas
Support Operations includes the day to day operation of IS and it’s Service
Management.
Operations - Information Analysis, Insight Reporting and Sharing – The Information
Analysis, Insight Reporting and Sharing component covers the analysis of
information, whether the information is structured or unstructured data to produce
insights and regular or ad-hoc reports on the Department’s performance and any
related issues. This resulting insight is also shared to ensure reuse and for effective
decision making. This component is indicated as a candidate for a cross
government shared service.
Operations - IS Development and Support – The IS Development and Support
component covers day to day activities in provision of IT applications, infrastructure,
information and services. This includes the day to day management of investment
projects, maintenance and support activities to ensure systems and data availability.
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4.2
‘Services For Citizens’ – Business Reference Model
The ‘Services for Citizens’ capabilities will tend to be department specific, although
may help to identify areas that are common across several n departments.
Describing the government around common business areas instead of a department
by department view helps identify areas for Cross Government collaboration. A full
list of Business Capabilities within Services For Citizens are listed below:
Business Support - Business Support includes supporting the private sector,
including small business and non-profit organisations; supporting strategies to assist
business growth and management; supporting advocacy programs and advising on
regulations surrounding business activities; and assisting businesses to comply with
reporting requirements of the government.
Communications - Communications includes supporting the growth and
management of industries that enable and facilitate the communication and
transmission of information; supporting the provision of communications services to
all citizens; and advising on regulations, standards and guidelines surrounding
communications services and technologies.
Community Services - Community Services includes supporting assistance to
citizens in a particular district or those with common interests and needs; providing
welfare services and financial support; and supporting disaster and emergency
assistance.
Credit and Insurance - Credit and Insurance involves the use of government funds
to cover the subsidy cost of a direct loan or loan guarantee or to protect/indemnify
members of the public from financial losses.
Cultural Affairs - Cultural Affairs includes supporting the arts and cultural
organisations such as museums, libraries and galleries; supporting the development
and management of cultural collections and artefacts, and stimulating growth in
cultural industries; and sponsoring activities and events to celebrate the diversity of
UK culture.
Defence - Defence includes supporting the defence and protection of the nation,
region and allies; ensuring the safety of the UK by building, maintaining and
deploying military resources; and providing protective support by defence service
personnel at major civilian events, emergency operations, humanitarian operations
and peacekeeping efforts.
Economic Management - Economic Management includes supporting the
economic management of public funds and other resources; supporting appropriate
strategies for raising revenue and regulating expenditure; providing advice on
investment regulations; and monitoring economic indicators and forecasting trends to
enable financial planning.
Education and Training - Education and Training includes supporting the provision
of skills and knowledge to citizens; supporting strategies to make education available
to the broadest possible cross-section of the community; supporting schools,
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universities, colleges, academies or community groups that provide education and
training; and supporting the development and management of educational
institutions.
Employment - Employment includes supporting employment growth and working
environments; supporting strategies to improve workplace relations, productivity and
performance; and supporting labour market stability and growth.
Environment - Environment includes supporting the management of the
surrounding natural and built environments; balancing competing requirements to
generate long term sustainable benefits for industry, tourism and the community; and
protecting elements of the natural and built environment that are of special
significance. It includes the conservation of the national estate and world heritage
concerns.
Health Care - Health Care includes supporting the prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of disease or injury; supporting the provision of health care services and
medical research; supporting regulatory schemes for health care products and
pharmaceuticals; and controlling the registration and conduct of health practitioners.
Immigration - Immigration includes assisting people wishing to enter the UK on a
permanent or temporary basis; providing and advising on entry or deportation
requirements for migrants and visitors. It includes strategies for the management of
illegal immigrants.
International Relations - International Relations involves building and maintaining
relationships with other countries and international organisations; protecting and
advancing national interests; and contributing to international security, economic
development, the environment, democratic principles and human rights through aid
programs, treaties and diplomatic services.
Justice - Justice involves providing, interpreting and applying legislation, regulations
or by-laws; providing advice on regulations regarding the conduct of individuals,
business and government to conform to agreed rules and principles; and supporting
the operation of the justice system.
Maritime Services - Maritime Services involves negotiating passage for sea
transport and maritime jurisdiction; advising on regulations regarding the use of the
sea as a means of transport; providing and managing maritime infrastructure;
controlling the carriage of cargo; monitoring the safety of seagoing vessels, pilots
and personnel; supporting marine search and rescue, and the development of
navigational aids; and monitoring the environmental impact of maritime activities.
Multi-Cultural Affairs - Multi-Cultural Affairs involves supporting the diversity of the
population across the UK
Natural Resources - Natural Resources involves supporting the sustainable use
and management of energy, mineral, land and water supplies; evaluating resource
consumption and exploitation practices; and advising on related regulations and
supporting industries that realise the economic potential of resources.
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Policing - Policing involves maintaining the safety of UK at all levels of society;
guarding against internal or external threats to peace and stability; supporting law
enforcement, community protection and corrective services; and coordinating
intelligence gathering and international security activities.
Primary Industries - Primary Industries involves supporting rural and marine
industries; advising on related regulations. Implementing strategies for efficient and
sustainable operations; monitoring current practices to meet national and
international standards. This includes liaison with industry bodies and across
jurisdictions in relation to the needs of primary industries.
Revenue Collection - Revenue Collection includes the collection of government
income from all sources.
Science - Science involves supporting and promoting research and systematic
studies. Supporting scientific bodies and monitoring industry research and
development programs. This includes research into living things and their
environments, natural laws and the application of knowledge to practical problems.
Sport and Recreation - Sport and Recreation refers to supporting, promoting and
encouraging community participation in organised games or leisure activities; and
advising on regulations regarding sport and recreation.
Statistical Services - Statistical Services refers to providing a high quality, objective
and responsive statistics service to assist and encourage informed decision making,
research and discussion within governments and the community.
Tourism - Tourism refers to encouraging recreational visitors to a region; supporting
the tourism industry and advising on regulations regarding tourism; supporting longterm strategies for tourism development and coordinating across jurisdictions on
large-scale projects; and supporting promotional campaigns.
Trade - Trade involves supporting the purchase, sale or exchange of commodities
and advising on trade regulations; monitoring and providing advice on the balance of
trade, industry protection and subsidy schemes – includes foreign and domestic
activities and liaison across jurisdictions to support trade agreement negotiations.
Transport - Transport refers to supporting road, rail and air transportation systems
and advising on transport regulations; supporting the movement of people or freight.
Monitoring and advising on the safety of vehicles and their operators; and supporting
the development of transport infrastructure.
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5 DRM – DATA REFERENCE MODEL
The DRM is a flexible and standards-based framework to enable information sharing
and reuse across government via the standard description and discovery of common
data and the promotion of uniform data management practices. The DRM will
provide a standard means by which data may be described, categorised, and
shared.
A lot of work has been done in this area by the CTO Council’s Information Domain
group. This work will be integrated with the Reference Architecture work prior to the
March release. In the interim their draft report is embedded below.
PSCM-Ver0.02b.pdf
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6 ARM – APPLICATION REFERENCE MODEL
The Applications Reference Model describes logical groups of IT Capabilities
(Components) that manage the information objects in the Data Reference Model and
support the business capabilities in the Business Reference Model. The logical
application components will tend to be stable but the technology used to implement
them will change over time, based on the technologies currently available and
changing business needs.
These IT Components provide the common, re-usable “Building Blocks” which the
can be combined and orchestrated in order to construct business applications.
The components should offer discrete IT functionality and ideally be available from
multiple vendors in the marketplace. We will link the logical components to the
physical components being captured in the Government IT Asset Register.
The adoption of good design practice such as loose coupling, service versioning,
and the adoption of open standard interfaces and messaging and data formats
developed within the framework of the ARM will ensure that as technologies change
the logical component can be evolved without causing major impact on other logical
components that make up the business applications. Adopting these principles
therefore will ensure that maximum value is extracted from IT investment whilst at
the same time minimising the time, cost and complexity of developing, deploying,
maintaining, and enhancing our IT systems going forward. Again this use of a
standard model will directly support the objectives of reuse by enabling departments
to speak in a common language and identify opportunities for sharing.
Application Reference Model (ARM)
Component Integration
Application
Integration
Customer Management (CM)
Customer
Relationship
Management
Customer
Contact
Management
External
Collaboration
Customer
Identity
Management
Customer
Portal
Online Form
Offline Form
Guidance
External
Integration
Business Process and Decision Management (BPDM)
Data Integration
Process Logic
Process
Integration
Decision Logic
Finance and Business Management (FBM)
Financial Planning & Control
Core Accounting
Trust
Accounting
Cash &
Treasury
Management
Management
Accounting
Corporate Shared Services
Payments &
Receipts
Resource
Accounting
Business Intelligence (BI)
Reporting
Search
Analysis
Performance
Management
Master Data
Provisioning
Data
Improvement
Information & Knowledge Management
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Enterprise
Content
Management
Data
Warehouse
Data Validation
Legal Services
Estate
Management
Health & Safety
Management
Human
Resources
Supply &
Inventory
Management
Learning &
Talent
Management
Third Party
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6.1
ARM Descriptions
Customer Management Application Group
Customer Relationship Management: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
provides services that allow Departments to:
 Segment & Profile its Customers
 Understand their behaviours (Customer Analytics)
 Plan its interactions with its customers and implement them (Campaign
Management)
CRM focuses on the generic approach to customers, specific interactions with
individual customers is delivered by the Customer Contact Management component.
Customer Contact Management: Contact Management Services support and
manage all customer contacts with Departments providing:
 Diary & Scheduling
 Escalations & Enquiry Status
 Complete Contact history
A Contact Management System (CMS) is a solution that allows organisations to
record all atomic relationships and interactions with their customers and provide
complete trace ability from initiation to outcome.
External Collaboration: Services to enable customers and Departmental staff to
exchange information to work on shared tasks, the component is provided for people
to “share” information, such as documents in a collaborative “space” where they can
work together asynchronously or in real time.
Customer Identity Management: The Customer Identity Management component
provides a single assured service for the verification of a customer's identity; it
encapsulates the many Technology Architecture components and services that are
used to support Identity Management
It provides the ability to manage roles and permissions based on the legal entity.
It also supports the maintenance of the identity data (merging / separating records,
cleansing and keeping a clear audit log of actions); including special customer
records and supports the provisioning of identity data to other business services.
It enables Departments to know who their customers are (Individuals, businesses,
agents…) and what roles they have, what permissions and services access are
associated to their roles and bringing together and securely managing their
information.
This capability includes the ability to establish a single identity record for each
customer (or employee), providing the foundation for all interactions with them based
upon a single, up to date picture of whom they are. It ensures a customer identity
record can be located based on full or partial identity information.
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Customer Portal: The customer portal provides services which support the
customer in their interactions with Departments, by providing the ability to define
their preferences, provide appropriate presentation and bring together the
applications and guidance they need. The Customer Portal is used in conjunction
with the Off-line Forms services (below) in order to provide secure viewing capability
(e.g. for showing customer status information) and to maintain user preferences, etc.
Portals are predominately delivered via the online channel but they are equally
applicable, if functionally constrained, to other channels such as Telephony.
Online Form: Provides a method for the capture of information from customers
where they are connected directly to services provided by Departments (e.g. via the
Internet). Data input will be validated at the time of submission for both its integrity in
respect of the form specification itself (e.g. field size, range, format, calculation) and
in respect of data already held by a Department.
Offline Form: Provides a way for customers to prepare data for submission to
Departments without needing to be connected directly to Departmental services; as
far as possible the data will be validated against the form specification at time of
input. Pre-population of customer data fields and data submission (filing) will be
handled using the Third Party Services (see below).
Guidance: The Guidance Component provides services supporting the provision of
content to an adviser (or other Departmental employee) or a customer which allows
them to come to an appropriate and correct decision in respect of the query they
have or are being asked to handle (for example eligibility or amount of liability). This
decision may be a definitive answer, such as "you are eligible", or the need to invoke
a transactional service to get that answer.
Guidance may be static; requiring the user to evaluate their own context and/or its
applicability or dynamic; where it is tailored specifically to fit his or her
circumstances, role and entitlements, using 'intent-led' processes to offer ‘next best’
guidance and questions to lead interactions. In such cases the Decision Logic
Application Component will under pin the guidance application.
A key principle is wherever possible the same source material (version of the truth) is
presented to suit the interaction, whether static or dynamic.
Where a Department needs to ensure non-repudiation of guidance given to a
customer, an audit trail of the information supplied and conclusions provided must be
kept.
For some applications, there will be a need to keep and resume part-completed
sessions supporting enquiries requiring decisions and eligibility and entitlement
responses.
Third Party Services: Provides a way for our customers to access Departments online services to retrieve and submit data using third party software products. This is a
key enabler for the on-line strategy and is the primary route for on-line service
access used by business customers and agents; to set the context, over 70% of online submissions for Self Assessment annually are filed using third party software
with the remaining (<30%) using the on-line form provided through the Customer
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Portal. The Off-line Forms Service also uses the Third Party Services to submit
customer data.
Existing third party services are provided through a combination of direct webservices provided by Departments. Third Party Services are client-agnostic and
going forward, will use open standards for messaging (XML, SOAP, Web Services
etc.)
Business Process and Decision Management Application Group
Process Logic: The Process Logic Application Component supports the routing and
execution of business processes; these can be split into two, complementary
categories:
 Process Orchestration; the business process is achieved by linking together a
number of discrete services provided by other Application Components.
These services are usually automated. This should become the dominant
approach as Departments work towards a Service Oriented Architecture.
 Workflow Management - The business process is achieved by linking together
a number of tasks or activities. Such activities may be either allocated to
people and manually enacted, or automated. Functions included are
assigning work to individuals, balancing workload and tracking overall
performance. In addition, workers require access to business data and
associated business functions; workers usually use at least a subset of the
main-line business applications.
Decision Logic: The Decision Logic Application Component provides services
which allow the business to define it's rules for assessing eligibility, liability and
entitlement etc. These rules can then be directly executed avoiding the historic
requirement to get them tuned into traditional "code" by IT developers.
Predicted uses of Decision Logic services include:
 Policy & Guidance; to help policy makers to turn legislative requirements into
policies and rules that customers can use as interactive guidance.
 Determine (Calculate) Liabilities or Entitlements; where these decisions are
complex or subject to frequent rule / policy changes.
 Guiding Business Processes; using rules and other decision technologies to
react to events, and to take automated decisions to guide the flow of activities
within a business process, in concert with the Process Logic services.
 Risk Assessment; to determine the risks associated with a transaction or
event, in near real-time. Depending on the outcome of the assessment
different workflows are triggered to direct responses.
 Response Allocation; automated (and human supervised) response allocation
against resource groups and risk scores based on optimising yield/effect of
the response.
 Legacy erosion; abstraction of the rules from traditional code and executing
them outside of departmental core systems, in concert with other Application
Components such as those in the Finance and Business Management
domain and coordinated by Process Logic.
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Finance and Business Management Application Group
Financial Planning and Control: These components support the annual planning
and ongoing control of the financial performance of a Department, allowing
consolidation of business plans from each of the business units to the Departmental
wide plan. This component also supports financial flows in cash and treasury
management.
Management Accounting: Provides the ability to create, track and manage the
various departmental budgets.
Services provided:
 Project Accounting – Departmental change projects
 Cost Centre Accounting - by Cost Centre hierarchy
 Profit Centre Accounting - financial efficiency analysis
 Revenue and Cost Planning - budgeting to meet efficiency targets
Cash & Treasury Management: Services provided:
 Cash and Liquidity Management-Disposal of funds across accounts to support
day to day Departmental and HM Treasury operations.
 Credit Management-Risk and mitigation actions - e.g. credit limits and
deferment account Status.
 Exchange Rates-Provides information on exchange rates
 Treasury Management-Strategic forecasting of cash balances.
Core Accounting: Supporting Trust Accounting (Provides integrated accounting
support for the collection and disbursement of funds to and from customers) and
Resource Accounting (related to maintenance of the department’s resource
accounts, reporting on the department’s financial performance and the outturn of
expenditure compared to funds that were approved by Parliament).
Trust Accounting: It provides integrated accounting support for the collection and
disbursement of funds to and from customers.
Services provided:
 Open Item Management-control
 Debt Administration-Manage Liabilities identify debts, issue reminders
 Trust Ledger - To support production of Trust Accounts
 Create/Amend entitlement - e.g. benefit, entitlement
 Create/Amend Charge-Create/amend liability against customer’s account e.g.
add interest, penalty regime calculation.
 Maintain Customer Master Data-specific to accounting
 Account Statement Management
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Payments & Receipts: Provides services related to the processing of payments and
receipts.
Services Provided:
 Process Payment - Pay customers entitlements
 Process Receipt - For the customer and matched against Customer charges
 BACS Error Returns
Resource Accounting: Provides services related to maintenance of the
department’s resource accounts. These report on the department’s financial
performance and the outturn of expenditure compared to funds that were approved
by Parliament.
Services Provided:
 Resource Ledger-to support production of Resource Accs.
 Bank Accounting-reconcile statements with Departmental ledgers
 Accounts Payable-Manages supplier accounting
 Fixed Assets-Asset register, accounting, depreciation
 Financial Statements - produced at period/year end
Corporate Shared Services: The collection of other accounting and business
services, necessary to support the core business of the department.
Legal Services: Provides services advising a Department on day to day running of
it's business and resolution of legal issues involving the Department
Human Resources: All services relating to employee management, starting/leaving
work, employee details, appraisal system, payroll, expenses etc.
Estate Management: Relates to the management of the department's physical
estate – property acquisition, disposal, leasing management and maintenance
Supply and Inventory Management: Handles the supply and inventory
management of goods and services for the department.
Health and Safety Management: consisting of Health and Safety Monitoring including Risk Assessments and provision and Management of Health and Safety
items required under related Acts, e.g. DSE.
Learning and Talent Management: Provides services required to track employee
skills and to develop and deliver training packages to the desktop.
Business Intelligence Application Group
Reporting: Provide the ability to report and query data held within the Business
Intelligence architecture. It can also be used to conduct operational reporting on
source systems where the use of the service is deemed appropriate.
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Services provided:
 Pre-Defined Reporting – Pre-defined reports created for users, to meet
regular requirements.
 Ad-hoc Reporting – User created reports for infrequent requirements.
 Query and Analysis – Allows users to query and analyse data, e.g. drill down,
‘slice and dice’.
 Application Specific Reporting – Limited to and within a specific application.
Search: Provides the ability to locate sources of specific data (i.e. structured, usually
in operational systems) or information (i.e. unstructured, usually in content
repositories or internet/intranet stores).
Services provided:
 Web Search – Identify and retrieve content across the intranet/internet.
 Enterprise Search – Multiple types of content across a variety of sources,
producing a consolidated list ranked by relevance.
 Federated Search – Across multiple applications or using multiple search
applications.
 Application Specific Search – Limited to and within a specific application.
Analysis: Provides the ability to analyse data using a range of technique; for
purposes including rule discovery, support to risk assessment and policy
development, customer segmentation and ad hoc queries.
Services provided:
 Data Mining, Behavioural Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Graphical Information,
Financial Analysis, Forecasting and Trends, Geographical Information, Data
Network Visualisation.
Performance Management: Provides the ability to define, monitor, measure and
optimise results and outcomes to achieve business objectives across multiple levels.
Services provided:
 Goal Setting – Goals and objectives linked to organisational operation, can be
hierarchical.
 Initiative Recording – Initiatives and projects linked to goals and objectives.
 Key Performance Indicators – Metrics linked to goals and objectives.
 Monitoring and Tracking – Information for operational reviews, scorecards and
dashboards.
Information Management Application Group
Enterprise Content Management: Enterprise Content Management is the
component which provides services which support the management, throughout
lifecycle, of unstructured and semi-structured information (often referred to as
"content"). It consists of:
 Document / Records Management - Supports the life-cycle, capture, storage,
security, version control, retrieval, distribution, preservation and destruction of
any documents and content, irrespective of formats and media. Supports
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

various business functions from forms processing, Content authoring,
Knowledge Management, etc.
Web Content Management - Supports the management and control of web
material (HTML documents, images, sound files, etc). It provides the features
of Document / Records Management specialised for maintenance of web
channels.
Email Management - Supports the classification, storage, retrieval of Email,
again this is a specialisation of Document / Records Management.
Data Warehouse: consists of:
 Data Acquisition, Staging and Data Mart Creation Function: Retrieve Data
from Operational or Third Party Systems into a staging area ready for
uploading to the Data Warehouse Core Data Store. Create User Data Marts
when applicable for purposes of analysis and reporting. State: Extract
Transform and Load Rules for running an ETL job. Reference: All Corporate
Reference Data. Input: All data acquired from Third Party data stores and
core departmental systems, Output: Data which is to be promoted to the Core
Data Store.
 Core Data Store (CDS) - Function: Stores all selected, shareable data in a
structure applicable to its use promoted from Data Staging. State: Data
Security rules for stored data. Retention and Archiving Rules. Input: Data
acquired from the Data Staging platform. Output: Where applicable, data
required for data marts and third party data stores.
 Data Warehouse Metadata Management- Function: Manages the tags and
encoding schemes to be used to describe resources in a Department. State:
Business and technical rules for managing tags & encoding schemes.
 Provisioning of Archive Data - making available non-active data.
 Provisioning of Joined Data - Delivery of composite views of data built from
the atomic data.
 Provisioning of Non-Joined Data - making available the atomic data.
Master Data Provisioning: consists of:
 Provisioning of Reference Data - Provides single version of the truth for each
reference data object, this service will cover information such as
Codes/Descriptions or Exchange Rates.
 Reference Data Management - services which allow the business to set the
values of reference data and ensure it is shared in a co-ordinated fashion.
Data Improvement: Data Quality - Function: Checking and assessing data is fit for
purpose. One off or regular checks. State: Business and Technical Rules by which
data is assessed as being fit for purpose. Input: All data from various sources.
Output: Assessment reports.
Base Data Matching - Function: Enriches the data by combining data (e.g. providing
a single view of either an individual or a company). These joined views will be
created once and consumed by different Applications. State: Rules for Joining the
Data. Input: Various Data Sources. Output: Matched Data Sets.
Data Validation: It is the comparison of data content against pre-determined rules
which provide assurances of acceptable formats and structure of data.
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The compared data may have originated from any capture media and will be
presented to this component using a consistent representation format (e.g. XML),
and following a set structure (e.g. header, routing and source information, data
format reference, data content).
Component Integration Application Group
Application Integration: Application integration describes the service which
enables the data or functional components of one system or component to be used
by another system or component. It includes any middleware or bus components
that facilitate integration between applications or services, as follows:
 Enterprise Service Bus – provides near real-time guaranteed messaging and
real-time request/response for all components, applications and services
outside of the major COTS packages. It provides a message backbone that
allows data to be exchanged between applications residing in different
domains and can mediate between application platforms within a domain
where no domain service bus is deployed.
 Domain Service Bus – provides near real-time guaranteed messaging and
real-time request/response for all components, applications and services
within an integration domain. An integration domain can be though of as a
system or set of services that serves a specific business function and is
deployed on the same technology stack.
 COTS Integration – provides near real-time guaranteed messaging and realtime request/response within major COTS packages selected elsewhere in
the architecture.
External Integration: The external integration service provides the controlled and
managed gateways that enable the exchange of data with third parties. The gateway
services will also enable functionality to be exposed by a Department to be
consumed by approved third parties and allows a Department to consume services
provided by third parties. Departments have different relationships with different
groups of third parties and this is recognised in the strategy that proposes three
logically separate gateways:
 OGD/Public bodies' gateway – provides a gateway for data and services with
UK central and local government third parties, normally across the GSI (or the
planned PSN).
 EU government gateway – provides a gateway allowing the exchange of
messages between EU Member States. It is primarily – but not exclusivelyused by the Customs and International business area. The EU gateway wraps
the Common Communications Node/Common Systems Interface (CCN/CSI)
hub – which is a pan EU integration backbone - and allows a Department’s
applications to interface using cross government standards. Any new projects
should align to EIF standards which promotes the use of recognised
standards such as JMS and Web Services – although agreement is usually
reached by consensus in project working groups.
 Supplier gateway – provides a gateway allowing the exchange of data and the
exposure of services that allow a Department to interact with its suppliers
Data Integration: Data integration concerns the acquisition of usually large volumes
of data from a source system such as a HOD for transfer to a second system. The
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second system is usually a data warehouse but the data integration service can also
be used in other circumstances such as the controlled migration of data from a
retiring system to its successor or for data archiving purposes. It consists of:
 Extract, transform and Load – primarily provides data integration from
operational data bases into data warehouses. However the platform is also
used for providing data services from sources to consumers
 Internal file transfer – recognises that a Department’s legacy platforms are
often closed to newer forms of integration and are unlikely to be replaced in
the near future – a file transfer solution is therefore essential to support
integration with these platforms.
Process Integration: Lightweight process orchestration is a quasi-service that
provides the glue that allows federated BPM/Workflow Engines to work together. It
does not include any services to support long running business activities, business
process simulation, business activity management and human-centric processes.
These can be found in the Business Process Management layer of the ARM.
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7 TRM – TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL
The TRM is a component-driven, technical framework categorising the standards
and technologies to support and enable the delivery of Service Components and
capabilities.
It also unifies existing agency TRM’s and E-Gov guidance by providing a foundation
to advance the reuse and standardisation of technology and Service Components
from a government-wide perspective.
Aligning capital investments to the TRM leverages a common, standardised
vocabulary, allowing cross departmental discovery, collaboration, and
interoperability. Government Departments and Central Government will benefit from
economies of scale by identifying and reusing the best solutions and technologies to
support their business functions, mission, and target architecture.
The TRM will continue to be elaborated as the other ICT Strategy workstreams
progress so that consistent definitions are maintained i.e. the definitions agreed in
the End User Device, PSN, Cloud etc. workstreams will be reflected in the TRM and
potentially also the DRM.
Technical Reference Model (TRM)
Service
Management
IT Service
Management
(ITIL)
Presentation / Interface
Audio Dialogue
Security
Content
Rendering
Visual Display
Channels
Usability &
Accessibility
Services
Authentication
Integration
Systems
Management
Data
Interchange
Data
Management
EAI Middleware
Interoperability
Data Base
Data Interface
Authorisation
Service
Bulk Data
Capture
Server Devices
Storage
IT
Accommodation
Services
End User
Devices
Security
Management
Services
Service
Transport
Gateway
Services
Access
Channels
Service
Transport
Gateway
Services
Hosting and Platform
Bulk Data
Output
Network
WAN
Access
Channels
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LAN
UNCLASSIFIED
7.1
TRM Descriptions
Service Management Technology Group
IT Service Management: IT Service Management is a process-based practice
intended to align the delivery of information technology (IT) services with needs of
government. IT Service Management involves a shift from managing IT as stacks of
individual components to focusing on the delivery of end-to-end services using best
practice process models
Systems Management: Systems Management is the management of the
information technology systems in government. This includes gathering
requirements, purchasing equipment and software, distributing it to where it is to be
used, configuring it, maintaining it with enhancement and service updates, setting up
problem-handling processes, and determining whether objectives are being met.
Presentation / Interface Technology Group
Descriptions to be provided by Global Digital Services to cover:





Audio Dialogue
Visual Display
Content Rendering
Channels
Usability & Accessibility Services
Integration Technology Group
Data Interchange: Data Interchange defines the methods in which data is
transferred and represented in and between software applications.
Data Management: Data Management is the management of all data/information in
an organisation. It includes data administration, the standards for defining data and
the way in which people perceive and use it.
EAI Middleware: Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) refers to the processes
and tools specialising in updating and consolidating applications and data within an
enterprise. EAI focuses on leveraging existing legacy applications and data sources
so that enterprises can add and migrate to current technologies. Middleware
increases the flexibility, interoperability and portability of existing infrastructure by
linking or ‘gluing’ two otherwise separate applications.
Interoperability: Interoperability defines the capabilities of discovering and sharing
data and services across disparate systems and vendors.
Data Base: Data Base refers to programs that enable storage, modification and
extraction of information from a database, and various techniques and devices for
storing large amounts of data.
Data Interface: Data Interface defines the capabilities of communicating,
transporting and exchanging information through a common dialogue or method.
35
UNCLASSIFIED
Delivery channels provide the information to reach the intended destination, whereas
interfaces allow the interaction to occur based on a pre-determined framework.
Hosting & Platform Technology Group
Bulk Data Output: Bulk Data Output refers to the data that has been converted via
a Bulk Data Transfer software application to compress, block and buffer to optimise
transfer rates when moving large data files.
Bulk Data Capture: Bulk Data Capture refers to the means in which this converted
data is received and processed.
Server Devices: Server Devices are front-end platforms that provide information to
a requesting application. It includes the hardware, operating system, server software
and networking protocols.
Storage: Storage refers to components and recording media that retain digital data.
Data storage is a core function and fundamental component of IT.
IT Accommodation Services: IT Accommodation Services refers to the integration
of information technology (IT) and facility management disciplines to centralise
monitoring, management and intelligent capacity planning of a data centre’s critical
systems. Achieved through the implementation of specialised software, hardware
and sensors, Accommodation Services enables common, real-time monitoring and
management platform for all interdependent systems across IT and facility
infrastructures.
End User Devices: The following definition for End User Devices is taken from the
Government End User Device Strategy document (page 2): PCs, laptops, tablets,
smart phones and other hardware that end users can use to interact with data and
applications.
Network (WAN/LAN) Technology Group
Access Channels - Access channels define the interface between an application
and its users, whether it is a browser, personal digital assistant or other medium.
Service Transport - Service transport consists of the protocols that define the
format and structure of data and information that is either accessed from a directory
or exchanged through communications.
Gateway Services - Gateway Services define the level of access to applications
and systems based upon the type of network used to deliver them.
Security Technology Group
Authentication - Authentication refers to a method that provides users with the
ability to login one time, getting authenticated access to all their applications and
resources.
Authorisation Service – Descriptions to be provided by CESG
Security Management Services - Descriptions to be provided by CESG
36
UNCLASSIFIED
8 NEXT STEPS







37
Continue developing common architectural material in support of the March
deadline working with other ICT strands
Establish and agree with CIO Delivery Board an ongoing maintenance process
for the continual development and governance of the UKRA
Establish clear ownership for the models
Establish relevant tools for the storage, maintenance and publication of the
agreed reference architecture outputs
Incorporate other ICT relevant content into the UKRA, ensuring maximum
opportunity for re-use is enabled
Develop a proposal to enable monitoring of the usage and relevance of the
UKRA
Engage with the Cabinet Office Shared Services initiative