icegov2012 proceedings

o Information. Represents any information the visitor should
know e.g. “the execution of the service should be completed
within ten working days”.
o Value. Represents an amount the visitor should pay to
invoke the service or receive after the service’s completion
(e.g. in case of a social benefit service). There are three cases
for a Value object:
-­‐ Registration. Represents the amount that the visitor
should pay as a lump sum (e.g. a 20 € fee).
-­‐ Annual Subscription. Represents the amount that
the visitor should pay annually (e.g. an annual
subscription to a chamber of commerce).
-­‐ Subsidy. Represents the amount that the visitor is
entitled from the execution of a service (e.g.
housing benefit).
Value is a subcase of Information but we include it as
separate object due to its particular importance to citizens
and public authorities as well as its semantics (e.g. Values
can be added).
We call Question, Input Document, Information and Value
internal nodes of the graph (diagram).
Table 1. Notation for PSP IP Dialogue Diagrams
Element and Description Symbol
Start:
� Portrays the beginning of the diagram.
Question:
� Is used to represent a question posed to
citizens/businesses.
Answer:
� Is used to represent a possible answer to a
question.
Input Document:
� Is used to represent a document required for
invoking a public service.
Information:
� Is used to represent any additional information
a citizen/business should know.
Value:
� Is used to represent any monetary amount (it is
a special case of Information).
Not Eligible:
� Is used to stop all control flows (thus it
represents an end node)
� It suggests the citizen/business is not eligible
for the service.
Eligible:
� Is used to stop all control flows (thus it
represents an end node)
� It suggests the citizen/business is eligible for
the service.
We should note that the arrow besides representing a Question is
also used to link the Start node to the first Question (hence
representing control flow without any question). We understand a
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new symbol should have been introduced for that however for
simplicity we decided to use the arrow.
In developing PSP IP diagrams there are certain rules that need to
be respected for the resulting diagram to be valid. These rules are
derived from graph theory and the fact that the graph should be a
directed acyclic one. The most important are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Rules of PSP IP Dialogue Diagrams
1. There is only one Start node that contains only one
outgoing arrow leading to the first Question.
2. There are one or more End nodes. An End node has one
or more incoming Arrows but no outgoing Arrow.
3. All paths (representing potential dialogues) should end in
an End node.
4. An Arrow always connects two nodes which should be
different.
5. Arrows indicate the control flow of the dialogue.
6. An Answer may lead to only one Question, Information,
Input Document or End Node.
7. Question nodes should have at least two outgoing Arrows.
All other internal nodes should only have one outgoing
Arrow.
8. No node should be “orphan”, i.e. all nodes should have at
least one incoming and one outgoing arrow (subject to
other rules).
9. The resulting graph should be acyclic, thus no cycling
paths should exist.
3.3 Public service indicators
The current effort aims to facilitate, apart from citizens, public
service providers in designing dialogues but also in managing PSP
IP. For this purpose, we introduce a number of indicators. Using
these indicators the domain expert who designs the diagram
obtains interesting information on various aspects of the service.
The indicators measure the behavior of the main objects (i.e.
Question, Document, and Value) and the diagram in general. To
derive these indicators, graph theory was reviewed in the context
of public service provision according to the authors’ relevant
experience. In the rest of this section, we present the proposed
indicators.
3.3.1 Number of Dialogues
This indicator provides the number of different dialogues in a
diagram, i.e. the number of unique paths in the graph. This is an
indication of the service’s complexity, since an increased number
of dialogues suggests an increased number of service’s versions.
3.3.2 Number of Dialogues that Results in a not
Eligible Node
This indicator provides the number of different dialogues that
result in a not eligible node i.e. in cases where the citizen does not
meet the requirements for invoking the public service. This is an
indicator of the number of preconditions that must be fulfilled for