icegov2012 proceedings

someone to be non-eligible for the service. When this indicator is
equal to zero then everyone is eligible for invoking the service.
3.3.3 Maximum/Minimum/Average Number of
Questions
These indicators provide the maximum, minimum and average
number of questions that are asked to the citizen during the
dialogue. The indicators count only questions that result in an
eligible end node and, thus, show the number of questions
required for the successful completion of the dialogue. An
increased number of questions indicate more complex services.
3.3.4 Maximum/Minimum/Average Total Cost
These indicators provide the maximum, minimum and average
cost of the service. Obviously, they count only the cost coming
from dialogue paths that result in an eligible end node. The
service provider can use these indicators to measure the range of
the service’s cost for the citizen. As a result, they can also
measure the expected income from the execution of the public
service provided details on the number of citizens that will
consume the service are also known.
3.3.5 Maximum/Minimum/Average Total Subsidy
These indicators provide the maximum, minimum and average
expected citizen’s benefit after the execution of the public service.
It can be used by public authorities to compute the range of the
total subsidy as well as its average provided details on the number
of beneficiaries are known.
3.3.6 Maximum/Minimum/Average Number of Input
Documents
These indicators provide the maximum, minimum, and average
number of documents that different citizens’ categories need to
provide for invoking the service. They also count the number(s) of
documents coming from not eligible dialogues, if applicable.
These indicators could be used to examine the level of
bureaucracy as an increased number of required input documents
usually indicates an increased level of red tape.
3.3.7 Indicators for Set of Services
Apart from the indicators that refer to each specific service
diagram, we also propose a number of indicators that apply to a
set of services diagrams. These indicators are helpful to public
administrations responsible for the design and management of
many public services. The indicators include:
o Involvement of Other Public Authorities. This dictates the
number of other public authorities that are involved in
providing a particular public service. It is measured through
the required input documents of each service and the public
authorities that are issuing them.
o Number of Services per public Authority. This dictates the
number of services provided by each public authority. This
information can be useful for planning, including human
resources management.
o Document’s Importance. A large number of input
documents are actually produced by public authorities. This
indicator depicts the number of services using a particular
document. This is useful in planning e.g. to estimate how
many services will be affected if an input document is
abolished or replaced.
137
It should be noted that as all service descriptions can be stored in
a database, additional information may be extracted depending on
specific needs.
4. PSP IP PLATFORM
In order to demonstrate the use of the proposed notation we
developed a prototype platform presented in this section.
4.1 Architecture and Functionality
The architecture of the developed prototype platform is shown in
fig. 7 using UML deployment diagram while its main
functionality is shown in fig. 8 using UML use case diagram.
Figure 7. Platform architecture
As presented in the use case diagram there are three main actors:
domain expert, content manager and citizen/business (visitor or
end-user). It is worth explaining the content manager. This role is
responsible for central activities including managing all public
documents, describing public services, deciding which PSP IP
diagrams to launch in the Dialogue website etc.
Figure 8. Platform main functionality
4.2 Main Usage Scenario
There are many different usage scenarios for this platform. Here
we present one such usage scenario.
Step 1. Input Documents are Described
The Content manager is using the Service Admin Tool in order to
create descriptions of input documents that will be needed when
modeling PSP IP (fig. 9). Ideally, there should be one such