Best Practices in E government A review

International Journal of Electrical & Computer Sciences IJECS-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

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Best Practices in E government: A review of Some
Innovative Models Proposed in Different Countries
Sami M. Alhomod and Mohd Mudasir Shafi
E Learning and Distance Learning Deanship, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
E mails: Alhomod@ksu.edu.sa ; Mmudasir@ksu.edu.sa

Abstract---Governments all around the world are heavily
investing towards the implementation of e government to
improve services to citizens and reduce costs. With the help
of ICT, governments can increase efficiency of their
operations and can carry out their administrative operations
smoothly. Keeping this fact in mind we thought to carry out
research identifying the models for international best
practices in e government. This paper offers a comparative
study of three models and frameworks concerning the
development of best practices in e government. The paper
reviews each model in detail and provides a view of how

each model can help towards the development of best
practice in any e government initiative.
Keywords- Best Practices, Citizens, E governance Models,
Services

I. INTRODUCTION
The advancement in Information and communication
technology (ICT) has affected our relation with people,
businesses and more recently with governments [1]. The
Introduction of ICT’s has changed the way governments
interact with its citizens and has led to development of a
world phenomenon called e government. E-government
involves the use of the ICT to facilitate an efficient, speedy
and transparent process of providing information to the
public and to carry out administration activities.
The definition of E government according to World Bank is
[2]:
“E-government refers to the use by government agencies of
information technologies like wide area network, the
internet and mobile computing that have the ability to

transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms
of government”
E-government uses information and communication
technologies to promote more efficient and effective
government, facilitate more accessible government
services, allow greater public access to information and
make government more accountable to citizens. The
modern information technology services like the internet,
mobile communication, wireless devices and a mix of other
technologies are used to implement e government
solutions. The main aim of e government is to provide an

easier access to information and services by using the
modern technologies as well as facilitate better
communication between different arms of the government.
There are two extremely important criteria’s for a
successful e government [3]:
A. 24 x 7 Availability: The E government services and
transactions have to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. A user should be able to access an e government

service any time he wishes. This enables user to access
services outside office hours.
B. Accessibility: Any e government initiative is critically
dependent on accessibility of its services. If a particular
service is not available to its intended target user, it will
not be successful and will ultimately fail.
This paper is an in-depth exploration of three innovative
approaches aimed towards making of an e government
initiative into a best practice. The paper also tries to find
common points in all the three models and as well
determines the focal point of each of the models. The rest
of the paper is organized in four sections: First, an
introduction to the stages of e governance will be
presented. Secondly, a brief overview of a best practice will
be given. Next, the three models will be explained in detail.
And at last a conclusion of the study and future work will
be proposed.

II. STAGES OF E GOVERNANCE
In order to accomplish e government initiatives, there

must be a phased approach applied to the infrastructure
development which transforms an initial e government
initiative into final desired service [4]. E governments all
around the world have different objectives and follow
different models for e government development. The
advantage of having a phased approach is that the success
of each e government initiative can be calculated and the
possible errors and pitfalls of the initiative can be rectified.
Generally speaking, there are four stages of e government
which in most cases follow each other:

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International Journal of Electrical & Computer Sciences IJECS-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

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between public and private entities and is socially and

culturally self-sufficient. Governments all around the
world are striving to deliver high-quality services with the
help of already established best practices in both public
and private sectors [5].

Integration
Of services
Complete Transaction over
Web
Interaction between Citizen and Government
Presence on Web

Fig 1. Stages of E governance
A. Presence on the web:: The first stage on any e
government is marked by its presence on the web which
acts as a common place for distributing information to the
public. It is the most basic part of any e governance system
and has limited capabilities. An example of this stage can
be a government website which provides only information
but has no interaction capabilities [5, 6].

B. Interaction between citizen and governments: This
second stage is marked by the presence of an interactive
web interface where some kind of communication occurs
between government and its citizens through the web. The
objective of this stage is to automate government
functions, which may include simple task of downloading
forms of e mailing to the concerned authority [6].
C. Complete Transaction over Web: This stage involves
transaction between a citizen and government being
completed over the internet. This stage is fairly complex
and enables citizens to complete entire tasks at any time
either day or night [6]. Payment of bills & taxes can be
attributed to this stage.
D. Integration of services: This is the highest level of any
e government where technology is utilized to its full
potential. This stage determines how e government
functions are introduced, organized and carried out. In this
stage, various government departments share information
among each other and also offer services to the citizens
online.

There are six key similarities among best practices as
identified by Ministry of Information Technology,
Government of India:
• Constant focus on improvement in quality, costs
and delivery of the e government services.
• Closer interaction with the citizens
• Closer interaction within the service providers
• Increased and effective use of technology.
• Greater flexibility and Less hierarchical
organization
• Promoting continuous learning, teamwork,
participation and flexibility

IV. E GOVERNMENT BEST PRACTICES MODELS
MODEL -1
Owen A., Johnson and Stephen F. King in 2005
demonstrated the application of Variety and best practice
(VBP) model using the basic software engineering theory
and techniques to identify best practices in local e

governments. They argued that the software services that
can be embedded into generic software solutions can be
used for a large variety of complex e government
operations. They proposed their model on the founding
principle of the object-oriented
systems called
Inheritance. Inheritance can be defined as the process in
which one sub operation inherits the characteristics of the
parent operation. They said that any process or operation
can be shown visually with the help of Unified modelling
language (UML). The UML offers a graphical
representation of any operation.
The construction of Variety and best practice (VBP) model
was based on four points:
1.

III. WHAT’S A BEST PRACTICE?
A best practice can be defined as an increased efficiency of
the system for dissemination of the information, delivery
of services and assisting in public decision making. A best

practice is a standardized technique, method or a process
that has proven themselves to accomplish tasks over a
period of time. The UN defines a best practice as successful
initiatives towards improving people’s standard of life. A
best practice originates as a result of effective partnership

2.

3.

Any process or operation must provide a logical
and meaningful outcome to customers, citizens
and can be graphically shown with the help of use
cases.
An operation or process can be shown as a part of
some other operation and must provide a
meaningful outcome.
The proposed best practice can be represented in
the UML form. This enables the best practice to be
associated with other operations of the same kind.

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The activities that take place during the
completion of an operation or process can be
represented in the form of UML activity diagrams,
and inheritance can be applied to common
operations and best practices.

The authors demonstrated the application of VBP model
on the BASE.GOV project of the UK government. They used
the use case diagram for showing the services provided by
the local authority and UML activity diagram to model the
best practice. The services provided by the local
government can be represented in a single-use case

diagram. A citizen can demand any type of service from the
local government depending on his needs, and the VBP
model can provide the view of best practices provided by
the authorities. The model showed that the best practice
can be modeled at different levels of operation and the
level at which best practice can be implemented.
MODEL – 2
The second model in consideration was proposed by Ali M.
Al-Khouri in 2011, which focused on developing simple
and effective tools and strategies for managing,
understanding and executing e government initiatives. The
model proposed is called " Citizen inclusive vision realized
through ID card Integrated Delivery of E-government
Applications” simply referred to as “CIVIC IDEA." The
model was concerned with the realization of e government
initiatives in UAE. A figure showing the overall ecosystem
of CIVIC IDEA is given at the end of this paper.
The CIVIC IDEA model proposed that a strategy for e
governance and the right execution of the strategy are
equally important for the delivery of e government
services. The inference taken from the CIVIC IDEA concept
is that a standardized best practice can act as a template
for e government services provided at the local and central
level of e government. The CIVIC IDEA strongly advocates
the need to use standardized technologies complying with
international standards and their interoperability between
different systems. There are four stages of CIVIC IDEA
realization:
1.

Enable: In this phase, the basic foundation for the
service is laid.

2.

Enhance: This phase used to develop standards,
infrastructure for the service.

3.

Establish: This phase deals with increasing the
demand of the service and also to extend support
to other systems.

4.

3

Expansion: The service is now expanded to reach
maximum coverage.

The proposed framework is developed to aid in overall
strategy and focus on certain best-practice development in
an e government initiative.
Model– 3
The third model under review was proposed by
Abdelbaset Rabaiah and Eddy Vandijck in 2009. This
model is the result of review of e government strategies of
20 countries in addition to European Union. The paper
proposed a generic framework that can be adopted by any
e government strategy. They argued that the framework
should act as a bridge between local and central
government. The framework proposes that there can be
strategies developed for individual services to be provided
to the citizens. The framework is called strategic
framework of e-government and is divided into modules,
and each module represents the component of an e
government. These modules are:
• Vision
• Strategic objectives
• Users
• Delivery modes
• Guiding principles
• Channels
• Priority area
• Major initiatives
• Infrastructure
• Organisation
• Guidelines
The framework is further divided into two parts:
1. Front Office: Deals with following modules of the
framework; Vision, Strategic objectives, Users,
Delivery modes, Guiding principles, Channels,
2. Back Office: Deals with the remaining modules of;
Priority area, Major initiatives, Infrastructure,
Organisation, Guidelines.
The framework is based on best practices in e government,
formulated with the study of e government strategies of 20
countries and European Union.

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V. CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK
The above discussed models demonstrated different
models which can be applied to numerous areas of e
governance in different countries. The striking thing about

Summary

•
MODEL - 1
•
•
•

MODEL – 2

•
•
•
•
•
•

MODEL - 3
•
•
•

Called as “Variety and best
practice (VBP) model”.
Based on software engineering
concepts of UML and Use cases.
Each operation can be viewed as a
sub part of other operation.
Each operation must provide
some meaningful output.
Called as “CIVIC IDEA”
Citizen Centric Model
Simple and effective tools for
executing e government strategies
A standardised best practice can
act as a template for other e
government services
Using standardised technology
which are operational with other
systems
Called as “Strategic framework of
e-government”
Can act as a Generic framework
for any e government strategy
Individual service to the citizen
Subdivided into Front office and
back
office
which
contain
framework modules

the three models is that each model was applied to one
area of e governance but has flexibility of being extended
to other areas of governance. The summary of the models
is given in the following table:

Information Flow

Countries Referred

Each sub operation Receives
input from some other
operation

United Kingdom

Hierarchal
model;
completion of one stage
provides a way for next step

Two way communication at
each
module
of
the
framework

United Arab Emirates

European Union &
Australia;
Belgium;
Denmark; Austria; Japan;
Finland; France; Canada;
Germany;
Korea;
Singapore; Jordan; Egypt;
UK; India; New Zealand;
USA; Malaysia; Brazil

TABLE 1: Summary of the Discussed Models
The success of e government requires the support of its citizens, implementers and researchers as well. While this article
presented an in depth exploration of three models for best practices in e government, there is still a need for more
research towards the best practices in e government. The rich material available on e governance provides a research
challenge for more extensive reviews and proposals.

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Fig 2. CIVIC IDEA Ecosystem (Ali M. Al-Khouri "An
Innovative Approach for E-Government Transformation ")

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