ET.gov
Scope & Requirements Specification
Phase 1
Version 1.1
DRAFT
Prepared by:
Ari Knausenberger
Michael Isman
Joseph Chiusano
Revision History
|
Date |
Version |
Description |
Author |
|
02/Feb/05 |
0.8 |
Original Internal Draft |
Ari Knausenberger |
|
07/Feb/05 |
0.9 |
Revision |
Ari Knausenberger, Michael Isman |
|
08/Feb/05 |
1.0 |
Initial External Draft |
Ari Knausenberger, Joseph Chiusano |
|
08/Feb/05 |
1.1 |
With edits to Definitions, Assumptions & other sections |
Owen Ambur |
Table of Contents
1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Purpose......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Scope.............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.2.1 General Scope....................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2.2 Time Constraints................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations........................................................................................... 4
1.4 References.................................................................................................................................................................. 5
1.5 Assumptions/Dependencies.............................................................................................................................. 5
2. System Functions/Capabilities........................................................................................................................... 5
3. Requirements................................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Hardware/Software.......................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.1 Hardware............................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.2 Platforms/Software............................................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.3 Browser Support................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.4 Technology Constraints...................................................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Web Site ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.2.1 Branding................................................................................................................................................................ 6
3.2.2 ET.gov User Selections........................................................................................................................................ 6
3.2.3 Component Submission....................................................................................................................................... 6
3.2.4 Component Search and Browsing..................................................................................................................... 8
3.2.5 Component Review............................................................................................................................................... 8
3.2.6 Submitter Information.......................................................................................................................................... 8
3.3 XML Schema.............................................................................................................................................................. 9
3.4 Security....................................................................................................................................................................... 9
3.5 Documentation/Help........................................................................................................................................... 9
3.6 Accessibility/Usability...................................................................................................................................... 9
3.6.1 508 Compliance.................................................................................................................................................... 9
3.6.2 Usability Testing................................................................................................................................................... 9
3.7 Interfaces With Other Federal Initiatives.......................................................................................... 9
3.7.1 CORE.gov............................................................................................................................................................... 9
3.8 Third-Party Products....................................................................................................................................... 10
3.9 Legal, Copyright and Other Notices........................................................................................................ 10
3.10 ET.gov Evolution Oversight........................................................................................................................... 10
Scope & Requirements Specification
This document describes the scope and requirements (technical and functional) for Phase 1 of the ET.gov initiative. This document has been produced prior to any detailed design and development of the application and serves to provide a basis for further development of the system.
ET.gov aims to help facilitate the discovery of various types of components which may be beneficial to the government and provide a formal channel by which emerging technologies can be evaluated. ET.gov aims to facilitate and accelerate the Emerging Technologies life cycle by improving the “Time to Market” of those components. ET.gov will help to facilitate communication between CIOs, governmental decision makers, Submitters and other integrators by taking a standards-based approach to capitalize on the benefits of XML and maximize the benefits of the World Wide Web. By providing a standard XML schema for component description and a submission point from which components can be evaluated, ET.gov is designed to aid the discovery of new technologies.
The ET.gov initiative consists of the following 8 stages:
1) Identification: Information regarding proposed components is registered with the ET.gov site through manual (user form entry) or automatic (XML submission) means, and the information indexed and made available for browse/search;
2) Subscription: .gov persons (and others) indicate their level of interest, if any, in proposed components by subscribing to them;
3) Stewardship: The ET Subcommittee accepts stewardship for proposed components;
4) Graduation: Proposed components graduate to the Components Subcommittee upon approval by the ET Subcommittee, and are transitioned to CORE.gov;
5) Budgeting: Components are included in the President’s budget, and potentially in line-item funding by Congress;
6) Acquisition: Components are acquired for use in .gov IT applications;
7) Maintenance: Components are maintained throughout their life cycle;
8) Retirement/Replacement: Components are retired/replaced as needed
The requirements specified in this document serve to describe the functionality required for initial implementation of the ET.gov website. Phase 1 will include stage 1 as described above.
- ET.gov will be demonstrated on February 17, 2005 at the Federal CIO Council Architecture and Infrastructure Committee (AIC) meeting with initial functionality.
- Phase 1 will be completed on March 30, 2005, with a demonstration at the EGovCon05 Conference.
Component – For ET.gov, there will be several types of “components”:
a) Software component: a self contained business process or service with predetermined functionality that may be exposed through a business or technology interface.
b) Data component: Electronic metadata representations of entities, expressed in languages such as XML Schema.
c) Hardware component: Hardware products (such as servers), or subsets of hardware products
Submitter – A person, organization or other entity submitting component information on ET.gov, to include vendors as well as government employees, members of the academic and research communities, and any other individual who reasonably well describes the proposed component in a valid XML instance document posted on the Web in conformance with the specified shema.
Reviewer – A person who is authorized to review information provided about proposed components and approve or reject indexing of selected elements of the valid XML instance documents on the ET.gov site.
Visitor – A user with browse- and search-only capability, who does not submit components to ET.gov.
The following serve as references for this document:
· “Proposal for the Emerging Technologies Subcommittee, Architecture and Infrastructure Committee: Support for the Development of A Process to Identify Emerging Technologies: Technical Approach and Cost Estimate”, Submitted by Booz Allen Hamilton, June 9, 2004
· “The ET.gov Life-Cycle Management Process", January 20, 2004 http://xml.gov/documents/completed/etsc1/
· ECCNet/ET-Register
http://www.eccnet.com/ET-Register
·
“Managing the IT Innovation Life-Cycle: Proposed
Stages/Schemas”, Owen Ambur
http://xml.gov/draft/etLifeCycle.htm]
The following assumptions and dependencies are presented:
· Current and future functionality will be limited by the requirement to allow Submitters to submit component information without requiring the following:
o Business/Personal information
o Unique identifiers/passwords
· Impacts from this include, but are not limited to:
o Inability for Submitters to modify the indices of component submissions directly on the ET.gov site. However, Submitters could update the valid XML instance documents on their own Web sites and resubmit the URL, in which case a unique identifier for each component itself could be used to manage and control updating of the indices, subject to approval by Reviewers.
o Inability to integrate business and personal contact information into searches and reports
o Inability to establish other functionality requiring actors to be identified and authenticated
The following high-level system functions will be included in Phase 1:
- Allowing Submitters to enter component information via a web form, or upload XML-formatted data
- Providing search and browsing capabilities to site users
- Allow Reviewers to approve components for listing
TBD – require GSA hosting environment details
1. Windows Server 2003
2. SQL Server 2000
3. Active Service Pages(ASP)/VBScript
- ET.gov shall be compatible with the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer 5.5 – current version
- Netscape 7.1 – current version
ASP/VBScript has been chosen for Phase 1 implementation to quickly release functionality to the ET.gov user community. However, future integration with 3rd party solutions and web services may necessitate a migration to a more mature solution, such as Microsoft .NET.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of the subsections within this section will describe the following aspects for each system feature:
Purpose: Describes the purpose for the existence of the feature
Input: Details the information that is to be provided as input for processing within a feature
Processing: Details the actions taken by the system to perform the processing associated with a
feature
Output: Details the results returned by the system upon performing the processing associated with a feature
ET.gov shall utilize a theme based on the XML.gov site.
The ET.gov user interface will present users with the
following selections:
1. Begin the component submission process
2. Download the ET.gov XML schema and sample XML instance
documents
3. Browse/Search components
4. View online help
5. View the Terms Disclaimers
6. Additional links as required
Submitters shall be able to submit component information in the following ways:
- Using a web form to fill out component information
- Uploading an XML instance document conforming to the ET.gov XML schema using a web form
- Uploading an XML instance document in a completely automated manner (e.g. by utilizing a web service)[1]
The first 2 methods will be described below.
Purpose: To allow Submitters to submit component information via an online web form
Input: Submitters wishing to submit
information about a component to ET.gov will provide the following data in
conformance with the XSD for Stage 1, with the required elements designated by
asterisks:
- Component Name*
- Component Description*
- Component Benefit*
- Service Type – FEA SRM values (selectable by user )
- Technical Standard(s) – FEA TRM values (selectable by user)
- Component Type(s)* – “Hardware, Software, Data” (selectable by user)
- URL of a valid XML instance document on Submitter’s website*
- Email Address[2]
Processing:
1. Fields will be validated to ensure conformity/adherence to constraints
2. Submitters will be given the option to generate an XML instance document based on the information they provide in the form
3. An XML instance document conforming to the ET.gov XML schema will be generated based on the form values, if opted for in step 2
Output: The following will be output:
1. A valid XML instance document containing the component information submitted, that the submitter can post on their web site
2. Instructions to complete the submission process (See “Email Confirmation Process” section)
Purpose: To allow Submitters an alternate means of submitting component information via an XML instance document, thereby alleviating the need for manual entry
Input: Submitters who already have an XML instance document conforming to the ET.gov XML schema will be able to select and upload the XML instance document
Processing: The XML instance will be validated against the ET.gov Schema prior to acceptance.
Output: Instructions to complete the submission process (See “Email Confirmation Process” section)
Purpose: Submitters will receive an email confirming component submission. A Submitter will then click on a link within the email to submit component for review.
Input: Email address entered into form
Processing: The following processing steps will take place:
1. The system shall send an email to the specified account
a. The email shall contain a link to finalize the component submission to ET.gov
b. The link shall identify the user with a unique identifier
2. Upon clicking the link provided in the email, a confirmation screen will confirm completion of submission process
3. The component will be submitted for review by Reviewers (see “Component Review” section)
Output: Submission Confirmation screen
In Phase 1, component submissions will be categorized by Component Type (i.e., Hardware, Software, or Data) as well as by FEA terms, if provided.
In future phases, additional classification terms – from the FEA or otherwise - may be used. Users may also be enabled to submit ontologies for categorization purposes.
Purpose: To allow users to search/browse for components submitted to ET.gov
Input: Site users shall be able to select the following options:
1. Browse the Component Name list using an A-Z index
2. Perform full text searches on component descriptions by entering keywords
Processing: The following processing steps will take place:
1. Component browsing shall execute queries based on the first letter of component names
2. Full text searches shall query an index of component descriptions
Output:
1. Query results shall be pageable and sortable
2. Users will be able to search and filter results by specified fields
3. Fields displayed: Component Name, Description
4. Hypertext links to the valid XML instance documents containing Component Benefits and any other information provided in accordance with the XSD for Stage 1.
Purpose: To allow Reviewers to review component information submissions for suitability for indexing on the ET.gov site
Input: Reviewers shall be able to perform the following functions:
1. View component submissions
2. Approve component submissions
3. Reject component submissions
Processing: Informal review process by Reviewers for Phase 1, with a formal review process to be defined for future phases
Output:
1.Approval or rejection email sent to Submitter
2. Indexing of approved submissions on the ET.gov site
Purpose: To allow Reviewers to view site statistics
Input: Potential user parameters (date range etc)
Processing: Based on user parameter input
Output: The following statistics will be displayed:
1. The total number of submissions
2. Other statistics as required
Purpose: Upon submitting a component, Submitters will be given the option to fill in information regarding themselves and their organization in a form. Vendors will not be permitted to submit advertising- specific information directly into the form; rather, they will be directed to enter a product URL that points to such information on their web site.
Input: The form will include the following optional fields:
Business Information:
- Business Type
- Business Name
- Business Telephone
- Business Web Address
- Product URL
Office Information:
- Telephone
- Street
- City
- State
- Country
- Postal code
Personal Information:
- First name
- Middle initial
- Last name
- Street
- City
- State
- Country
- Postal code
Processing: Fields will be validated to ensure conformity/adherence to constraints
Output:
1. Submitters will be directed to fill out the submission web form next (See “Web Form-Based Submission (Manual Entry)” section)
2. Completion of the form will generate a valid XML instance document for posting on the Submitter’s Web site for access by Visitors who click on the appropriate hypertext link on the ET.gov site
An initial XML schema has been provided from an earlier effort. In Phase 1, this schema will be revised as necessary and will be kept in sync with the respective web forms.
In future phases, Submitters may be able to extend the XML schema for their own purposes and submit “custom” information.
ET.gov security shall be defined by the following:
1. For Submitters: The email confirmation process described earlier will be considered sufficient
2. For Reviewers: A common username and password will be required for Reviewers due to the nature of the system functions that they will perform, and the impact of those functions on the ET.gov process
3. Future phases may integrate with eAuthentication
A simple user guide will be produced in Phase 1. This documentation will also serve as online help.
Additional documentation may be produced in future phases, as well as more detailed online help.
ET.gov shall be 508 compliant at the end of Phase 1.
Plans are underway for conducting usability testing of ET.gov at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Usability Lab. Specifics timeframes are TBD.
The following are envisioned interfaces, and outside the scope of Phase 1. This information is provided here so that it is captured for use in future phases.
to CORE.gov through an electronic transfer of information
- There may also be integration with certain CORE.gov features (such as collaboration) to foster communities of practice
Third-party products may be integrated with ET.gov for functions such as indexing, collaboration, and browse/search. Possibilities include:
- Forms: Creation of “form services” using technologies such as X-Forms-based forms or InfoPath
- Browse/Search: Integration of browse/search capabilities through third-party products, such as faceted search products
- A general Disclaimer is necessary to convey that the ET.gov site is does not endorse any products whose information is submitted, and that that indexing of component information on the ET.gov site does does not imply any level of endorsement
- A Disclaimer/Term of Use is necessary to state that this system is open to any potential submitters of components and visitors, and therefore the information that is provided by those individuals is based only on the source of that information
During Phase 1, an informal oversight process will be utilized for the evolution of the ET.gov initiative.
In future phases, a formal advisory board may be created.