1. X-Road application guide
Anti Alman Quretec OÜ

2. Purpose Main question Intended audience
How to enable and enhance business processes using X-Road?
Intended audience
Process owner
Systems architect
(Public sector)
X-Road application guide fills the void of materials intended for process owners
It is difficult to explain X-Road to a non-technical person
Knowledge about X-Road values is not well known and the values were not well explained anywhere
Knowledge about becoming membership is rather low
Becoming a member
Responsibilities
Initially the intended audience was new members form the public sector
During the project we moved away from focusing only on the public sector
(Public sector needs the materials for new employees)
Existing materials were rather technical and hard to read
We assumed that the reader does not need to have an IT background
The application guide is intended to be more of a light reading material

3. Creating the application guide
Primary input
Existing X-Road materials
Marketing materials
X-Road regulation
Interviews
Discussions with RIA employees
Existing x-Road materials. Some that could be mentioned:
RIA blog „Introduction to X-Road“ – Probably one of the lightest reading materials
The application guide is somewhat harder to read
Usage guide for X-Road – Integrated into the application guide
Gives a good overview, but can be harder to read
MKM (Green book of public services etc.) – Mentions X-Road very superficially
Marketing materials – The application guide is in some sense a continuation of the marketing materials
Basic ideas in the marketing materials are specified in the application guide
Main connection is the section about values
X-Road regulation
Legal texts are rather hard to read
Regulation in force at leaves many questions unanswered
The new regulation improves things significantly
Draft of the new regulation is used for the application guide
Interviews covered on next slides
Discussions not covered in the presentation
(Main goal was to clarify the vision and overview of intermediate results)

4. Interviews Interviewees Purpose of interviews Mainly public sector
Mainly process owners
Purpose of interviews
Scope adjustments
Validation of the application guide structure
Discovering example solutions
Overview of X-Road issues
Interviewees mainly from public sector and mainly representatives of the business side
Comes form the initial scope
Knowledge about designing X-Road related processes is higher in the public sector
Interviews fulfilled multiple goals
Scope – Determining if the material is needed and what potential readers would expect to see
Structure – Intermediate results were shown do the interviewee for feedback purposes
Example solutions – We wished to find and include realistic examples
Issues – Asking about the issues of X-Road allowed us to better fit the application guide to readers needs
Some of the interviewees were
Andmevara
Töötukassa
Haigekassa
DataMe and cloud.ee

5. Interview notes X-Road members Quick and easy solutions are preferred
Own knowledge evaluated as high
Low knowledge about solutions of others
Quick and easy solutions are preferred
„Unfair“ criticism of reliability
Problems of other systems attributed to X-Road
We will briefly stop on some of the main points, before introducing the result
Some of the info could not be included into the application guide
It is important to note that the notes are the subjective impression of interviewer
The things that stood out the most
Own knowledge and solutions are evaluated as being high, but little knowledge about the solutions of others
Knowledge about different solutions does not seem to spread well
X-Road community is rather „distributed“
X-Road services are kept rather simple
There is a tendency to avoid more complex solutions
Most services are simple data queries
Problems beyond ones security server are attributed to X-Road
If there is an error then it is mostly seen as an error of X-Road
Members do not differentiate if the error was in security server to security server communication or at the information system on the other end
(There are even instances where a faulty message is sent to security server and the flaw attributed to X-Road)

6. Defining X-Road In the context of the application guide
Technical solution
Compatibility
Ecosystem
Rule set
Security requirements
Differing opinions on what exactly X-Road is
Mostly seen only as a technical solution
Compatibility and ecosystem are seen rarely as a part of X-road
The unified rule set and security requirements are often not seen as a part of X-road
We decided to view X-Road as a composition of
Technical solution – Relatively universal data exchange layer
Compatibility – Ability of different systems to exchange data and to relay on each other's business processes
Ecosystem – There is a large number of X-Road members which means that one can take advantage of some already existing solutions
Rule set – All X-Road members adhere to the same rules
Security requirements – concrete security requirements allow every member to be more confident in other members security measures

7. Values Distributed Flexible Secure Reliable Easy to use
Allows cost-savings
Compatible
This is the list of main values that we have identified and should be used to describe X-Road
Values are identified based on
X-Road knowledge materials
Opinions at RIA
Interviews
Values are described more in depth in the application guide
If a value is only a keyword then it is not as useful
Application guide tries to describe every value in more detail
Values will not be described during this presentation
Some examples:
Distributed – Data is not centralised. Data moves directly between parties and no third parties can see the data
Flexible – One member is not dependent on the technology used by other members
Reliable – There are no critical single point of failures

8. Usage options Four main options Describing the options
Simple membership
Security server as a service
Service mediation
Software as a service
Describing the options
General description
Responsibilities of parties
Example scenario
There are four main usage options
Simple membership – Company is a member of X-Road, has it’s own security server and information system
Security server as a service – Company is a member of X-Road, has it’s own information system but outsources the security server related tasks
Service mediation – Company is not a member of X-Road, but uses some X-road member’s capabilities
Software as a service – Company uses some one else’s information system, that is connected to X-Road
Spread of usage options
At the moment by far the most common is simple membership
Security server as a service is somewhat used
Service mediation is somewhat used, but at the moment unregulated
Software as a service is probably not used
For each usage option we describe
Where and how it can be used – Main focus is on the idea itself and important considerations
Responsibilities of parties – Each usage option consists of multiple parties (except simple membership) each of whom has different responsibilities
Example scenario – The aim is to give the reader an rough idea about the costs associated with each usage option

9. Example solutions Main purpose Describing the example solutions
How to use X-Road to enable business processes?
Describing the example solutions
Focus on process and idea of the solution
Data exchange simplified
Low on technical details
The main purpose is to answer the question „How to use X-Road to enable business processes?“
X-Road is often seen as only a data query tool
We wish to make the reader think about differed scenarios in which X-Road can be used
Focus is on the basic idea of the solution
We do not aim to provide ready-solutions for the developer
We aim to build a general sense of how X-Road works and how it can be used to gain extra value
In order to make the examples more readable:
Data exchange is presented in a simplified way
Most technical details are omitted (XML, SOAP, Security server etc.)

10. Summary X-Road is more than just a technical tool
Understanding X-Road values helps to advertise X-Road
Interfacing with X-Road is not as difficult as some seem to think
Introducing X-Road to process owners leads to better solutions
Instead of „Thank you for listening“ slide I decided to finish with some general thoughts
X-Road is more than a technical tool
It is important to give some content to the X-Road values in order to better advertise X-Road
Different companies estimate X-Road costs very differently
The direction if developing information systems is often decided on a higher level, thus it is important to talk to process owners