D4.2: Set of requirements for interoperability of Identity Management Systems

FIDIS THIS DELIVERABLE

This deliverable

The objective of this report is to canvass expert opinion on interoperability using the concepts and findings that emerged from the first deliverable 4.1 of this Work Package and in effect to validate that literature review by sounding out the responses of experts in the field.  Given the trajectory of work in this Work Package, with best practice guidelines and a survey planned, it was important to be able to validate the ideas that emerged from the earlier work to see whether they were robust enough to support the later investigations. This deliverable is important because it allows us to develop the requirements for interoperability that will be essential for the proper functioning of so many of the e-systems that are being planned and launched.  Without proper regard to interoperability, many administrative and service delivery systems will remain isolated and fragmented, while cross-border systems will remain just a dream.

As befits the FIDIS network of excellence, this deliverable has been realised thanks to a community of researchers working together from different perspectives on common objectives. The value of this deliverable results from the quality of the interviews and analysis, with contribution from 11 different researchers in 4 different institutions.  The number of interviews carried out amounted to 23 from 5 countries and the level expertise and domain knowledge of the respondents was clearly high. The interview reports have significant independent value - they have been edited to include context and analysis. The summaries in 3 core chapters are only meant as guidelines and the interviews represent in themselves a valuable testament to the state of informed thinking on this subject currently.

Appropriately this exercise has taught some lessons, or rather reinforced existing ones. Project management remains a very important skill when running collaborative exercises of this kind as is a clear commitment to a sound methodology and good communication. We are indeed very grateful to the respondents featured here for their generosity in making time and space for our work to proceed and complete.  It was no mean task for 11 researchers in 5 countries to organise interviews and get feedback on the reports during the summer period.

Overall, we can point as key learning from this exercise that requirements contain technical, formal and informal elements.  There was considerable agreement that, of this trinity, the most important barrier to interoperability remains the informal and cultural one.  Clearly there are specific issues attached to the particular type of system, so that egovernment and ehealth have different features that emerge as key for the experts, but in general there is a considerable degree of uniformity of landscape for all three chosen application areas.