Will Government Forms Ever be Consistent? Detecting Violations in Form Structures by Utilizing Graph Theory

Höhenberger S, Scholta H


Abstract
Forms play an important role in government service delivery since they are the central interface between the government and its citizens. However, due to the multiplicity of forms, their management in governments is complex. To assist governments in the initial form development and regular maintenance of forms, the contribution of this paper is a semi-automatic approach that identifies potential structural inconsistencies or other violations in a set of forms. The approach is based on graph theory to represent forms in a machine-readable format and to analyze them semi-automatically. While the phase "Form Transformation" deals with the abstraction of forms by means of model structures, the "Pattern Specification" comprises the creation of an issue to search for in a machine-readable format. Eventually, in the course of the "Form Checking", the actual pattern search within the form is executed. We introduce the approach conceptually and demonstrate it in a real-world case by means of its implementation within a software tool and three exemplary issues in form structures. Based on this practical applicability, the approach aims at providing governments with support for reducing inconsistencies or flaws in forms to improve governments' processes, save time and reduce effort and expenses.



Publication type
Research article in proceedings (conference)

Peer reviewed
Yes

Publication status
Published

Year
2017

Conference
25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017)

Venue
Guimarães

Start page
737

End page
752

Language
English

Full text