Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
The National Plan for
UAE Smart Government Goals
January 2015
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
December 2014 i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY DIRECTOR GENERAL…………………………………………………………………………..1
FOREWORD BY TRA BOARD…………………………………………………………………………………………..2
INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIONAL PLAN ………………………………………………………………..3
UAE VISION 2021 AND THE ICT 2021 SECTOR STRATEGY……………………………………………………..3
APPROACH………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW ………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
SMART GOVERNMENT MATURITY MODEL……………………………………………………………………………5
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………………………………………………………..8
Step 1 – Assess Current State…………………………………………………………………………………………….8
Step 2 – Refine Strategy…………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Step 3 – Create Roadmap …………………………………………………………………………………………………13
Step 4 – Develop Transformation Measurement …………………………………………………………………14
Step 5 – Design Project Management Office (PMO) and Operating Model …………………………..14
NATIONAL PLAN ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………16
VISION, MISSION, PILLARS, AND STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES…………………………………………………….16
SMART GOVERNMENT PRIORITY AREAS……………………………………………………………………………..17
December 2014 1
FOREWORD BY DIRECTOR GENERAL
In the name of God and under the leadership of His Highness Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the
UAE Smart Government continues to look forward to the future of information technology,
enabling our Government to achieve the National Vision 2021 goals of a united and prosperous
nation. Transitioning from a regionally recognized eGovernment to a world leading Smart
Government will be part of that vision.
We have worked with federal and local government agencies as key partners to define a Smart
Government roadmap that sets the plan for evolving our services and technology infrastructure
into an integrated environment that creates an intuitive user experience for our people.
The National Plan for UAE Smart Government Goals will direct our efforts over the coming years
to create a Smart Government personalized for constituents and guide our journey toward
making services smart for people’s happiness. Our strategic pillars of People, Government,
Knowledge, and Innovation will support this vision.
Thank you for your support; we look forward to the shared joint successes in our path toward a
Smart Government and prosperous nation.
Sincerely,
Director General, UAE Smart Government
.
December 2014 2
FOREWORD BY TRA BOARD
In the name of God and under the leadership of His Highness Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the
Higher Committee of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is pleased to support
the National Plan for UAE Smart Government Goals.
We feel it is a critical part of achieving our ultimate goals as a nation, and we look forward to the
successes from our shared work against this plan. Thank you.
Sincerely,
TRA Board Chairman
December 2014 3
INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIONAL PLAN
UAE VISION 2021 AND THE ICT 2021 SECTOR STRATEGY
UAE is witnessing a journey of transformation as a leader among nations. In May 2013 His
Highness (HH) Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime
Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, announced the start of an ambitious and one-of-a-kind effort—
UAE’s transition to Smart Government. This effort created a huge wave of positive change and
advancement across the nation. It prompted government entities to consider updating strategies
and plans and to put more effort toward modernizing their capabilities and services.
UAE Smart Government is a cornerstone to this nationwide effort. Ever since HH Sheikh
Mohammed announced the transition to Smart Government, a number of national initiatives were
launched to enable government entities transformation and support them on this exciting journey
of change. This has contributed greatly to the quick advancement and progress toward smarter
government services, people, and technologies.
Soon after the HH announcement of the Smart Government Initiative, a committee was formed
to oversee and drive the required transformation across the country. H.E. Mohammed Abdullah
Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs was appointed as the Chairman of the committee that
included members from Prime Minister’s Office, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Du,
Etisalat, and ICT Fund.
TRA was tasked by the higher committee to lead the development of the National Plan for UAE
Smart Government Goals. The goal is to continue enabling and supporting government
entities that are directing change while harnessing the benefits of technology to achieve
uniform and consistent transformation. No one will be left behind!
The National Plan for UAE Smart Government Goals was initiated in 2014 in alignment with the
national direction embodied in UAE Vision 2021, the UAE National Agenda, and the Information
and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector Strategy, as noted in Figure 1.
Figure 1: National Plan Alignment
The collective set of initiatives and supporting components of the plan enable entities to transform
services in a unified, harmonized manner. As depicted in Figure 2, the current landscape of UAE
Government identifies several opportunity areas:
Various transformation approaches and methods exist.
December 2014 4

Tomorrow’s UAE Government will transform into a smart
environment that is characterized by the following—

level, as depicted in Figure 3.

and plans to leverage what the Government has done and chart new domains and initiatives,
opening up the possibility for further innovation and advancement toward a Smart Government.
The National Plan is based on three tracks that cover strategy, roadmap, and Transformation
Measurement:
1. Smart Government Strategy: Evaluate the current situation, generate the Assessment
Report for the UAE Government and develop the Smart Government Strategy.
2. Smart Government Roadmap: Define the work mechanism for Smart Government along
with key initiatives to generate a supporting Operating Model and Action Roadmap.
3. Transformation Measurement Approach: Document the process to evaluate smart
transformation success.
These tracks support key roles of the UAE Smart Government and its mandate, which include—
 Provide training and awareness to various government staff.

The following sections detail the approach, baseline and benchmark findings, strategy
development, and appendix, with supporting details for the roadmap initiatives.

December 2014 5
APPROACH
METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW
An integrated five-step approach was applied to strategize, design, and build the National Plan,
as depicted in Figure 4.
Figure 4: National Plan Development Approach
The planning approach took into consideration guiding principles that were founded on making
UAE people happy. Those guiding principles were—

A project plan outlined five activity steps from April to September of 2014, as depicted in Figure
5.
Figure 5: National Plan Development Schedule
SMART GOVERNMENT MATURITY MODEL
Maturity models are objective, independent frameworks used to evaluate entities in like terms
across structured, consistent criteria, as depicted in Figure 6. This was crucial to use in view of the
entities’ varying maturity levels and the various aspects that are involved with baselining and
measuring their smart transformation. This tool will be invaluable as well for steering future
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Week

December 2014 6
transformations by leveraging consistent and proven Smart Government maturity criteria sets
and frameworks.
The Smart Government Maturity
Model is composed of three mutually
exclusive and exhaustive dimensions
with multiple subcomponents. This is
the lens that enabled us to maintain
clear vision and focus throughout the
various stages of the National Plan’s
development.

Organizational Capability
Organizational capabilities are based on people, processes, tools, and governance. It touches on
strategy, design, implementation, and operation capabilities the entity uses to plan and support
service delivery, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Organization Capability Core Elements
1. Service Delivery
Service delivery emphasizes the capacity to choose high-value services, deliver services using
the appropriate access channels, promote service adoption, and influence the service delivery
environment, as outlined in Figure 8.

Service
Delivery
Strategic
Organization Impact
al
Capability
December 2014 7
Figure 8: Service Delivery Core Elements
2. Strategic Impact
Strategic impact refers to measuarable impact against articulated goals for service delivery, as
outlined in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Strategic Impact Core Elements
Each maturity model dimension and respective subcomponent is evaluated against a Traditional
to Smart Government Level Chart, as illustrated in Figure 10.
Figure 10: Traditional to Smart Government Level Chart
December 2014 8
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
The National plan strategy was developed utilizing a five step approach that starts with assessing
the current situation of UAE Government and builds on it to establish the Smart Government
Operating model, Roadmap and Transformation Measures as depicted in Figure 11: National Plan
Development Approach .
Figure 11: National Plan Development Approach
Step 1 – Assess Current State
Stakeholder engagement and collaboration from federal and local entities contributed to the
National Plan. Several of these stakeholders are identified in Figure 12. From April to May 2014,
Smart Government stakeholders met during collaboration sessions to understand their Smart
Government agenda and current state. The project team utilized the Federal Priority Service List
that was provided by the Prime Minister Office to have better informed stakeholder meetings and
overall assessment. Discussions were guided as well by UAE’s Smart Government Maturity
Model, which shed light on all relevant aspects and details to be assessed for each interviewed
stakeholder.
Planning outcomes were—

The stakeholder analysis provided an understanding of the current state through research,
workshops, and stakeholder data, as shown in Figure 13.

December 2014 9
Figure 13: Stakeholder Analysis Approach
Concurrent with the baseline assessment, smart benchmarking provided insight into latest trends
and experiences that can be leveraged in UAE. Benchmarks were cross-cutting— the project team
looked for countries with recognized success and characteristics along with comparable statistics
for various economic indicators, population sizing and recent rankings. The smart benchmarking
focused on three key areas of research: smart government agendas, lessons learned and operating
models. The project team also scanned for innovative projects regardless of region.
Lessons learned and findings resulting from the smart benchmark effort further enriched the
National Plan and led the project team to be better informed with a wealth of candidate ideas and
experiences.
Figure 14: Benchmark Reference Countries
To ensure an accurate assessment for Whole of Government scoring, stakeholders were weighted
in terms of their level of impact, as illustrated in Figure 15.
December 2014 10
Figure 15: Stakeholder Profile
After finalizing the weighted scoring for individual stakeholders, the project team applied the
weights to form an aggregate Whole of Government UAE assessment, as illustrated in Figure 16:
UAE Whole of Government Scoring.
The Whole of Government scored in the upper Electronic Government level in Organizational
Capacity. Overall, stakeholders demonstrated maturity in Resources, Infrastructure and Tools.
Most entities had strategies in place but were working to align strategy refreshes with latest
thinking in mobile and smart government. In conclusion, this category revealed opportunities to
grow significantly in areas of policy, infrastructure, resources, and outreach.
December 2014 11
Figure 16: UAE Whole of Government Scoring
In the Service Delivery category, the UAE Government scored in the Mobile Government level,
based on prior progress toward mobility. While most entities had published and indexed service
catalogues, many were informational only. Legal and regulatory frameworks to govern services
along with integration of services still require further improvement.
Finally, the average score in the Strategic Impact category showed the UAE Government well in
the Electronic Government level. Many entities did not have clear links between their objectives and
initiatives (strategy) and impact to the environment. Clearly there is an opportunity to increase
the impact and value that government services provide to customers, quality of life, and
operational efficiency.
Priority areas were identified based on critical domains and aspects that the Smart Government
needs to consider throughout its journey of transformation to focus efforts and ensure success.
These priority areas are a rational structure for grouping and classifying all initiatives and projects
that need to take place for greater consistency and benefit realization while transitioning to the
next level of smart maturity. Figure 17: identifies these priority areas.
Figure 17: Priority Areas Identification
Through a number of underlying initiatives, the identified priority areas will address all of the
gaps and needs that UAE Smart Government came across based on discussions with stakeholders,
benchmarks against leading counties and smart governments, and other sources of input gathered
during the Current State Assessment Phase. Points such as information sharing, integrated onestop services, smart laws, and policies came up in almost every discussion, highlighting the
paramount significance and pivotal role in enabling the Smart Government transformation.
Details of overarching initiatives are provided under the Roadmap section of this document.
Step 2 – Refine Strategy
The National Plan was developed in alignment with the UAE National Guidance that is predicted
on UAE Vision 2021, UAE National Agenda and ICT 2021 Strategy. In addition to that,
interviewed Government entities smart government plans helped inform and direct the National
Plan for UAE Smart Government Goals.
The project team engaged key stakeholders to help refine and clarify the National Plan’s vision and
mission statements. The team also reviewed a number of vision statements from other countries—
Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong, and Bahrain—as part of the benchmark exercise.
December 2014 12
Figure 18: Vision, Mission, and Pillars Structure
Two drafts of the Smart Government vision and mission statements were developed based on
discussions with the Prime Minister’s Office and interviewed stakeholders. With the baseline set
and the National Plan vision and mission defined, the Priority Areas were finalized to organize
candidate initiatives, as depicted in Figure 18.
The project team followed a three-step process to identify, evaluate, and select initiatives. Step one
identified candidate initiatives by screening concepts and ideas from multiple sources that
include: Stakeholder Feedback, mGovernment Roadmap, Thought Leadership and Technology
Trends.
Figure 19: Initiatives Identification
Step two evaluated the candidate initiatives against six current feasibility and potential impact
criteria, as depicted in Figure 20.
December 2014 13
Figure 20: Initiatives Evaluation Model
Step three plotted the evaluated initiatives against UAE Smart Government risk tolerances to
select initiatives for the National Plan. A total of 22 Initiatives were prioritized for the Smart
Government Roadmap. Each prioritized initiative is described by a charter composed of three
sections (overview, activities, and timeline).
Figure 21: Initiatives Plotting Against Thresholds
Step 3 – Create Roadmap
Initiatives were sequenced based on three logical criteria—Existing, Dependencies, and
Capacity/Criticality— as well as a number of assumptions to ensure initiative charters were
sequenced into an achievable action plan and roadmap.
UAE Smart Government internal staff requirements were also forecasted to support the National
Plan as initiatives ramp up and transition from the design, build, and implement phases to
December 2014 14
operations. Budgetary capital and operational expenses forecast for the next 5 years was included
in the National Plan as well.
A number of initiatives might be led by other Federal Government entities, considering their
nature, scope, and alignment with the leading entity’s mandate and business model.
Step 4 – Develop Transformation Measurement
Ensuring alignment of initiatives to the National Plan is paramount to the overall success of the
Smart Government transformation. To support alignment, a smart performance management
framework was developed to guide the definition of key performance indicators (KPI) for UAE’s
Smart Government initiatives at strategic and operational levels, as shown in Figure 22.
Strategic KPIs are stated under the Transformation Measurement— Strategic Measures section of
this document. Operational KPIs will be developed as initiatives progress through the procure,
design, build, implement, and operate phases.
Figure 22: KPI Development Approach
Step 5 – Design Project Management Office (PMO) and Operating Model
The success of the National Plan will depend on a robust operating model that engages
government entities federally and locally as needed during the Smart Government Program.
This operating model is illustrated in Figure 23.
It will—
 Ensure alignment between the National
Plan’s (1) vision, mission, and goals, and (2) subsequent specific priorities, initiatives, and
projects across the Whole of Government
 Ensure senior leadership is kept apprised of major program risks and developments
 Integrate Smart Government initiatives across UAE into a single, coordinated, and wellmanaged program
 Ensure effective and efficient use of UAE’s resources and talent
 Ensure stakeholders are informed of the launch and status of priorities and initiatives
 Provide accountability for delivery.

December 2014 15
For each role in the operating model, detailed alignment, composition, role, input, meeting
frequency, output, and status were highlighted.
To pressure test the operating model construct, a detailed hypothetical information flow for
service modernization was put in place.
In addition, a high-level enterprise architecture (EA) to model Smart Government capabilities and
interactions was designed based on one shared view. The proposed high-level EA has both nearand long-term applications to Smart Government. It will be used internally in UAE Smart
Government as a first step, with the intention of rolling it out and using it as the standard channel
to discuss and model any of the Smart Government capabilities that enable and support
government services.
December 2014 16
NATIONAL PLAN
VISION, MISSION, PILLARS, AND STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
The National Plan for UAE Smart Government Goals has a clear vision, mission, and strategic
objectives to guide and align the supporting planned investments organized in the 5-year
roadmap (that builds on what was launched in 2013 following UAE’s announcement to transition
to Smart Government and introduces a number of new initiatives reaching to 2018). Ultimately,
the Smart Government program seeks to make government services personalized for people and
increase their happiness. The mission, vision, and pillars are illustrated in Figure 24.
Figure 24: Smart Government Vision, Mission, and Pillars
The vision statement demonstrates that the Smart Government will make an effort to come to
everyone with a personal touch. The target is a Smart Government that is—

To achieve its vision and mission, the National Plan defines clear strategic objectives for each of
its four pillars, as depicted in Figure 25.
December 2014 17
Figure 25: UAE Smart Government Objectives
SMART GOVERNMENT PRIORITY AREAS
The National Plan vision, mission, and strategic objectives are realized through seven identified
Priority Areas that span the entire Smart Government program requirements:

Govern
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Peopl
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Knowle
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Innovati
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