Identification of Design Principles for Platform Engineering in the Public Sector

Taking into account the success of platforms’ adoption in the private sector, more and more countries are getting interested in implementing this model in the public sector. Introduced in 2011, the concept of Government as a Platform (GaaP) implies an open platform aiming to increase public value through collaboration of citizens and government (O'Reilly, 2011). This platform model enables the government to provide efficient and user-friendly public services for lower costs. 

However, platform engineering in the public sector is challenging (Kuhn et al., 2022). For example, there are no guidelines for it. Nevertheless, over the last few years, some countries have managed to successfully implement the GaaP concept. 

The thesis aims to identify design decisions of successful GaaP countries and use them as a basis for the development of design principles for other countries. 

Research Questions:

1. What are the dimensions of design decisions in applying GaaP in practice?

2. What are design decisions of Countries that successfully apply GaaP?

3. Which design principles can be derived from these decisions?

To answer these questions, we intend to analyze interviews with experts from countries which successfully implemented GaaP (Italy, Estonia, UK). We aim to develop a coding concept and apply it to the interviews in order to create a structured list of design decisions. Finally, we will refine the list of design decisions and transform them into general design principles which should be applied for platform engineering in the public sector.

References

O’Reilly, Tim (2011). Government as a Platform.

Kuhn, Peter & Buchinger, Matthias & Balta, Dian & Matthes, Florian (2022). Barriers of applying Government as a Platform in Practice: Evidence from Germany.