(1) Vision / Strategy (2) People (skill / training) (3) Process (Bus

management,
== metrics & measurements (4) Technology
Project (Initiation -- >> planning -- >> execution -- >> monitoring
==
Information Governance -- >> is the way organization process &
&
==corporate information e.g financial & accounting record inform
Envisioning Future Solution Design & Improvements
Considerations include Cloud & technology improvements
· High availability & failover design
· Elasticity of cloud resources wrt quotas & limits
· Performance & latency

1) Designing & planning a cloud solution architecture

2) Managing & provisioning a solution infrastructure
3) Designing for security & compliance
4) Analyzing & optimizing technical & business processes
5) Managing implementation – (a) App Devp (b) API best practice
/integrations)
6) Ensuring solution & operations reliability
(a) Monitoring / logging /profiling / alerting solution (b) deploym
assisting with the support of deployed solution (d) evaluating qu
==
Business case
1. Discovery
2. Production of an request for information (RFI)
3. HLD
4. Production of a feasibility report
5. Finalise requirements
6. Production of a tender document
7. Implementation
8. Transition / RACI / BAU documentation
9. Service Handover (support architecture)
 Phases
1. Discovery – business /technical requirement – server, db, apps, web, storage, backup
2. HLD
3. Production of feasibility report
4. Finalize requirements
5. Production of a tender document
6. Implementation
7. Project transition to BAU
8. Documentation (RACI)
9. Service Handover

TOGAF 10 EA

What are the TOGAF Series Guides?

Besides the fundamental content, the TOGAF series guides offer topic-focused, modular best practices
10 contains 23 TOGAF series guides in The Open Group Library. These are:
1. Value Streams
2. Using the TOGAF Standard in the Digital Enterprise
3. TOGAF Digital Business Reference Model (DBRM)
4. The TOGAF Technical Reference Model (TRM)
5. The TOGAF Integrated Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM): An Architected Appro
6. Organization Mapping
7. Microservices Architecture (MSA)
8. Information Mapping
9. Government Reference Model (GRM)
10. Enabling Enterprise Agility
11. Digital Technology Adoption: A Guide to Readiness Assessment and Roadmap Development
12. Business Scenarios
13. Business Models
14. Business Capabilities (Version 1 & 2)
15. Architecture Skills Framework
16. Architecture Maturity Models
17. Applying the TOGAF ADM using Agile Sprints
18. A Practitioners´ Approach to Developing Enterprise Architecture Following the TOGAF ADM
19. Business Architecture
20. Using the TOGAF Framework to Define and Govern Service-Oriented Architectures
21. The TOGAF Leader´s Guide to Establishing and Evolving an EA Capability
22. Information Architecture: Customer Master Data Management (C-MDM)
23. Architecture Project Management

Enterprise Architecture Frameworks are Necessary to Drive a Successful Digital T

EA is targeted throughout different practices and departments and by different players, such as tool providers, la
communities.
Enterprise Architecture – which aims at providing standards and comparability.

Business Architecture concepts that help Business and IT to ali

Capabilities, Business Processes)
DDaT –
current DDaT Services – email services, internet services, IP telephone services, Window /
(web servers etc), remote access services., network services, mobile solution, desktop app
recovery
Capability review

Conceptual framework
· Strategy
· Enabling
· Architectures – data / application

Technical review / design documentation

· Architectural summary
· Overall description
· Primary data flows

Component high level design

· Addressing non-functional requirements
· Availability & resilience
· Disaster recovery
· Backup & restore
· Usability
· Performance mgt
· Security
· Support

Testing & acceptance strategy

IP telephone services, Window /AD services, file & print services, application hosting
es, mobile solution, desktop application services (SCCM, WSUS) etc, Data backup &
Leadership Behaviour (Success Profiles)

What does the term ‘Leadership’ behaviou

mean?
We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Leadership’ is looking at your ability to be a good role model to others, to show others how thing
should be done and assist them in getting there. Fundamentally you will be assessed on your ability to ‘teach’ othe
correct way of going about things. But also you will be assessed on how you can motivate your team and how you
in them the other core behaviours / values that are important to the organisation.

https://careerbuildingjobs.com/leadership-behaviour-success-profiles/

Seeing the Big Picture – Being aware of how you

actions impact the wider project or organisation

What is Seeing the Big Picture

We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ is looking at your ability to understand how your piece of work, or area o
impacts the wider project or organisation as a whole. There are two key parts to this behaviour. Firstly are you abl
showcase that you “see” what is going on in other areas of the organisation? How do you keep yourself abreast of
developments (this is a good opportunity to drop in your stakeholder management & communication skills)?

Then secondly knowing what you know about the “big picture” how do you ensure your actions align with the
overarching big picture goals?
In the context of applying for jobs at the civil service, “seeing the big picture” refers to an individual’s ability to
understand the broader context, goals, and objectives of the organization, and how their specific role fits into that
framework. This skill is particularly important for civil servants because their work often involves complex,
interconnected policies and initiatives that aim to serve the public interest.

When civil service recruiters look for candidates who can “see the big picture,” they are seeking individuals who:

1. Understand the mission, values, and priorities of the civil service and how their work contributes to these overarching go

2. Can anticipate future trends, opportunities, and challenges that may affect the organization and its objectives.

3. Recognize the connections between their role, the work of their colleagues, and the broader organizational strategy.

4. Can make informed decisions by taking into account the wider implications of their actions, both within and outside the c
service.

5. Are able to adapt to changing circumstances, policies, and priorities while keeping the organization’s goals in mind.
==

Making Effective Decisions

What does ‘Making Effective Decisions’

mean?
We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.
Fundamentally ‘Making Effective Decisions’ is looking at your ability to take all of the available data, weigh up t
options and come up with the best outcome possible. Firstly it is examining your ability to pull together all of the
– are you capable of sourcing multiple options. Then it is looking at your ability to evaluate options – why choose
A over option B?

The final thing you will be assessed on is do you have the courage of your convictions? You have weighed up all
options and you have chosen which one is correct – or is most optimal for your organisation. Can you now go to y
bosses and sell your decision? (HINT – your assessors will be looking for a YES!)

==

Communicating and Influencing –

What is Communicating and Influencing
We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Communicating and Influencing’ is looking at how well you come across when delivering inform
to other people and how likely those people are to take what you say to heart. You will be assessed in two main w
Firstly, how well do you convey information? Are you concise and easy to understand? Or do you tend to ramble
detract from the original point? This behaviour isn’t just about your speech it is about all communication; emails,
memos, position papers, etc.

Secondly, are you able to tailor your message to your audience and have them accept what you are telling them?
==

Changing and Improving – Tips for competency

based job applications and interviews

What is Changing and Improving

We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Changing and Improving’ is looking at your ability to look at current processes or methodologies
find new ways to improve on them, either by making them more efficient or by providing greater value. There are
key areas that your interviewers will be assessing you on. First is your ability to notice where things can be impro
where the current process can be changed for the better. There is a big drive on at the moment to turn all paper bas
processes into digital processes and to turn all manual processes into fully or partially automated process – so try
hammer home your abilities here.

The second thing you will be assessed on is your drive. Your ambition. How motivated are you to change things? Are you t

==
Working Together –

What is ‘Working Together’

We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Working Together’ is looking at how well you can come together will other people in order to pro
quality deliverables. There are 2 key aspects that you will be assessed on when it comes to this. The first is obviou
well do you play with others? Are you a team player who can bring out the best in others. Is a team that you are pa
‘greater than the sum of its parts’?
The second aspect you will be assessed on is your ability to realise when enlisting others is beneficial to your wor
how well you can find the correct people to assist in your task.
==

Developing Self and Others

What is Developing Self and Others

We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Developing Self and Others’ is looking at whether you are content with the status quo or if you ar
always looking for ways to improve, both yourself via on the job learning and your team and wider organisation. T
is a lot of overlap between this behaviour and with ‘Changing and Improving’ but the key difference is that ‘Deve
Self and Others’ focuses more on the human side of improvement. What have you done to make yourself and you
better – rather than to make some process better.

Focus on gaps in skills, gaps in knowledge, lack of diversity of thought and action within the organisation. Talk ab
how you encourage a nurturing environment where everyone learns from each other.
==

Managing a Quality Service – How to Showcase

your Service Management Abilities During a Jo
Application
What is Managing a Quality Service
We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.
Fundamentally ‘Managing a Quality Service’ is looking at your ability to provide the best service possible g
stakeholders (customers, clients, other departments etc.) needs and satisfying these needs as best as possible
value for money in your endeavours and how you instill this and other ideals into the teams/departments w

Managing a quality service in the context of applying for jobs at the Civil Service refers to the ability to ens
high standard and meet the needs of the public.

As a Civil Service employee, you would be responsible for managing a quality service by identifying and an
delivery, implementing quality control processes, and monitoring performance to ensure that service stand

This may involve working collaboratively with colleagues, stakeholders, and other agencies to develop and
provision, as well as communicating effectively with customers to understand their needs and provide timel

Overall, managing a quality service is a critical aspect of Civil Service work, as it ensures that the public re
operates in an effective and efficient manner.

==

Delivering at Pace –

What is Delivering at Pace

We can’t show off our abilities if we don’t understand what it is we are being assessed on.

Fundamentally ‘Delivering at Pace’ is looking at your ability to produce what is required w

tight deadlines and all that other fun stuff that the workplace throws at you. What is being a
colleagues/team/operation/etc., focused on the goal. Can you manage expectations, remove b

Basically, when someone talks about “delivering at pace,” they’re talking about being able to get things don
project due in a week. If you’re able to work quickly and stay focused, you’ll be able to finish the project on
pace.”

People who are good at delivering at pace are usually really organized and good at managing their time. Th
And if something unexpected comes up, they’re able to adapt and make changes to their plan without losing
So if you’re someone who’s good at delivering at pace, you’re probably someone who’s able to work well un

Behaviours
The Civil Service Behaviours are one element of the Success Profile. These are the things that people do

clearly demonstrate the behaviour and the details that underpin it

will allow you to explain in some detail what you personally did
had positive results, although less successful examples can be used if you can demonstrate the
lessons learned and how errors would be avoided in future

Using the STAR model (Situation, Task, Action, Result) may help you present your evidence.

five key elements:

· Behaviour – what actions do you take to achieve effective performance
· Strengths – what you perform well in and what motivates us to succeed
· Ability – your potential to meet or surpass the required standards
· Experience – how you have gained knowledge or mastery of a particular subject

· Technical – your specialist skills and qualifications in line with the role

The 9 Behaviours
With this success profile, the Civil Service have nine behaviours that make up this se
of their success profile, including:

1. Seeing the bigger picture

2. Changing and improving
3. Making effective decisions
4. Leadership
5. Communicating and influencing
6. Working together
7. Developing self and others
8. Managing a quality service
9. Delivering at pace

Competency Interview Question Examples

The interview assessment method is likely to be made up of competency-based interv
questions. The main points discussed within this type of interview are:

How you approach tasks and challenges

How you will use your past experiences to relate to the job role
How you will use the skills you have learned and apply them to the job role
The elements contained within the person specification and how you can demonstrat
these

Below are some examples for you to consider in your preparation.

Please can you tell us about a time when you worked in

partnership with another team?
Seeing the Bigger Picture – This is an important behaviour as it helps to show your
understanding of how your role fits within the organisation and its overall objectives.
provides you with an opportunity to talk about your own recognition of the Civil Servi
priorities and the wider national interest.
To answer this question, you could talk about a time when you shadowed another tea
understand how they work and the challenges they face, or, perhaps how you recogn
that additional skills/knowledge were needed to achieve a goal.

Can you tell us about a situation when you had to deal with
change?
Changing and Improving – Questions similar to the one above show that you are able
seek out opportunities to create change, make improvements, and provide feedback.
also allows you to suggest some new, innovative ideas for how you could improve.

Plan an answer drawing off your experiences; such as a move to a new way of workin
a new location, and how you dealt with that. Perhaps you reviewed and implemented
process or system within your team.

Can you tell us about a time when you had to choose betwe
a number of different options and how you approached it?
Making Effective Decisions – Questions of this nature help you demonstrate how you
both support and make expert decisions. Make sure you consider alternative options
discuss the implications and risks of the different options.

To answer this question, think about a time when there was more than one way forward – a problem you

Can you tell us about a time when you showed leadership

skills and what you learned from the experience?

Leadership – This is important as it provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate t

shows you value difference, diversity and inclusion. Share your drive for delivering th

Here you might talk about a time when you took on additional responsibilities to adva
of a project. If you have had the responsibility of managing someone else, you could
taken on outside of work, such as coaching a sports team.

Please tell me about a time when you communicated effecti

Communicating and Influencing – This style of question allows you to show how effectively you can com

Here you could talk about a presentation you have given or a time when you had to de
a difficult message to someone. Another idea could be a time when you have explaine
something to someone to increase their understanding.

Please tell us about a time when you worked together with

Working Together – This question lets you show your ability to form effective partner
externally, and from a range of backgrounds.

Here you could talk about a time when you noticed a colleague was struggling with th
you needed information from a colleague to get something completed and how you m

Can you tell us about a time when you helped a colleague

develop their knowledge?

Developing Self and Others – Demonstrating this behaviour is important as it demons

yourself and your colleagues, and even to the wider organisation.

Here, you might talk about how you shared what you learned from a training event wi
particular piece of software and you took on the role of training new team members.

Please can you tell me about a time when you dealt with a d

Managing a Quality Service – These questions help you to talk about your ability to d
considering diverse customer needs.

Here you could talk about a time when you resolved a customer complaint successfully, or how you man

Please can you tell us about a time when you have had to re
approached it?
Delivering at Pace – Here make sure you showcase your ownership in taking respons
to show an example that demonstrates your focus and drive.

Here you can weave in how you manage your workload generally as part of your answ
based on risk and impact. An example could be that an urgent request has come in fr
needs fixing. It would also be good to include how you manage the expectations of st
Structuring your Answer
When preparing for your interview and thinking of examples for your answers, the STAR method is a rea

The STAR Method

S – Situation
First, talk about the situation itself. Describe the context in which you were working o

T – Task
Then, provide more information about the specific task, and what needed to be comp
asked to do, or what did you decide to do?

A – Action
Now is the time to talk about what your responsibility was in completing the tasks. Fo
contributed, rather than what your team or colleagues did.

R – Result
In this section, talk about what the outcome was, and what you achieved. Some peop
Here, you could talk about what you felt went well, and if there would be anything you

Read more advice about how to prepare for competency-based interview questions

==
Explanation and Breakdown
This section will act as a litmus test for your statements, are they actually answering the questio

Leadership
This would be a situation where you are demonstrating 'leadership'. You are creating a positive
and sharing it with everyone. You also make an effort to include other people in that vision.
Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared visio
Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all.

Breakdown
· Ensure colleagues and stakeholders have a clear understanding of objectives, activities and
frames.
· Take into account different individual needs, views and ideas, championing inclusion and equ
of opportunity for all.
· Consider the impacts of own and team's activities on stakeholders and end users.
· Role-model commitment and satisfaction with role.
· Recognise and praise the achievements of others to drive positivity within the team.
· Effectively manage conflict, misconduct and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior
managers where appropriate.

Delivering at Pace
This is where you are delivering something in a timely manner to a high enough standard.

Breakdown
· Show a positive approach to keeping the whole team's efforts focused on the top priorities.

· Promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on
whilst still enabling innovation.
· Ensure the most appropriate resources are available for colleagues to use to do their job
effectively.
· Regularly monitor your own and team's work against milestones ensuring individual needs ar
considered when setting tasks.
· Act promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands to ma
performance.
· Allow individuals the space and authority to meet objectives, providing additional support wh
necessary, whilst keeping overall responsibility.

Making Effective Decisions

This is where you are making a decision, gathering information and considering options, implica
and risks.

You can find grade level descriptors in the Success Profiles framework.

Departments are not mandated to use these behaviours as part of their recruitment campaign, s
check the full assessment methods set out in the advert. Assessment methods based on streng
experience, technical and ability aspects may also be included.
Breakdown
· Understand own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where approp

· Analyse and use a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources
support decisions.
· Invite challenge and where appropriate involve others in decision making.
· Display confidence when making difficult decisions, even if they prove to be unpopular.
· Consult with others to ensure the potential impacts on end users having been considered.

· Present strong recommendations in a timely manner outlining the consideration of other opti
costs, benefits and risks.

Communicating and influencing

This is where you are communicating something and taking into account your audience.

Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs,
responses and opinions of others.

Breakdown
· Communicate in a straightforward, honest and encouraging manner, choosing appropriate st
to maximise understanding and impact.
· Encourage the use of different communication methods, including digital resources and high
the benefits, including ensuring cost effectiveness.
· Ensure communication has a clear purpose and takes into account people's individual needs

· Share information as appropriate and check understanding.

· Show positivity and enthusiasm towards work, encouraging others to do the same.
· Ensure that important messages are communicated with colleagues and stakeholders respec
taking into consideration the diversity of interests.

Working Together
Where you are forming partnerships and relationships, both internally and externally to your tea
organisation, sharing information and support.

Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a
of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support.

Breakdown
· Encourage joined up team work within own team and across other groups.
· Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders.
· Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support.
· Invest time to develop a common focus and genuine team spirit where colleagues feel valued
respect one another.
· Put in place support for the wellbeing of individuals within the team, including consideration
your own needs.
· Make it clear o all team members that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unaccepta

· Actively seek and consider input of people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Seeing the bigger picture

Where you demonstrate an understanding of how your role fits within your office, wider group o
offices and organisation as a whole. With that understanding, do something that supports not ju
you, but some or all of those other elements within the organisation.
Breakdown
· Understand the strategic drivers for your area of work.
· Align activities to contribute to wider organisational priorities.
· Remain alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact your area of work.
· Seek out and share experiences to develop knowledge of the team's business area.
· Understand how the strategies and activities of the team create value and meet the diverse ne
of all stakeholders.

Managing a quality service

This is where you do your work, but you make sure you do it to a high standard. This can be
measured in terms of professional excellence, expertise, efficiency or taking into account divers
customer needs.

Breakdown
· Develop, implement, maintain and review systems and services to ensure delivery of profess
excellence. Work with stakeholders to set priorities, objectives and timescales.
· Successfully deliver high quality outcomes that meet the customers` needs and gives value f
money.
· Identify risks and resolve issues efficiently.
· Involve a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders and delivery partners in developing
suggestions for improvements.
· Establish ways to find and respond to feedback from customers about the services provided.

Changing and improving

This is where you find ways to improve something and make suggestions. This could either be i
terms of ways of working, getting feedback from others and giving your own feedback.

Breakdown
· Work with others to identify areas for improvement and simplify processes to use fewer reso

· Use technology where possible to increase efficiency.

· Encourage ideas for change from a wide range of sources.
· Clearly explain the reasons for change to colleagues and how ti implement them, supporting
individuals with different needs to adapt to change.
· Encourage an environment where colleagues know that they can challenge decisions and iss
safely.
· Take managed risks by fully considering the varied impacts changes could have on the diver
range of end users.

Developing self and others

This is where you are demonstrating a commitment to your own development and that of others

Breakdown
· Identify capability gaps for self and team.
· Ensure development objectives are set and achieved to address any gaps and enable deliver
current and future work.
· Take time to coach, mentor and develop other colleagues to support succession planning.

· Promote inclusiveness by respecting different personal needs in the team and use these to
develop others.
· Reflect on own work, continuously seek and act on feedback to improve own and team's
performance.

Basic structure of a behaviour

Remember that the point of a behaviour statement is to show that we can do one of the aspects
new role. In terms of structure, that has two focus points, actually demonstrating that we can do
behaviour, and demonstrating the right behaviour. This means we need to talk about the right th
hopefully the preceding explanations will help you to make sure that what you are actually talkin
about is the right behaviour.

Effectively demonstrating behaviours

We are going to use STAR to demonstrate that we can behave properly in the new role. This is a
and tested method of easily explaining. Remember that you have to make it as easy as possible
sifter to give you marks.

· Situation
· Task
· Actions
· Result

Situation describes where you find yourself, it should set out the scale of your behaviour. This should be
sentence.
Task focuses what you are going to talk about to a specific behaviour. You should be able to see
any of your actions are obviously linked to your task. This should be one sentence.

Actions are where you show that you have met the evaluation criteria. You demonstrate what yo
why you did it and how you did it, perhaps even how you know something was effective. It is not
good enough to assert that you did something, demonstrate forethought and evaluation too. Thi
should be the vast majority of your statement.

Result is where you get to hit home with the scale of your behaviour. You don't need to include a
number, especially for the sake of it, however improvement percentages and the like can be use
This can be one or two sentences.

How To Prepare For Strength-Based Interview Questions

It is more difficult to ‘fake’ an answer to a Strength-Based Question (over a competency), because it is ch

Whilst you should not attempt to take on a role which you really won’t enjoy, it is likely that in every
there will be good and not so good elements. Therefore to give every interview your very best shot y
must prepare for all questions, so follow this procedure:
Identify the strengths which are associated with the competencies listed in the job description (Refe
the Strengths Directory to see which of the 36 listed strengths are relevant to the competencies)

Consider how you feel about each strength on the list – ask yourself, is it something which comes
naturally to you or that you tend to avoid?
Starting with your natural strengths consider why you enjoy doing this activity and set out a few exa
from your career which demonstrate the strength.
Consider the skills and strengths which you are either not so familiar with or that you do not enjoy d
Set out examples of when you have demonstrated or experienced this strength and how you can ma
positive experience – it could be fine to state that it is not something you do regularly but with pract
could become more rewarding.
Book Free Consultation For Interview Success
The 36 Strengths Listed Within the Civil Service Strengths Directory
DOWNLOAD INTERVIEW PREPARATION GUIDE

There are 36 Strengths within the Strengths Directory – Here are some examples: Each strength is c
defined in the directory.
· Adaptable
· Organiser
· Team Player
· Negotiator
· Relationship Builder
· Decisive
· Problem Solver
· Resilient
· Service Focussed
· Motivator
· Visionary
· Strategic
· Analytical
· Efficient
· Team Leader

Opening Question – Assesses Your Natural Energy And Body-language

In an interview, a strength is assessed not just by what you say but how you say it. If an activity is a
natural strength of yours then it’s more likely to energise you and you’ll sound and look more anima
However, we all have different levels of energy and present ourselves differently. Consequently, the
will want to be able to gauge how you respond to something you naturally like doing and something
do not enjoy because this allows them to ‘calibrate’ their gauge. In simple terms, how excited and
motivated are you visibly by things you enjoy and things you don’t. They will use this as a guide for
you answer upcoming questions

‘Calibration’ questions could be:

What motivates you at work?
What do least enjoy doing at work?
General Strength Based Questions
These will reflect the requirements of the role and the required Competencies (which you have alrea
identify produced a list), for example:
Would others describe you as analytical? If so why?
What helps you to bounce back when you are under pressure?
Do you enjoy negotiating?
What does a successful day look like?
What is always last on your ‘to do’ list?

Answers need to short supported by a brief example. Finally you must focus on your communication
and body-language. The panel will be judging (and probably scoring) your answer based on positive
language, engaging and enthusiastic tone and delivery, moving toward the table and not away from

Steps To A Successful Interview

· Take time beforehand to think about your natural strengths set out short examples.
· Dissect the job description and/or person specification to identify the range of strengths required
using the Strengths Directory.
· Think about possible questions and how you will react.
· Practice your answers out loud with energy, enthusiasm and conviction.
le given the resources at your disposal. This involves understanding your
ible. For more senior roles this will also include looking at how you return
s within your purview.

ensure that the services provided by the Civil Service are of a consistently

analyzing customer needs, developing strategies to improve service

ndards are met.

nd implement policies and procedures that promote quality service

mely and effective responses.

receives the highest quality services possible, and that the government

when confronted by obstacles, delays, competing priorities,

ng asked is are you able to keep yourself, and your
e blockers and deliver on time and to the expected quality?

done quickly and efficiently. Think of it like this: imagine you have a big
t on time without feeling overwhelmed. That’s what it means to “deliver at

They’re able to set clear goals and come up with a plan to achieve them.
sing focus on the end result.
l under pressure and get things done quickly without sacrificing quality.
te the pride and passion you have for public service, and
g the Civil Service’s shared vision.

dvance your knowledge or took on a leadership role as part

ld talk about that experience, or it might be a role you have

ctively with others.

h a colleague to achieve a goal.

nerships and relationships with people both internally and

h their workload and you offered to help them, or perhaps

u managed that situation.

onstrates your commitment to the continuous learning of

with your colleagues, or perhaps you are a whiz on a

s.

a difficult client/customer situation?

o deliver service objectives to a high standard whilst

re-prioritise your workload, and how you

onsibility for delivering timely and high-quality results. Try

nswer. You might talk about how you look at your priorities
n from a customer, or that an error has been identified which
stakeholders as part of your answer.
really useful tool for ensuring the answers are well-rounded and concise.

g or the challenge you were facing.

mpleted to resolve or address the situation. What were you

Focus on the part you played specifically and how you

ople also add an additional “R” at the end for Reflection.

you would change next time.
Digital, Data and Technology profession, you will provide technical direction for the
development and delivery of government services. This includes responsibility for
setting the vision and direction of the Scottish Government’s technology strategy, in
line with the organisation’s platform-based transformation strategy and wider ambitions
to operate on a digital business model; coherent to business architecture, technology
and capabilities.
As well as leading a group of software engineering professionals, you will promote
greater alignment of principles, tools and skills to enable a technical community
focussed on reuse and collaboration within the Scottish Government and the wider
public sector.
As a technology leader, you will be experienced in building technical functions across
organisational boundaries; ensuring that your teams have the skills and capabilities
they need to meet future needs.

building technical functions across organisational boundaries; ensuring that your

teams have the skills and capabilities they need to meet future needs.

Specialist Expertise
Candidates must be able to demonstrate their experience in the following:
Building an effective software engineering function, locally across a large enterprise,
based on common approaches and a shared development platform.
Developing a professional technical function that has the skills and capabilities to meet
the future needs of a large organisation.
Identifying which technologies and operating models will deliver organisational
outcomes and implementing them.
Working with stakeholders and as part of a leadership team to enable the effective and
sustainable digital transformation of an organisation.
Recruiting and retaining software engineering teams at scale.
Leadership Criteria
Understanding, managing and developing self
You will demonstrate a strong understanding of yourself as a leader as well as a
passion for your work and your own continuous professional development. This
includes acting as a role model for inclusive leadership by clearly articulating, with
courage and humility, how your personal life experiences and background impact on
your thinking and behaviour.
Developing others
Embedding an inclusive, learning culture in your teams, trusting and empowering
others and enabling high performance and innovation.
Leading others
Setting clear strategic direction and making high quality decisions which balance risk
and stakeholder interests to deliver outcomes.
Leading collectively
Taking an effective whole system approach to complex, dynamic issues; actively
developing wide networks internally and externally, breaking down and collaborating
across barriers to deliver outcomes.
Leadership Interview Questions
These are some of the questions that I have personally seen asked during a competency based intervie
do you think you can answer them?
Tell me about a time when you had to convince others to put in ‘the hard work’?
Have you ever needed to reprimand a team member for poor performance?
How do you help members of your team make effective decisions by themselves?
See more…
It doesn’t really matter what the scenario is or what the objective is. The tips you need to follow are:
– Highlight the blockers – there will be parts of the scenario designed to slow you down
– Understand the success factors – you will not be able to deliver a 100% perfect solution so ensure
what the important factors are and ensure you deliver them
– Do not hog all of the work and do not sabotage your teammates – this happens all of the time in
evaluation sessions. Applicants think if they take on all of the hard work or make their other applicants l
they are more likely to get the role. But in fact the opposite is true. The assessors in these places have
before. They are looking for team players. People who can provide value to the organisation efficiently
issue. If you show yourself to be incapable of working with others you will not progress.

– Remember to showcase your results – you’ve put in all the work so make sure you show and highl
assessors how your efforts paid off.
Leadership – FAQ
Should my statement/answer change based on the job role?
Yes, different job roles will come with different responsibilities. If you are going for a Team or Project M
how you led your team in completing their objectives. If you are going for an even senior level role (op
talk about how you instil the behaviour of Leadership into your department as a whole. I recommend
information.

Do my answers have to be relevant to the job itself?

Strictly speaking, no. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to talk about your experience in the
something unrelated to the industry. If you are coming from a very solo position it might be difficult to c
(in work), but maybe you have outside experience that might be relev

Obviously if you have a direct example that mirrors the job description that would be great but don’t swe
don’t just find something that covers the behaviour itself.
Where can I learn more about Leadership?
Make sure to read the Civil Service document on behaviours. And don’t be afraid to ask your assessors

Where Can I Learn More About The Civil Service Behaviours?

We have gone into detail about the Civil Service Behaviours in this post here. If you would like to learn

Seeing the Big Picture – Assessing the candidates ability to understand how their actions impact other

Making Effective Decisions – Assessing the candidates ability to source and then weigh up different op

Communicating and Influencing – Assessing the candidates ability to get their views across and get pe
Changing and Improving – Assessing the candidates ability to identify areas of improvement and asses
more…
Working Together – Assessing the candidates ability to work well with others. Learn more…

Developing Self and Others – Assessing the candidates drive for self-improvement via learning new sk

Managing a Quality Service – Assessing the candidates drive to produce high quality work and meet st

Delivering at Pace – Assessing the candidates ability to produce quality deliverables on time and within

Leadership – Assessing the candidates ability to lead a team and to motivate others. Learn more…

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
B-STAR Interview Technique - The Best Answer Approach For Application Success
Business Analyst Job Interview Question & Example Answers
Changing and Improving - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
Civil Service Interviews - Common Questions and How To ACE Them
Civil Service Success Profiles Strengths - A Complete Guide To Success
Communicating and Influencing - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
Delivering at Pace - What Does it Mean to Deliver at Pace AND How to Showcase Your Abilities During

Developing Self and Others - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
How to Become a Business Analyst
How to Get a Business Analyst Job With No Experience or Qualifications
How to Write a Business Analyst CV / Resume (With Examples)
Job Description Buzzwords - What Exactly Do Hiring Managers Mean By Some Of The Terms They Us
Leadership Behaviour (Success Profiles) - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
Let Us Help You Land Your Dream Job
Making Effective Decisions - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
Managing a Quality Service - How to Showcase your Service Management Abilities During a Job Applic
Privacy Policy
Reasons to Become a Business Analyst
Seeing the Big Picture - Being aware of how your actions impact the wider project or organisation
Should You Write A Cover Letter When Applying For Jobs?
Submission Successful
Understanding Civil Service Behaviours - Complete Guide to Application Success
Working Together - Tips for competency based job applications and interviews
 er level role then you should tailor your answer to say
ns manager or a director level role) then you need to
ding the behaviours document linked here for more

so don’t worry if your ‘Leadership’ example is about

up with a time when you’ve had to lead other people
Go with that instead.

t it is they are looking for. Worst case scenario they say they can’t give feedback, best case you find out exactly w

about any individual behaviour check out the posts below:.

e/teams and the wider organisation. Learn more…

and recommend the best solution. Learn more…

on board with their way of thinking. Learn more…

heir motivation to implement these changes. Learn

d the impact this drive has on others. Learn more…

olders needs. Learn more…

get under limiting circumstances. Learn more…

📊 Data Strategy: Crafting a robust data strategy is essential for achieving your
organisation's goals. Discover best practices for formulating and executing an
effective data strategy.

🛠️Artificial Intelligence & ML: Dive into the world of advanced analytics,
including machine learning and AI, and explore how these technologies can
drive innovation and growth.

🔐 Data Security: With data breaches on the rise, it's crucial to stay ahead of
security threats. Learn from experts about the latest data security measures and
best practices.

💡 Data Governance: Effective data governance is the foundation of successful

analytics. Gain insights into how to establish and maintain a solid data
governance framework.
collaborative, ambitious, resourceful, and empowering
Are you a passionate and experienced data leader who can drive the organisation’s data strategy and gov
and implement data policies and procedures, supervise data collection and management, and lead a high
have an exciting opportunity for you to join our organisation as the Data Infrastructure.

Primary Job Function

be responsible for developing and implementing the organisation’s data strategy and
organisational strategy. You will create and implement the organisational data polici
data systems within the organisation. You will supervise the collection, management
the organisation. You will lead, build and develop a high performing data engineering
enable data driven decision making for the whole of the organisation and deliver dat
implement the organisation’s data quality framework and improvement programme. Y
comply with data protection regulations.

Principle Accountabilities
As the Head of Data Infrastructure, you will:

Define and implement the organisation’s data strategy ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
Communicate the status, value, and importance of the organisation’s data assets to executive stakeholder
Support the evolution of a data-driven culture and data literacy across the organisation.
Lead on compliance and data governance of data across the organisation.
Lead the development of the organisation’s data capabilities to improve organisational data productivity, im
and enable the organisation to scale innovative data systems and tooling.

Lead on the development and maintenance of the organisation’s data platform, data storage, business inte
driven services.
Implement data privacy policies, complying with data protection regulations and facilitating subject access

Create a data management system and appropriate data architectures that facilitate the secure collection

Define the strategic roadmap for data and analytics by collaborating with organisational functions to identif
deliver these.
Build and maintain strong relationships at senior and executive levels across the organisation and supplier
data.
Provide clear and authoritative leadership and mentoring to a multidisciplinary and diverse data team acro
insights.
Provide thought leadership on, and stay up to date with data technologies and analytical tools and techniq
and innovations.
Keep up with data protection regulations, ensuring the organisation maintains processes to comply with th

Prevent data breaches by ensuring that everyone who can access information is authorised to do so.
Ensure the organisation is using data ethically across all functions.
Provide a responsive and accessible data visualisation and reporting process to communicate the data fin
organisation in the most appropriate format.
Collaborate with senior leader colleagues to create overarching organisational policies and controls for the
Work with external stakeholders (such as London Boroughs) to derive further value from the data for Lond
Set standards to improve our ability to extract and use data. Help teams follow these standards during pro

Introduce modern data management, processing and reporting tools and practices, including cloud service
and adopt new tools and techniques so they can support business decision-making.

Working for our organisation

Working for the newly created data product team can offer you many benefits, such as:
· You will be part of a cross-functional and collaborative team that includes data analysts, data engineers
opportunity to learn from and share your expertise with other data professionals and stakeholders across t
· You will work on innovative and impactful data products that aim to solve real-world problems and impr
the entire data product lifecycle, from ideation to delivery, and have the autonomy and ownership to shape

· You will use the latest data technologies and platforms, such as Azure, Power BI, Python, R, etc., to ac
formats. You will also have the chance to explore and experiment with new data tools and techniques, suc
computer vision, etc., to create novel and valuable data solutions.

· You will develop your data skills and competencies, as well as your soft skills, such as communication,
have access to training, mentoring, and coaching opportunities to support your professional and personal

One of the key criteria for selecting candidates for this position is the Person Specification, which outlines
experience required for the role..
Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Develop and implement the organisation's data strategy and governance framework aligned to the overall

Create and implement the organisational data policies and procedures, to improve and streamline data sys
Supervise the collection, management, storage, analysis and protection of data across the organisation.
Lead, build and develop a high performing data engineering and analytics capability for the organisation to
organisation and deliver data-driven user services.
Create and implement the organisation's data quality framework and improvement programme.
Implement data privacy policies and comply with data protection regulations.
Principle Accountabilities

Define and implement the organisation's data strategy ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
Communicate the status, value, and importance of the organisation's data assets to executive stakeholder

Support the evolution of a data-driven culture and data literacy across the organisation.
Lead on compliance and data governance of data across the organisation.
Lead the development of the organisation's data capabilities to improve organisational data productivity, im
and enable the organisation to scale innovative data systems and tooling.

Lead on the development and maintenance of the organisation's data platform, data storage, business inte
driven services.
Implement data privacy policies, complying with data protection regulations and facilitating subject access
Create a data management system and appropriate data architectures that facilitate the secure collection
Define the strategic roadmap for data and analytics by collaborating with organisational functions to identif
deliver these.
Build and maintain strong relationships at senior and executive levels across the organisation and supplier
data.
Provide clear and authoritative leadership and mentoring to a multidisciplinary and diverse data team acro
insights.
Provide thought leadership on, and stay up to date with data technologies and analytical tools and techniq
and innovations.
Keep up with data protection regulations, ensuring the organisation maintains processes to comply with th
Prevent data breaches by ensuring that everyone who can access information is authorised to do so.
Ensure the organisation is using data ethically across all functions.
Provide a responsive and accessible data visualisation and reporting process to communicate the data fin
organisation in the most appropriate format.
Collaborate with senior leader colleagues to create overarching organisational policies and controls for the
To work with external stakeholders (such as London Boroughs) to derive further value from the data for Lo
To set standards to improve our ability to extract and use data. Help teams follow these standards during p
To introduce modern data management, processing and reporting tools and practices, including cloud serv
about and adopt new tools and techniques so they can support business decision-making.

Compliance

Ensure legal, regulatory and policy compliance under data protection legislations, including UK GDPR, He
opportunities and risks and escalating where appropriate.
Ensure service and technology solutions are coherent with the agreed Enterprise Architecture design princ
Ensure the technical protection and security of data and technology assets.
Business Continuity

To support the implementation of the council’s strategy and policy for technical disaster recovery. Provide
business continuity requirements.
Supervision and Management

Directly line manage the highly skilled and specialised technical staff comprising of the Data Infrastructure
To support and encourage a member of staff to be creative, flexible and committed to providing solutions t
a clear, friendly and prompt manner.
To be responsible for the recruitment, development and training of staff and for managing their performanc
of the Appraisal and Development System.

Meetings

To participate in meetings with colleagues, customers and suppliers including team meetings and service

To represent Islington Council in external forums.

Documentation and Knowledge Sharing

Create and maintain technical documentation, including system configurations, standard operating proced
Share knowledge and best practices with team members, providing training and mentoring to enhance ove

Other

To undertake other duties commensurate to the grade of the post.

Additional

The service operates from Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm, and you will be required to work as directed
essential maintenance work at other times out of hours.

To use and assist others in the use of information technology systems to perform duties in the most efficie

To achieve agreed service outcomes and outputs, and personal appraisal targets, as agreed by the line m

To undertake training and constructively take part in meetings, supervision, seminars, and other events de
effective development of the post and post holder.
The post holder is expected to be committed to the Council’s core values of public service, quality, equality
the way they carry out their duties.
Ensure all the services within the area(s) of responsibility are provided in accordance with the Council's co

Ensure that duties are undertaken with due regard and compliance with the Data Protection Act and other

Carry out duties and responsibilities in accordance with the Council’s Health and Safety Policy and relevan

At all times carrying out responsibilities/duties within the framework of the Council's Dignity for all Policy. (E

Budget responsibilities

Data Platform and associated services.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
Proven experience in similar role
Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of developing and executing data strategies that drive value in the organ
Experience in strategic data planning and policy development and maintenance Con
metrics.
Experience of leadership and stakeholder engagement in a data driven culture.
Experience in integrating complex, cross-organisational processes and data service
Proven track record in data management, data leadership, and data governance.
Experience in operationalising enterprise-wide data governance and data quality fram
Experience in persuading organisations to embrace data-driven ways of working.
Experence of industry-standard data management systems, applications, storage so

Understanding of data generation, curation, and analysis.

Skills
Essential criteria

Ability to create a compelling vision for data and secure support and commitment fro

Ability to design and execute organisational data strategies.

Ability to drive operational, cultural, and technological transformations in a complex

Ability to establish policies, processes, and procedures for data governance, usage,

Knowledge of data tooling selection and delivery of data discovery and data analytic

Ability to lead and develop a high-performing and diverse multidisciplinary team, fos
continuous improvement, and positive outcomes.

Ability to develop and implement a data and analytics governance framework across

Ability to prioritise demand.

Excellent communication skills to effectively engage with internal and external stake
data-related matters.
Excellent influencing skills to engage senior executive stakeholders and suppliers in
decision-making using data.
Ability to ensure safe and secure data usage within the context of a public service or

Awareness of trends in data and analytics technologies and methodologies and their

Familiarity with data management skills frameworks.

Understanding the business case for data quality improvement.
Understanding of the end-to-end data lifecycle and regulatory environment.
Understanding of data processing, reporting, visualisation, and analytics technologi
Understanding different approaches to capturing and storing organisational data.

Cloud Technical Architect

== Data Core Programme
Essential criteria

Significant experience on architecting and delivering large scale cloud solutions (inc
an organisation that uses a structured design methodology

Management experience working in a large, complex organisation providing hands-o

Experience of formulating IT strategy and roadmaps

Experience of financial and budgetary management of 7 figure budgets, forecasts an

Excellent people management skills and able to undertake all HR-related activities an
high-quality service
Experience of report writing and business planning at both operational and strategic
strategies and policies
Experience of contract management
Desirable criteria
Experience in cloud security
Understanding of considerations of GDPR, PID when designing solutions
Work within a Research organisation
Work within a Healthcare organisation
Extensive experience of leading a technology reliant organisation through the proce
Experience supporting business case creation
Demonstrable experience of being part of complex ICT change
Strong vendor management and negotiation skills
Knowledge

Essential criteria

Strong enterprise architecture framework knowledge

Technical understanding of key languages (Java, Python, C#), cloud networking, dat

Aptitude to design technical/security solutions that will fit into long-term business ob

Awareness and understanding of emerging technologies and potential implications

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essential+, Data Security and Protection Tool

Qualifications

Skills

Essential criteria

High level of interpersonal and organisational skills – self starter

Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues
Excellent business analysis skills: able to produce metrics, analyse and interpret inf
status, trend analysis and service improvement

Able to take ownership of cloud infrastructure related design decisions throughout t

to support data architecture activities
Effective team player
Able to prioritise and work under pressure to meet deadlines and SLAs
Flexible approach
Able to explain complex technical issues in a way that non-technical IT people may u

Desirable criteria

Strong vendor management and negotiation skills.

Communication

Essential criteria

Able to make and communicate decisions on difficult and contentious issues where
action. Responding openly to questions to ensure full understanding and engageme

Effective interpersonal and influencing skills and the ability to interpret and commun
technical knowledge
Evidence of the ability to enthuse, motivate and involve individuals and teams to del

Desirable criteria

Excellent written and verbal communication skills suitable for a range of audiences,
Customer service orientation with strong commercial and business acumen
Specific requirements

Essential criteria

Commitment to continuous professional development and a willingness to learn new

overnance? Do you have the skills and knowledge to create
gh performing data engineering and analytics team? If so, we

nd governance framework aligned to the overall

cies and procedures, to improve and streamline
nt, storage, analysis and protection of data across
ng and analytics capability for the organisation to
ata-driven user services. You will create and
e. You will implement data privacy policies and

ders, other functions and the wider workforce.

improve data availability and quality, automate data processes

ntelligence and associated tools to provide high-quality data-

ss requests.

n and processing of data.

ntify current and future capabilities and how to develop and

iers to inform data strategy planning and maximise the value of

ross data architecture, engineering, data science, analytics and

niques while identifying the significance of new external trends

 indings effectively to various stakeholders across the

he appropriate protection of information assets.

ndoners.
rocurement and throughout a product’s lifecycle.

ces. Help the wider data and reporting community learn about

ers, data scientists and data developers. You will have the
s the Council.
prove the lives of residents and users. You will be involved in
pe the vision, strategy, and roadmap of your data products.

access, analyse, and visualise data from various sources and

uch as machine learning, natural language processing,

n, presentation, teamwork, problem-solving, etc. You will also

al growth.

es the essential and desirable skills, qualifications, and

all organisational strategy.

systems within the organisation.

to enable data driven decision making for the whole of the

ers, other functions and the wider workforce.

 improve data availability and quality, automate data processes

ntelligence and associated tools to provide high-quality data-

ss requests.
n and processing of data.
ntify current and future capabilities and how to develop and

iers to inform data strategy planning and maximise the value of

ross data architecture, engineering, data science, analytics and

niques while identifying the significance of new external trends

indings effectively to various stakeholders across the

he appropriate protection of information assets.

Londoners.
g procurement and throughout a product’s lifecycle.
ervices. Help the wider data and reporting community learn

Health and Safety and in area of your specialism identifying

inciples and policies.

de technical advice to the council on disaster recovery and

re team.
s to the needs of the business and to relate to their customers in
ance to meet organisational objectives including implementation

e review meetings.

edures, and troubleshooting guides.

overall technical capabilities.

ed within these hours; and you may be required to carry out

ient and effective manner.

manager.

designed to improve communication and assist with the

lity, and empowerment and to demonstrate this commitment in

commitment to high quality service provision to users.

er legislation.

vant Health and Safety legislation.

. (Equal Opportunities Policy).

anisations they serve.
onsiderable experience in designing strategic data

ameworks.

solutions, and tools.

from stakeholders.

ex data-centric environment.

e, and management.

ic solutions.

ostering collaboration, inclusivity, empowerment,

ss the organisation.
keholders, partners, and regulatory agencies on

in supporting data strategies and effective

organisation, addressing complex problems.

eir impact on data services.

ncluding public, private & hybrid platforms), within

-on technical leadership

and programmes

and requirements and manage a team to provide a

ic level and able to plan services and develop

cess of change, maturity and innovation uplift

ata storage and security

objectives and strategy

olkit, ISO/IEC 17799:2005 & ISO/IEC 27001:2005

nformation and produce regular reports on current

t the delivery process, including selection of tools

y understand

e there may only be a number of courses of

ment

unicate complex information to staff with varying

eliver best performance

s, including chairing of meetings.

ew skills and technologies

Enterprise architecture domains
The TOGAF four interrelated areas of architecture domains:
· Business architecture which defines the business strategy, governance, organization, and key busin
COBIT -- >> Control objectives for information & related technologies – is a f
for IT. It focuses on business & defines a set of generic management of IT

· Data architecture which describes the structure of an organization's logical and physical data
resources
· Applications architecture which provides a blueprint for the individual systems to be deploye
systems, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization with the fram
functions for integration
· Technical architecture, or technology architecture, which describes the hardware, software, a
deployment of core, mission-critical applications

Enterprise Architecture – Business Capability Assessment

1 Summary
2. Objectives
3. Approach
4. Scope
5. Assessment of Findings
5.1 Summary
5.2 Detailed Findings from the assessment

Strategy & architecture (vision) (2) produce HLD /LLD (3) Logica
deployments components (architectural layers) (4) architectural
architectural drivers (6) architectural transitional processes & fr
DevOps / work items), confluence
(7) architectural change processes
==
Produce HLD /LLD & Technical Design options in response to bu
risks, costs, implications & opportunities
2) Design logical, conceptual, integration & physical component
that will enable the delivery of the required business outcome &
3) Leading Technical Designs throughout the architecture delive
(Programme)
4) Produce architectural designs & make use of capability mode
provide clear communication of a potential complex solution
-
Defining & delivering a robust, scalable, performance, secure, re
integration components into the architecture across the Digital D
web Apps (DNS, HTTPS, SSL, Load-balancing, edge delivery (CD

TDA

Results of the TDA

Background - Problem Statement, high level scope, business driver
Architectural Overview - Solution Scope / Out of Scope /High Level Tech
Architectural Considerations & Solution Options – pros & cons, architec
appropriate tools & technologies, enterprise architecture alignment, NFR
total cost of ownership, legacy integration, meets user needs, informati
clear, auto-scale by design, data quality, open source, open standards, c
integrate & adapt technology, privacy, define purchasing strategy, infras

Architecture Guidelines & Component Specification

Deployment Solution
Network Recommendation
Test Planning & Execution
Recommended Azure Security Capabilities
Recommendation and Rationale – (Consequences, if not approved, tech
Architecture artefacts' – application, integration, deployment, security, s
architecture
NFR Alignment (accessibility, performance, capacity, applications & test
security, support model, operational & service continuity
· NCSC Alignment (implementing the cloud security principles https://www
data transiting networks should be adequately protected against tampering & eavesdropping. 2:
assets storing or processing it) should be adequately protected against physical tampering, loss
customers, 4: Governance framework, 5: Operational security, 6: Personnel security, 7: Secure d
user management, 10: Identity and authentication, 11: External interface protection, 12: Secure s
alerting for customers, 14: Secure use of the service -- >> https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/clo
the-cloud-security-principles
National Cyber Security Centre - NCSC.GOV.UK
Cost analysis and justification
Technical Resource List (Implementation effort estimation)
Test Server Specification
Reference Architecture
Reviewers
Action items
==
Architecture Principles*
· Appropriate tools and technologies, Enterprise Architecture Alignment.; All Options considere
Meets user needs.; Information assets are owned.; Environment strategy is clear.; Auto-scale by
things accessible and inclusive.; Be open and use open source.; Make use of open standards.; U
integral.; Share, reuse and collaborate. ; Integrate and adapt technology.; Make better use of dat

· Defined purchasing strategy.; Meets the GDS Service Standard.; Infrastructure as Code.; IT Health Chec

==
Architecture artifacts'
Application architecture, Integration architecture, Deployment architecture, Security architecture
architecture
==
Requirements, architecture design, DPIA, Commercial, system configura
(specification of data, mapping & transformation, data mapping & migra
decommissioning, user adoption, testing, transition, Go Live, closure

=
Networking -- >> VNET, load balance, app gateway, VPN gateway, Azure
protection, traffic manager, Azure express route, azure firewall, azure ba
firewall, azure bastion, azure firewall manager, IP Addresses

Solution Deliverable Checklist Summary

Deliverable summary

Requirements :

Architecture & design

DPIA

Commercial

System Configuration & Deployment

Data Migration

Data Decommissioning

User Adoption

Testing

Transition
Transition

Go Live

Closure

SVP Hybrid Domain:

Business, Data, application, integration, Datawarehouse (data la

A) Business improvement / Cost savings INCLUDING – Data centre strate

· Network upgrade
· Application upgrade (mandatory / regulatory) – apps rationalisation / conso
app portfolio ensuring that app services are set up to deliver business outcom
costs & risks. Ensuring high availability of critical business app services & pla
identifying impact to DDaS services.
· Cyber security & designing
· Delivery of any new business technology requirements
· Providing inputs to technology, strategy & innovation
· Apps services delivery capability: resources, processes & tools
· Apps services – apps support & release mgt, app software devp, testing / q
· Service provision best practices (ITIL, TOGAF, COBIT)

B) Architecture & overall design

C) Technologies & platforms
D) Digital risk & cyber protection
E) Operational delivery & capability
F) Platform – Business, Data, application, integration, Datawarehouse (dat
G) Architectures – social, mobile, advanced analytics, cloud technologies &
H) Architectural patterns sa SOA, n-tier architecture & application modellin
I) Relational dbase design
J) DevOps practices such as Agile & scrum
K) Designing, developing, deploying & supporting application integration s
L) Developing & translating strategic plans into deliverable, measurable ou

EA
To deal with such different expectations, it is only natural that Enterprise Architecture needs a broad sp
different services. In the following, I provide a brief overview of strategic, operational, and supportive to
working enterprise architecture organization.

1. Strategic EA Capabilities (Business-IT alignment, EA strategic planning, EA prin

management, Integration architecture management, EA roadmap management, Bu
Organizational data and information strategy)

Enterprise Architecture needs to be closely aligned to the business and various strategie
requirements or breaking down the strategies into plans, principles, and standards that I
capabilities helps Enterprise Architecture to find its position in an enterprise and to estab
alignments. The following eight capabilities are part of this category:

Business-IT alignment
Business-IT alignment covers the demand management process and the collaboration in
strategy, and the impact of business strategies on IT strategies.

EA strategic planning
EA strategic planning is the capability of the Enterprise Architecture department to identify, develop, an
organization. This does also include the development of new Enterprise Architecture capabilities and st

EA principles management
EA principles represent a core input for operational and domain architects during their daily work. The i
communication, and the governance of them is a key Enterprise Architecture capability.

EA layers management
EA layers of an organization are determined by the framework applied. EA layers must fit the business
will have a strong impact on the architecture roles, committees, and processes and it must be ensured
IT landscape.

Integration architecture management

In today´s world, integration architecture becomes increasingly important. Integration layers and APIs n
regarding integration interfaces and boundaries.
EA roadmap management
Enterprise Architecture needs to be constantly developed further and strategic planning needs to be im
management capability.

Business capabilities management

Business capabilities became very popular in the recent past and are used for a wide variety of use cas
planning, and demand and software management. Developing and managing the right business capab
capability.

Organizational data and information strategy

The amount of data and information within organizations is increasing exponentially. At the same time,
increased importance of the management of data and information strategies, including use cases, busin

2. Operative EA Capabilities (Governance, operating model, apps mgt, tech mgt, d

assets mgt)
Operative EA capabilities cover the actual doing of Enterprise Architecture activities. This includes, but
operationalization, and governance of EA in and across every business domain of the organization, suc
and data. Furthermore, effective operative EA capabilities deliver an operating model and develop inde
within different departments, entities, or countries. The following seven capabilities are part of this categ

EA governance
EA governance is closely tied to the capabilities “EA strategic planning” and “EA roadmap managemen
includes the operational execution of governance activities such as the enterprise architects who mana
organization and ensure that they are carried out as planned. Operational EA governance covers all the
governance processes.

EA operating model
EA processes and workflows are managed via the EA operating model capability. This capability also e
which determines the level of agility of the operations.

Software assets management (incl. licenses)

Software assets and licenses of vendors and suppliers need to be managed and continuously optimize
pricing. This is covered in the Software assets management capability.

Applications management
Applications and application landscapes need to be assessed, managed and harmonized. This especia
as application roadmaps.

Technology management
Technologies need to support the application requirements, technology decisions impact platforms and
avoided. Also, cloud environments need to be managed and new technologies should be adapted.

Data management
The operationalization of the data strategy includes the data and master data management, roles and r
stewardship, as well as the assessment and analysis of data architecture, compliance, quality, integrity

Microservices Management
Microservices are increasingly used. Decisions must be taken on whether the architecture type is adeq
or SOA / monolithic architecture), development teams must be managed and developed. Although this
the list, I like to mention it because of its increase in importance and the threat that it is forgotten becau

3. Supporting EA Capabilities (EA communication &involvement, Knowledge shari

tooling, Risk & compliance management
This category enables EA to involve the right people across departments and hierarchy levels and to pr
stakeholders of the benefits of EA. Furthermore, they help to lever the architectural findings and outcom
(e.g., EA Wiki). Lastly, they secure that the enterprise architecture function can be successful by enabli
following four capabilities are part of this category:

EA communication and involvement

EA needs to constantly communicate its existence, role, and benefits and it must also be open for critiq
become the famous ivory tower that has nothing to do with the operational architecture.

Knowledge sharing, training, and content leverage

Although there are enterprise architects in an organization, EA cannot work if only those know about EA
and share the content with other architects and also with the business to ensure that the organization a

EA tooling
EA has a lot to do with repositories, assessing, and providing architecture information. As the amount o
and suited EA tool is inevitable.

Risk and compliance management

There are regularly new regulations that EA needs to take care of, such as data privacy, SOX, an
banking sector. In addition, risks need to be managed and mitigated. Contributing to risk and co
EA capability.
Enterprise architecture only works, if the right balance across those capabilities is ensured. In one of m
categories.
Enterprise Architecture Tags: EA Capabilities, Enterprise Architecture, Operative EA Capabilities, Strat

==
Architecture Capability Framework
This part of TOGAF describes what an organization needs to establish, operate, and govern an enterprise archit
describe what an organization does, an architecture capability describes what an enterprise architecture does.
Similar to the concept of a business capability, an architecture capability describes components, such as organ
skills needed to successfully run an Enterprise Architecture Department.

The core of such a capability would be for instance a certified enterprise architect (people/ skill component), a de
knowledge about the architecture components of the company (data/ information component), and an establi
(organizational component)

Enterprise Architecture is to align, coordinate, and govern. Its main purpose is to ensure that Bu
EA brings together two aspects: Business architecture and IT architecture.

Business architecture describes different business elements of an organization, such as business processes, bu

Different views and frameworks describe different business elements of the real organization. For insta
business processes, the organizational structure, and available resources.

BA helps to describe a business strategy, governance, organization, or key business processes.

Characteristics of BA are identified:
1. They describe a structure and relationship of an enterprise focusing on one dimension
2. They use a set of standard specifications, languages, and methods
3. They are understandable from people outside the organization, as they build on generic models, fram
applied over a wide range of industries or fields

It is common practice to start your business architecture with a generic model and then adapt it to your unique or

choice between a detailed and unique view and a high-level and more generic view as enterprise continuum. Pro

APQC's Process Classification Framework® (PCF) is a taxonomy of business processes that allows organization

==
IT Architecture – The Flesh and Bones of the EA Management
If business architecture is the head of your Enterprise Architecture Management, IT architecture is the s
applications, data, and technologies and simplifies it and its relations. Typical IT architecture layers incl

1. Application architecture, which provides a blueprint that contains the independent applications to be
core business processes of the organization.

2. Data architecture, which describes the logic of the organization, the structure of physical data assets

3. Technical architecture, which describes technologies, application components, software, and hardwa
architecture also includes IT infrastructure, such as middleware, networks, and servers.
IT Architecture Diagrams
Those can include business architecture elements (processes, capabilities), but usually focus on applic
and other IT architecture elements. In addition, they often include the interfaces between applications, t
and limitations of the dependencies or IT systems.

Typical IT architecture diagrams include:

1. Context Diagram. The context diagram focuses on the boundaries of the described IT architecture,

2. Building Block Diagram. This diagram type shows the services, application modules, libraries, mic
landscape.
3. Runtime / Business Process View. This diagram type focuses on illustrating sequences and work
understanding of the business process view.
4. Infrastructure Diagram. Infrastructure diagrams show the detailed components, including hardware
This includes servers, networks, VMs, gateways etc.

IT Architecture diagrams are created with standard notations using standard modelling languages. Mos
As they differ in their complexity, but also ability to precisely describe an architecture, each has its adva

Capabilities described on the business architecture layer need underlying IT architecture elements to work and IT
business clusters by identifying their relationship to how an organization operates and makes money.

Business Architecture concepts that help Business and IT to align (Value Streams
Processes)

Business capability mapping is used as the translator between business and IT.
1. Provide IT landscape transparency on all underlying enterprise architecture layers (typically applicati

2. Prioritize projects based on the importance of their underlying business capabilities

3. Optimize demand management processes based on business capabilities
4. Optimize application landscapes based on business capabilities
5. Use business capabilities to align different IT landscapes in the context of an IT post-merger approac
12X Must-Dos to Get Business Capabilities Right

12 Must-Dos to Get Business Capabilities Right - The Digital Blog and Podcast (digitalroadmap.management)
ess processes of the organization
amework management & IT governance created

assets and the associated data management

d, the interactions between the application

meworks for services to be exposed as business

nd network infrastructure needed to support the

/ physical, conceptual,
standards – principles (5)
amework (TOGAF, ArchiMate),

usiness requirements (including

s of infrastructure architectures
services
ry lifecycle / Projects
 s, impact assessments to

silient, high availability,

Domain – considering whether
DN) to persistence layers.

nical Approach & Phases

ture principles (specifying
R Alignment, all options considered,
on assets, environment strategy is
loud architecture, secure by design,
tructure-as-code), IT Health checked

nical resources)
upport, network & infrastructure

ing, technical hosting & maintenance,

 .ncsc.gov.uk) - 1: Data in transit protection, (user
Asset protection and resilience, (user data & the
, damage) or seizure; 3: Separation between
evelopment, 8: Supply chain security, 9: Secure
ervice administration, 13: Audit information and
ud/the-cloud-security-principles/responses-to-

d.; Total cost of ownership.; Legacy integration.;

Design.; Data quality.; Semantic integrity.; Make
se cloud first.; Secure by design. ; Make privacy
a.

, Support architecture, Infrastructure/Tech

tion & deployment, data migration

ion activities), data cleansing), data

DNS, content delivery network, DDOS

stion, azure private link, azure
Description (Key sub deliverables)
· Process Mapping
· Use Cases
· Report Design/Specifications
· Define User Groups / Hierarchy
· Project kick off & Planning workshop

· Technical workshop
· System design
· Solution review
· TDA (Technical Design Authority)
Approval
· DPIA stage 1 – per country
· DPIA stage 2 – per country
· Agree Data Retention Policy Management

· Output actions from DPIA TBD

· Review contract
· Approve contract
· System Configuration workshops
· System configuration
· Deploy Databases
· User Access Management Configuration

· Mobile Configuration
· Mobile Deployment – Endpoint
Manager/Intune
· SSL Certificate
· Whitelisting IP Ranges
· Single Sign on
· Multi Factor Authentication
· Specification of Data Mapping & Data
Transformation
· Data Mapping & Migration activities

· Data Cleansing
· Decommissioning
· Storage of historical
·
· Training – Train the Trainer
· Communications Plan
· Change Plan
· Test planning
· Test cases/scripts
· User Acceptance Testing
· Remediation testing
· Responsibility matrix
· Issue Management Process
 · Upgrade management
· New User Process
· Super user engagement
· Configuration copied to LIVE
· System Go Live
· Business Go Live
· Cutover Plan
· Lessons Learned workshop
· Closure document
· Handover to BAU

ke) & infrastructure

dation – mission critical app services,

es balanced across utilities, warranty,
form. Manage app risks, clearly

uality assurance, DevOps (Agile /scrum tech)

a lake) & infrastructure

emerging technologies
g (using unified modelling lang)

olutions & platforms

ectrum of capabilities to be able to provide such
ics that are expected from an established and well-

ciples management, EA layers

siness capabilities management,

s. It does so by either translating the business

T can work with. This category of EA
ish the high-level strategy, frameworks, and

the area of business innovation, digital

d manage EA use cases and their priorities within an

ategic planning for them.

entification of good principles, the harmonization,

model and the industry of an organization. EA layers

hat the layers set the right focus and priorities on the

eed to be managed, as well as an overall strategy

plemented. To ensure this is the EA roadmap

es in the areas of alignment, harmonization, strategic

ity maps for the right use cases is covered in this

egulations introduce new constraints. The result is an

ess models, and strategic development of the topic.

ata mgt, microservices mgt, software

not limited to the operational implementation,

h as its business processes, applications, technology,
pendent microservices that the organization can reuse
ory:

” in the strategic capabilities area. However, it also

ge the Enterprise Architecture activities throughout the
activities that are not part of standardized

nables the management of roles and responsibilities,

according to new demands, offers, or adapted

ly covers application lifecycle management, as well

functionalities, and technology lock-ins need to be

esponsibilities such as data ownership and data

etc.

ate in the particular area (microservices architecture

capability might be less important than the others on
e of its novelty.

ng, training, & content leverage, EA

ovide the right messages that convince the right

es through the right EA tool and sharing platform
g a proper EA risk and compliance management. The

ue, input, and discussions. If not, EA will quickly

. A key goal of EA must therefore be to teach, train,

s a whole establishes an EA mindset.

data is strongly increasing, the support of a modern

d industry-specific regulations, such as in the

mpliance in the best way possible is part of this

next posts, I will take a deeper look into the different

gic EA Capabilities, Supporting EA Capabilities

cture successfully. While a business capability would

zational structures, processes, roles, responsibilities, and

ined and lived demand process (process component),

hed Architecture Management Board to take decisions

siness and IT go hand in hand. To achieve that,

iness capabilities, and value chains but not described in details, but on an abstract level.

ce, the strategic performance, operating model,

eworks, and approaches and can be compared and

ganization. A good generic model to start with a business processes view might be for instance to consider the APQC proce

cess Frameworks | APQC

s to objectively track and compare their performance internally and externally with organizations from any industry. It also fo

keleton, the structure of it. It covers aspects such as

ude:

eployed, their interactions, and relationships with the

and its resources.

re required to enable the business. Technical

ations, application components, information objects,
he actors of the processes, and relevant specifications

such as interfaces to applications and their type.

oservices etc. that together make the application

ows. It is also used to share a common

, that the applications need in order to work properly.

common notations are ArchiMate, BPMN, and UML.

ntages and disadvantages.

architecture is mapped to business terms and logical

Business Capabilities, Business

ons, data, technologies)

Phases of software development lifecycle
Project initiation, requirements & functional specification gathering, technical specification,
HLD & LLD, Development & implementation, deployment, testing * maintenance

==

TYPES OF API

Communication level of OPEN APIs, internal APIs (internal & OR

private); composite APIs – combines different data & services API,
Partner API
API COMPONENTS

API gateway, developer hub & API producer zone

API – RESTful APIs, FHIR, basic SOAP, HL7 CDA, HL7V3, Spine security p
MESH – message exchange for social care & health
NEMS – National events management service
HL7 CDA – HL7 Clinical document architecture

SOAP – Simple object access protocol

http://digital.nhs.uk/services/api-platform/
(open standards sa REST, FHIR &OAuth 2.0)
Health & Social Care Network (HSCN) – Care records
FHIR API – Fast healthcare interoperability resources to integrate & share
local healthcare records, GP Systems & NHS Spine
NHS Digital API platform is a “front door” for health & care APIs
APIs are used by point-of-care app & patient facing applications to talk to t
 SDLC (Phases) -- >> DevOps (Board, Repos,
artefacts, pipeline, testing (work items)
1) Code (code devp & review, source code mgt
tools & code merging
2) Build (containing integration tools & build
status (CI/CD)
3) Test (Consist of automated testing tools that
help to identify bugs & avoid unintended
regression from previous versions
4) Deploy (included continuous delivery tools &
deployment

ecurity proxy /SSP), MESH, NEMS, LDAP,

& share information between clinical systems (LHCR),

o talk to talk to back-end applications

Soft skills -- >> intrapersonal * interpersonal

Ability to adopt change, ability to learn, communication & interpersonal

critical thinking, emotional intelligence, flexibility, & adaptability, judgem
mgt, problem solving, service orientation

Social Skills -- >> communication, assertion, cooperation, responsibility

Leading by example, effective communication, analysis & problem solvi
championing effective change, organizational citizenship, working collab
development, managing resources, performance & risk (LEADCOW) CM

=
PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK (PDF) --- >>> P>R>O>PD
Prepare -- >> review -- >> objective -- >> personal development plan -- >>
Performance objectives are linked to the organizational objectives. Agre
prioritise the statutory, & mandatory training

Cloud Solutions Architect will be accountable for owning technical solution within the
(ITDD) architecture function. The role combines guidance from different enterprise arc
technical), with a focus on bridging the gap between both the technical and business
quality solutions for and opportunity or project.

Principal Responsibilities
Accountable for the solution ownership and translation of requirements into a solution
clear portfolio of implementation tasks.
Lead on the interpretation of functional and non-functional requirements, data flows, a
business specific solutions that are maintainable, supportable, fit for purpose, cost eff

Bridge the gap between the technical and business teams, expertly defining, validatin
or project.
Responsible for combining guidance from different enterprise architecture viewpoints

Accountable for the solution ownership within the ITD Directorate

Drive innovation by identifying opportunities both within the ITD Directorate as well as

Own alignment activities with the delivery team and ensure that our principles and va
Essential Skills & Experience
Significant experience of working as a Solutions Architect designing and implementin
Extensive experience in developing both high and low-level solution designs incorpor
requirements
Proven ability to understand non-functional requirements, technical documents, and b
Proven ability to assess the current systems architecture in place and working with te
Ability to demonstrate an analytical approach towards solving IT challenges
Significant experience of ARM templates, BICEP/Terraform or similar tools
Strong stakeholder management skills, allowing for updates in product development p
communicate effectively across all levels of the organisation, inclusive of 3rd party ve
Confidence in the use of modern Microsoft based IT tools and applications.
dinating with others, creativity,
sion making, negotiation, people

nfluence, self-control.
successful outcome,
continuous personal & team

& sign off

ng & development objectives &

echnology and Delivery Directorate

wpoints (business, information and
ertly defining, validating, and promoting

gh-level functional specifications with a

architectural guidelines to create

ure proof.

ting quality solutions for an opportunity

ormation and technical)

business context.

out in the solution design and execution.

ons (Azure and M365)
s, application, data, and security

to recommend solutions to improve.

sts, and budgets, with the ability to

Hybrid Identity
Azure AD connect, ADDC sync, password hash synchronization (P
(PTA), seamless single sign-on (SSO), ADFS (federation), azure AD

Authentication / access management – MFA deployment, authenti

self-service password reset, conditional access, AD identity prote
(consent settings, discover apps using MCAS or ADFS app report
audit access / sign-ons to AD integrated enterprise apps.

On-premises apps using AD application proxy, Integrate custom S

(gallery) SaaS apps, Apps registration, apps authorization, multi-ti
d hash synchronization (PHS), pass-through authentication
DFS (federation), azure AD connect health

FA deployment, authentication methods (FID02/ passwordless),

access, AD identity protection. Access management for apps
CAS or ADFS app report, apps mgt for apps, app mgt roles,
enterprise apps.

proxy, Integrate custom SaaS apps for SSO, pre-integrated

pps authorization, multi-tier app permission.
HL7
HL7 Overview (interfaceware.com)
Remember your interest in healthcare integration? We're iNTERFACEWARE, the creators of Iguana - an integra

But enough about us, let's talk about you! Your integration project probably involves:

1. Linking up two or more systems like EHRs, HIS, BIS, and PACS.
2. Handling different data formats like HL7, FHIR, X12, XML, and more.

Learn How Iguana Works

HL7 Overview (interfaceware.com)

Introduction to HL7
Health Level Seven (HL7®) is a healthcare-specific standards organization whose primary focus
standards used to support interoperability and communication between applications and device
main HL7 Standard Versions: HL7v2,v3, FHIR

· HL7 Version 2 (v2)

· HL7 Version 3 (v3)
· Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

The HL7 v2.x standard is the most common data standard in the healthcare industry today. Learn more about HL

Why does it matter?

Information sent using the HL7® standard is sent as a collection of one or more messages, each of which transm

HL7 Explainer Video https://www.interfaceware.com/hl7

Here’s a short, animated video that explains in plain language what HL7® is and exactly what it does:

The HL7 Standard: A Deeper Dive

Do you have questions about the HL7 standard? We have answers.
Explore the sections below for an in-depth overview of different HL7 versions, HL7 message types, the
send and receive HL7.

HL7 Versions
The HL7® Organisation has developed various HL7® Standards: Version 2, Version 3, and FHIR. Learn more ab

HL7 Message Structure

Although HL7® messages are human readable, they still require effort to interpret manually. Learn how HL7 mes

HL7 Message Types

There are many different types of HL7® messages, each serving a unique purpose. Learn more about some of t

HL7 Transport Methods

HL7® messages are sent via a variety of TCP/IP transports, including LLP, FTP, SOAP, and SMTP. Learn more

Challenges: Working with HL7 Messages

Although HL7 and their messages are widely used, many systems don’t know how to speak the langua
alongside existing applications as an interpreter, creating HL7 interfaces and speaking the language of
HL7 messages is fast, reliable, secure, and cost effective.
How does Iguana work with HL7?
Iguana is a data integration platform that allows you to send and receive HL7 messages with ease. Wit
messages and even map from one HL7 version to another to support your custom workflow.
What is HL7?
Health Level Seven (HL7) is the standard that ensures data consistency across disparate systems, and plays a m

Learn more about working with HL7.

Contents
Background: HL7 Standards
HL7 Version 2
HL7 Version 3
HL7 FHIR
Challenges: Different HL7 Versions

A Practical Guide to HL7 Interface Development: Building Custom Integrations for Healthcare
Systems
Download the FREE Guide

Background: HL7 Standards

Since the late 1980’s HL7 has developed a framework for modelling, exchanging and integrating electronic health information across
systems. HL7 standards can be divided into three versions: HL7 Version 2 (v2), Version 3 (v3) and FHIR.
While most HL7 messaging uses versions 2.3 and 2.3.1, it is important to understand the differences
between the 2.X and 3.X versions in order to properly address the unique interfacing needs of your
organization or project.

HL7 Version 2
HL7v2 is the most widely used healthcare messaging standard for exchanging clinical and patient
information between systems. The goal of HL7v2 was to provide enterprise-wide interoperability between
health information systems using standardized messages representing clinical event information - such as
patient administrative activities, demographics, medical orders, results and financial information.

With no other standards available at the time, a custom HL7v2 format was created based on pipe and h

The HL7v2 standard is not a complete plug-and-play solution for interoperability and it is often referred to as the “n
foundation with 20% still requiring some customization on an interface-by-interface basis. This is due to the nature
personnel, clinical and operational data. Each hospital, urgent care center, ambulatory care facility, imaging center
operations, making each implementation of HL7 require a slightly unique representation of the data. The standard e
repeating segments, optional fields, and additional custom z-segments.

HL7 Version 3
HL7v3 has been developed over a 10+ year period using lessons learned and best practices from previous version
supports healthcare workflows through the exchange of data between healthcare organizations and providers. HL7
Information Model (RIM), enabling more reuse, standardization and format consistency. XML is used as the messag

Due to several reasons, including its complexity and the fact that HL7v3 is not backwards compatible with HL7v2

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)

FHIR is the latest standard to be developed under the HL7 organization. Pronounced ‘Fire’ , FHIR stands for Fast Healthca
information electronically and combines the best features from HL7 v2, HL7 v3, and CDA, while also adding several signific

FHIR includes data formats (resources on patients, medications, encounters, etc.) as well as application programming inter
dominant standard that allows external parties to access information from EMRs through the use of applications. It also allo
For example, EHRs such as Epic and Cerner, have their own FHIR app stores where providers (doctors, clinicians, etc.) as
FHIR standards utilize SMART (Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies), an authentication framework f

Comparatively, FHIR offers several advantages over existing HL7 standards:

Ease of implementation is at the core of the FHIR standards design. Therefore, it is quick and easy to create
interfaces

It offers many implementation libraries, providing the resources necessary to jump-start interface
development

Specification is free for use, and presents no restrictions

In many cases, FHIR’s base resources are robust enough to be used as-is, but they can also be adapted to
meet more specific requirements.

FHIR cooperates with previous HL7 standards

Based on RESTful web services rather than SOAP web services, allowing for basic HTTP operations
including Create, Read, Update and Delete

FHIR “modules”, or “resources”, can be combined in order to present more holistic data sets, and allows for
a more manageable approach to providing clinical solutions.

Provides a basic set of data resources that can satisfy most use cases.

Similar to the previous HL7 standards, FHIR has also undergone several rounds of versioning, with each
new version implementing changes and improvements around resource types, bindings, code elements,
modifier statuses and default values:

Dec 27, 2018

Feb 21, 2017

Oct 24, 2015

Sept 30, 2014

Each FHIR version is both forwards and backwards compatible, allowing for older specification
is able to support all four FHIR versions and has the flexibility to allow SMART on FHIR applicati
connect to EMRs and can be authenticated according to SMART standards. In addition, SMART
Vinci Project use cases.

To learn more about how Iguana can assist in connecting to EMRs through the use of SMART on FHIR applicati

Challenges with Different HL7 Versions

Each version of the HL7 standard aims to be more robust by building on the strengths of its predecessor
standards need to be both backwards and forwards compatible which, unfortunately, is not always a stra

How does Iguana support different HL7 Standard Versions?

Are you working with systems that each implement a different version of HL7? Iguana is a data integration platfo
another. Whether you are looking to connect a legacy or modern application, with Iguana you can map forwards
normalized set of messages to work with.
Get a demo: See Iguana's HL7 mapping schemas in action
Easily parse and map data from one version of HL7 to another using Iguana. We'll walk you through how it's done:

Request a Free Demo

REFERENCES:

Eight Reasons to Implement FHIR

EMR Integration Using FHIR

Standards-based Product Grid

FHIR Version History

Health Level Seven

https://help.interfaceware.com/v6/about-cda-documents

HL7 Transport Methods

HL7 messages are sent via a variety of TCP/IP transports, some of which include:

LLP (Lower Layer Protocol)

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

Contents
Secure HL7 Transport Methods
ACKnowledgment Messages
HL7 Transport Methods: Challenges
A Practical Guide to HL7 Interface Development: Building Custom Integrations for Healthcare Systems

Download the FREE Guide

Secure HL7 Transport Methods

Although HL7 can be transmitted using a variety of transport protocols, the most common transport method
for real time point-to-point interfaces is LLP. For systems which require batch HL7 processing, FTP is
typically utilized.

Before looking at the common HL7 transport methods, it’s important to understand the basics
of TCP/IP based communication, the roles of the client and server when implementing an HL7 interface, as
well as the limits of TCP/IP. Securing HL7 transport.

When implementing an HL7 interface, your interface will either be acting as a Client or a Server.

TCP/IP Server

A TCP/IP server is a program that listens on a TCP/IP port number receiving connections from clients. For instance, a web
TCP/IP server can have many different TCP/IP clients connected to it.

A typical example of where you might want to implement an HL7 server is when you want to receive an ADT (Admit
Typically, you would write your interface as a TCP/IP server. You would then listen on a port number that you could
messages will connect to your server. This means you need to give the host and port number that you are listening
you.

TCP/IP Client

A TCP/IP client is a program that connects to a TCP/IP server. For instance, Netscape and Internet Explorer are TCP/IP cli
the host address or IP address, as well as the port number that it wants to connect to.

A typical example of where you might want to implement an HL7 client is when you want to send lab results to a
would need to give you the host or IP address of their HL7 server and the port number that it is listening on.

ACKnowledgement Messages
One final point that confuses many people is how HL7 ACKnowledgment messages should be sent. It i

Sometimes it is necessary to implement both a client and a server component for your product’s HL7 int
the computer community who use the client component to send back all the ACK messages. Your creativ
real world, but if you have the choice, make use of the fact that you can use the second channel of comm
design.

HL7 Transport Methods: Challenges

HL7 messages can be sent over a variety of transport protocols including LLP, FTP, SOAP and SMTP. If
an integration engine that supports data exchange regardless of what specific transport protocols the en

How does Iguana support HL7 Transport Methods?

Developed by iNTERFACEWARE, Iguana is a data integration platform, and the only tool you nee
reliably. Use Iguana’s pre-built components to configure an LLP client or server for real-time dat
database. It also has a built-in scripting environment if you need to set up a more complex trans

Regardless of the transport protocols you are working with, Iguana enables you to
healthcare ecosystem.
whose primary focus is creating a defined set of international messaging
plications and devices. These message standards can be organized into three

ay. Learn more about HL7 Standard Versions.

es, each of which transmits one record or item of health-related information. There are many different types of HL7 messag

exactly what it does:

7 message types, the structure of an HL7 message, and transport methods used to

nd FHIR. Learn more about them here.

ally. Learn how HL7 messages are organized.

rn more about some of the most common types here.

and SMTP. Learn more about the transfer protocols here.

w to speak the language and require a translator. HL7 integration engines work
aking the language of HL7. Integration engines like Iguana, ensure that communicating

ssages with ease. With Iguana, you have the ability to filter and transform HL7
m workflow.
e systems, and plays a major role in healthcare interoperability.
d based on pipe and hat encoding and has continued to be developed “ad hoc” over the years. All v2.X versions

often referred to as the “non-standard standard” as it provides around 80% of the interface
This is due to the nature of healthcare and its different interactions with patients, healthcare
e facility, imaging center, laboratory, and other care facilities have unique clinical systems and
f the data. The standard enables this flexibility through allowing flexibility in defining optional and

es from previous versions with the goal of creating a more firm and context rich standard that
tions and providers. HL7 developed v3 based on a methodology of shared models, the Reference
ML is used as the message syntax for a more human readable, but larger message.

s compatible with HL7v2.X, has hindered its adoption across healthcare organizations with existing v2 implementations. HL7

R stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. It is a standard for exchanging healthcare
also adding several significant improvements over previous standards.

lication programming interfaces (APIs) that exchange these resources. It was developed to become a
of applications. It also allows third parties to create their own applications that can access these servers.
doctors, clinicians, etc.) as well as patients can access their data through these 3rd party applications.
authentication framework for the connection of 3rd party applications to EMRs.
 4.0.0 Release 4 (1st Normative
Content and Trial Use
Developments)
3.0.0 Release 3 (STU - Standard for
Trial Use)
1.0.0 DSTU2 (Second Draft Standard
for Trial Use)
0.0.82 DSTU1 (First Draft Standard for
Trial Use)

r older specification versions to remain interoperable with future versions. Iguana

RT on FHIR applications to be built within it. These applications are able to
In addition, SMART on FHIR apps built within Iguana can be made to adhere to Da
gths of its predecessor. However, to fully support the exchange of healthcare data, HL7
ely, is not always a straightforward process.

a data integration platform that allows you to seamlessly convert from one HL7 version to
a you can map forwards or backwards from any version of HL7, ensuring that you have a
 ents. For instance, a web server is a special type of TCP/IP server that listens on port number 80. A

to receive an ADT (Admit/Discharge/Transfer) feed to extract, for instance, patient demographics.

ort number that you could negotiate with your counterparty, and the device sending you the ADT
ber that you are listening on to the administrator of the ADT feed so they know how to connect to

net Explorer are TCP/IP client programs that connect to web servers. A TCP/IP client must specify both

to send lab results to a HIS (Health Information System). The administrator of the HIS system
hat it is listening on.

ges should be sent. It is important to understand that when a TCP/IP connection is established, it is a two-way cha

your product’s HL7 interface. Avoid the temptation to follow some creative members of
messages. Your creativity will be someone else’s problem. This certainly happens in the
cond channel of communication to send back ACK messages, as this is a much cleaner
P, SOAP and SMTP. If you are looking to send and receive HL7 messages, you may need
nsport protocols the endpoints are designed to accept.

the only tool you need to send HL7 data over any transport protocol quickly and
rver for real-time data transfer, use HTTP, read from flat files, or connect to a
more complex transport protocol for a custom workflow.

ana enables you to exchange HL7 messages to connect your entire

Tracking Quality Gate – Quality Gate (Checklist)
1. Introduction
1.1 Value proposition
1.2 Financial Benefits
1.3 Other Benefits
1.4 Benefit Realisation
1.5 Updated Full Business Case
2. Business Process
2.1 Business Performance Targets
2.2 Business Scope
2.3 Business Principles and Strategy
2.4 Business Vision and Solution Fit
2.5 Principles of Process Design
2.6 Processes / Working Practices
2.7 Statement of Requirements
2.8 Usability and Conformity
2.9 Policy Compliance / Deviations
2.10 Solves Problem / Opportunity
2.11 Process Metrics
2.12 Security
2.13 Test and Execution
2.14 Data Preparation and Clean up
3. IT / DDaS
3.1 IT Vision, Strategy and Principles
3.2 COTS Product Usage
3.3 IT Product Qualifications
3.4 Implementation Approach
3.5 IT Benefit Case
3.6 Commercial Considerations / Future Viability
3.7 Agile Application
3.8 System / Applications Architecture
3.9 Data Architecture
3.10 Data Structure
3.11 Infrastructure
3.12 Interfaces / Bridging / Translation Mechanism
3.13 Data Conversion and Cutover
3.14 Technologies
3.15 IS /IT Costs
3.16 Backup, Restore, Disaster Recovery
3.17 Legacy Removal or Usage Withdrawn
3.18 Policy
3.19 Escrow Requirements
3.20 Performance Requirements Operability SLA Supportability

4. Testing
4.1 Test Plans Execution
4.2 Overview of Test Scope
4.3 Third Party / Supplier Test Plan
4.4 System Test Scope
4.5 Integration Scope / Approach
4.6 Performance Testing
4.7 Operational Acceptance Testing
4.8 Disaster Recovery Test Report
4.9 Business Migration Testing
5. Implementation
5.1 Implementation Strategy and Plans
5.2 Ownership and Responsibilities
5.3 User Education and Training
5.4 Culture Change
5.5 New Operation
5.6 Communications
5.7 Data Preparation and Cleanup
5.8 Security
5.9 Infrastructure
5.10 Integration / Conflicts with Other Projects
5.11 Human Performance / Ergonomics
5.12 Operations / Service Desk
5.13 Organizational Transition
6. Project / Programme
6.1 Governance
 6.2 Project Schedule Integration
6.3 Project Plan
6.4 Project Structure and Resources
6.5 Budget and Spend to date
6.6 Change Control Process
6.7 Contingency Planning
6.8 Critical Dependencies
6.9 Reporting
6.10 Quality Plan
6.11 Configuration Management
6.12 Contract / Procurement
6.13 Lessons Learned
6.14 Next Steps

7. Risks and Issues

7.1 Risk Management / Analysis Process
7.2 Issues and Escalation Process
7.3 Major Risks Assessment
7.4 Major Open / Escalated Issues

8. Actions Carried Forward

8.1 Actions Carried Forward

9. Additional Live Acceptance Considerations

9.1 Infrastructure
9.2 Documentation
9.3 Monitoring & Housekeeping
9.4 Staff Training
9.5 Ongoing Support
LA Supportability
derations
Technical Landscape

Data platform – BI Landscape

MS data platform is a multi-service offering that addresses the data capturing, tr
analytics needs to create modern BI solutions. It’s powered by MS SQL server,
Microsoft office on premises & MS Azure in the cloud.

a) Capture + manage
§ Relational
§ Non-relational
§ NoSQL
§ Streaming
§ Internal & external data - connecting to both such as PowerBI TO online services (google
dynamics CRM and many others)

b) Transform +analyse
§ Orchestration – create data orchestration workflows with SQL server integration services
power query, powerBI desktop, & data quality services (DQS)
§ Information management
§ Complex event processing
§ Modelling
§ Machine learning

c) Visualize + Decide
§ Application
§ Reports
§ Dashboards
§ Natural language query
§ Mobile

Data capacity, data refresh (hourly data refreshes), data streaming, data connectivity, conte
PowerBI desktop is cleansing and transforming data, with features – power query. It allow
saves tremendous data cleansing effort such as replacing values, un-pivoting data, comb
Data Flow
Get data
Model Data ---- >>
Create visualizations & reports -- > PowerBI service, PowerBI Desktop
Share with the Team --- >>>

Connecting to data sources

§ PowerBI service navigation
§ Options to connect to sources
§ Creating a data connection

§ PowerBI service navigation -- >> AppSource / import or connect to data (files, databases)

§ Options to connect to sources (Get Data) -- >> SaaS solutions, azure services, custom co

Creating a data connection (import or connect to data) -- >> files / databases

Reports & Dashboards – dashboard components / options to share reports & dash
Dashboards are high level view of some key KPI of one or more reports. Reports are pin to
to a new or existing dashboard
Creating a report - >> PowerBI desktop navigation / creating a simple report using P

Data Import Options --- >>> DirectQuery vs import / connecting to ODATA & oracle
Data Import options -- >>> connecting to ODATA & Oracle server and extracting data

Data refresh –On premise vs On demand CA PPM

On-premise database -- >data gateway -- > PowerBI Service
ODATA -- >> PowerBI service
Data Import Options -- >>
§ DirectQuery
§ Import
Connecting to a source -- >> Get Data -- >> All (excel, xml, text/CS
sharepoint folder, SQL server database, SSIS, MySQL , PostgreSQ
Data Transformation -- >>
§ Building transformation components
§ Data modeling

Data transformation components

§ Use first row as header
§ Split the field or concatenate fields
§ Replace values null with blanks
§ Group data
§ Pivot / unpivot columns
§ Aggregate functions
§ Format columns
Data Modeling
§ Import multiple tab from excel or create multiple queries
§ Join the tables

Data transformation Advanced

§ Creating your own M script
§ M script

Create a Dashboard by connecting to Odata Feed

Here are the steps
§ Open your powerBI Desktop instance
§ Select OData feed option under GetData
§ Enter the OData URL provided by your admin and click on OK
§ Enter the username & password & click on connect to authenticate
§ OData Table navigator opens up – select the tables required for your das
§ Selected tables gets loaded & powerBI canvas opens up

Create a Dashboard by connecting to Odata Feed

§ Select the required visualization and drag the fields from the tables on to
generate a meaningful visualization
Corporate BI architecture
Conceptual design
§ End User Tools - >> PowerBI, MS Excel, SQL management studio, Azure Data Catal
dictionary for the entire organization), SharePoint
§ Locally redundant backups (full weekly backup; differential hourly, transactions: 5
§ Azure data factory
§ Azure storage (storing unstructured, ad-hoc, open-source datasets)
§ Other Systems identified for loading into DW

BI Infrastructure Overview

PowerBI Report Developers overview

Considering Data-Domain (Data pipelines, data ingestion, data sto

processing & transformation (Backup, replication, retention etc)

SQL hybrid interaction

· SSDT – SQL server data tools
· SSIS – SQL server integration services
· SSRS – SQL reporting services
· SSMS -SQL management studio
Databases on AWS – AWS services (amazon dynamo DB, Amazon Aurora, Am
SQL on Azure – SQL DB, SQL Edge, Synapse analytics
SQL 2019, 2017, 2016, 2014
SQL PaaS
 addresses the data capturing, transformation, and
t’s powered by MS SQL server, SharePoint server and
cloud.

PowerBI TO online services (google analytics, salesforce,

with SQL server integration services (SSIS), Azure data factory,

s (DQS)

ta streaming, data connectivity, content sharing & collaboration

, with features – power query. It allows transformation tasks that
acing values, un-pivoting data, combining datasets and columns
 -- >>
PowerBI desktop
PowerBI Desktop
PowerBI service, PowerBI Mobile

or connect to data (files, databases)

solutions, azure services, custom content packs, custom connections, on-premise SAS data, Excel

ect to data) -- >> files / databases

ents / options to share reports & dashboards

e or more reports. Reports are pin to live page which then adds it

on / creating a simple report using PowerBI application / example of using custom visuals

port / connecting to ODATA & oracle server & extracting data

acle server and extracting data

d CA PPM
BI Service

-- >> All (excel, xml, text/CSV, JSON, folder,

, SSIS, MySQL , PostgreSQL etc
Odata Feed

min and click on OK

connect to authenticate
he tables required for your dashboard & click on Load
vas opens up

Odata Feed
he fields from the tables on to the settings to
nagement studio, Azure Data Catalog (A searchable data

differential hourly, transactions: 5 mins intervals) -- >> (Azure SQL Database)

n-source datasets)

es, data ingestion, data storage, data

replication, retention etc)

ynamo DB, Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift) RDS

analytics
 PowerBI service, PowerBI Desktop
BI desktop

e, PowerBI Mobile App

se SAS data, Excel workbooks, CSV files, PowerBI desktop files

m visuals
Azure Migration Design (assess-migrate-optimize-monitor)
a) Assess – discovery & evaluation / full assessment of the curren
architect, Rebuild & Replace), Invoke key stakeholders, estimate c
migration, Azure Advisor, Cost management ("9 R's)

b) Migrate – deploy cloud infrastructure targets, (destination syste

premise
c) Optimize – Analyse running costs
d) Monitor – integrate health & performance monitoring
==
SAP re-engineering platform – SAP module – HR /SRM/ESS/,MI Po

==
Plan -- >> code -- >>create -- >> Test -- >> Release -- >>Deploy -- >>

Envisioning Future Solution Design & Improvements

Considerations include Cloud & technology improvements
· High availability & failover design
· Elasticity of cloud resources wrt quotas & limits
· Performance & latency

1) Designing & planning a cloud solution architecture

2) Managing & provisioning a solution infrastructure
3) Designing for security & compliance
4) Analyzing & optimizing technical & business processes
5) Managing implementation – (a) App Devp (b) API best practices
6) Ensuring solution & operations reliability
(a) Monitoring / logging /profiling / alerting solution (b) deployme
support of deployed solution (d) evaluating quality control measur
CLOUD Strategy & Adoption
1: Cloud adoption –
Public, Private, Hybrid, Multicloud, Edge computing

Azure migration strategies - Re-hosting, Re-platforming, Refactoring

2: Automation and governance in Azure -DevOps, ARM templates, IAM, Azure IaC, Azure gov

3: Modernising with hybrid cloud and multicloud - hybrid cloud, multicloud and edge comp
app Azure Arc servers & data services, Connectivity modes, Connectivity requirem
centre with Azure Stack, Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack Hub architecture, Azure St
managed? , Azure Stack Hub administration basics, Azure Stack Development Kit,
HCI solution overview, Licensing, billing and pricing ,Management tools

4: Cloud migration: Planning, implementation –

best practices, Azure Well-Architected Framework
Choosing your underlying infrastructure Compute, Networking, Storage, Workloa
workloads, SQL Server, Containers, VMware workloads, SAP workloads, High-perf
maximizing performance, Azure autoscaling ,Compute and storage performance c
recovery Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Azure migration best practices, Azu
Service, Azure SQL Database

5: Enabling secure, remote work with –

Azure AD and AVD, Securely deploy remote work infrastructure, AAD, Plan your e
environments, Deploying AVD, Steps for deploying A AD joined virtual machines i
infrastructure. Enabling remote connectivity, Azure Virtual WAN ,Azure VPN ,Secu
AG+WAF , Azure Firewall, Azure Load Balancer and cross-region load balancing, A
Enabling remote work with AVD, Network guidelines Managing user profiles with A

6: Security fundamentals to help protect against cybercrime

(Enabling security for remote workers, Security operations excellence, Cyber Defe
Respond).Gain visibility into your entire infrastructure with - Azure Security Centre
Azure Security Centre architecture, Azure Security Benchmark, Achieve advanced
environments with Azure Defender, Azure Defender dashboard Best practices for
operations with Azure Sentinel, a cloud native SIEM, A unified SecOps experience
7: Optimize cost in Azure, Understanding and forecasting your costs, Cloud econo
pricing model, Optimizing your costs (Azure Advisor
Azure Hybrid Benefit ,Azure reservations, Spot Virtual Machines, Dev, Test pricing
Azure governance

dge computing, & strategy successful? Azure Arc, Kubernetes

requirements, Azure Arc in GitHub, Modernising your data
Azure Stack Hub identity provider, How is Azure Stack Hub
ment Kit, Azure Stack Hub update management, Azure Stack

Workload migration scenarios - Windows Server and Linux

igh-performance computing, Achieving cloud scale and
mance considerations, Enterprise-grade backup and disaster
es, Azure Migrate, Azure Architecture Centre, Azure App

n your environment, Configuring Azure AD and hybrid

chines in AVD, ARM templates, Secure your identity
N ,Securing and managing traffic to your workloads,
ncing, Azure Bastion and Just-in-Time (JIT) access,
es with Azure Files and NetApp Files ,Azure Monitor for AVD

ber Defence Operations Centre, Protect, Detect,

y Centre, Security posture management and multi-cloud,
dvanced threat protection for your hybrid and multi-cloud
ces for securing your network, Modernize your security
erience
d economics, Cost management tools, Choosing the right

pricing, Optimization checklist

LEGACY COMPONENTS
Approach the business engagement requirements (1) assessment of the c
requirement (3) build the replacement (4) system testing & cutover (5) deco
COMPLEXITY (RCA)
- Reengineering (replace, rewrite)
- Correction (re-architect, refactor)
- Adaptation (re-platforming, rehosting)
Legacy Apps – consider – (1) replace (2) rebuild (3) re-platform (4) rehost (
retire
rrent legacy system (2) Identify
mmissioning

) refactor & rearchitect (6) retain (7)

Our API technologies
https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/guides-and-documentation/our-api-technologies
Learn about the different types of API we have.
Page contents

Top of page
Basic REST
FHIR
Basic SOAP
HL7 CDA
HL7 V3
Spine Security Proxy (SSP)
MESH
NEMS
LDAP
EDIFACT
OAuth 2.0
OAS
We've been developing APIs for quite some time. We always aim to adopt the latest standards fo
technology changes. As a result, our APIs use a variety of technologies, some more modern tha

Basic REST
Some of our APIs are basic RESTful APIs.

RESTful APIs:

are synchronous - they give an immediate response

are accessed using HTTP - the same way a web browser accesses web pages
give access to data as 'resources' - like web pages, for
example https://api.service.nhs.uk/personal-demographics/Patient/9000000009 accesses the demographic data for the patien
whose NHS number is 9000000009
use HTTP verbs such as GET and POST to get and update those resources
use HTTP status codes for errors, for example HTTP status 404 means 'resource not found'
in some cases, use HAL links to link to other resources
in most cases, use the JSON format for requests and responses (although some use XML)

In some cases, this means they are "level 0 REST" as defined in the Richardson Maturity Model - which do not m

FHIR
Where appropriate, our APIs follow the HL7 FHIR standard (pronounced 'fire').

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a global standard for health care data excha
FHIR:

defines specific resources for the health care domain, such as Patient and Observation, and als
defines common data items for those resources
can be adapted for local requirements using profiles, extensions, terminologies and more
defines rules for how to access resources via RESTful APIs
can also be used for messaging and document solutions

There are multiple versions of FHIR:

FHIR DSTU2 is a draft standard for trial use - we don't have many APIs using this
FHIR STU3 is a standard for trial use - we have some APIs using this
FHIR R4 is the latest normative release - we use this for all our new APIs

FHIR has been adapted for use in England as follows:

CareConnect is a set of England-centric FHIR profiles built on FHIR STU3

FHIR UK Core is a set of UK-centric FHIR profiles built on FHIR R4 that applies to all of the NHS
the NHS England FHIR Implementation Guide covers additional profiles for our extensions to these FHI

FHIR RESTful APIs

Some of our FHIR APIs are RESTful.

You don’t need to know much about FHIR to use them - RESTful FHIR APIs are just RESTful APIs that follow
specific rules. In particular:

resource names are capitalised and singular, for example /Patient not /patients
array names are singular, for example line not lines for address lines
data items that are country-specific and thus not included in the FHIR global base resources are usually
wrapped in an extension object

FHIR messaging APIs

Some of our FHIR APIs are messaging APIs that follow the FHIR messaging standard.

In general, our FHIR messaging APIs use MESH as the message transport layer.

FHIR policies

We have defined policies for the use of FHIR in the NHS in England.

For details, see FHIR policy.

FHIR libraries and SDKs

There is an ever-increasing list of open source FHIR libraries appearing on the web, written for a
JavaScript and PHP. These exist to make integration easier with FHIR APIs.

You might find the following open source tools useful.

FHIR libraries:

C#.NET Firely FHIR API

Java HAPI FHIR
JavaScript Smart on FHIR
Python Smart on FHIR

FHIR reference servers:

C#.NET Spark FHIR Server

Java HAPI FHIR
SMART on FHIR

You can explore other options with the Health Level Seven (HL7®) international standards body which maintains

We welcome your feedback on tools you have found useful.

Basic SOAP
Some of our APIs are basic SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) APIs.

This includes, for example, the Directory of Services - SOAP API.

HL7 CDA

Some of our older APIs use the HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) as a payload standard to exchange c

CDA uses XML, the HL7 V3 standard and coded 'vocabularies' of clinical terms to exchange doc
This allows electronic processing for decision support while remaining easy to read by healthca

Content can include text, images, sounds, other multimedia and usually includes a signature.

Typical uses for a CDA document include healthcare records, discharge summaries, referrals, clinical
summary reports, lab reports and so on.

The typical structure of a CDA document includes a:

header with details of the patient, author, provider, document type and so on
 body containing a human readable part, any signature and any MIME encoded content - followed
by an encoded part containing the key machine-readable details as defined by a CDA profile for
that type of document.

CDA V1 was produced in 2000 and CDA V2 in 2005. CDA documents are no longer widely used.

HL7 V3
Some of our older APIs conform to the HL7 Version 3 standard.

HL7 V3 is a global standard for health care data exchange. It is the predecessor to the FHIR standard.

It includes:

synchronous APIs, using SOAP and XML

asynchronous APIs, using ebXML

Be aware that using our HL7 V3 APIs can be hard work because:

the documentation is quite hard to navigate

the message structure is complex
for asynchronous APIs you need to build a Message Handling System to receive inbound
messages

If there is a suitable RESTful API available, we recommend you use that instead.

Learn how to integrate with our HL7 V3 APIs by reading:

part 2 of the Spine External Interface Specification, which explains the general syntax
part 3 of the Spine External Interface Specification, which explains which interactions are synchronous

the Spine Message Implementation Manual, which explains the message payload structure for each int

Message Handling Service adaptor

To remove the complexity of building your own Message Handling System, we offer a pre-assured, client side M

Spine Security Proxy (SSP)

Some of our synchronous APIs are available via the Spine Security Proxy (SSP). We use SSP wh
Requests and responses go via SSP instead because this makes it easier for responding system
place.
To make sure all systems can talk to one another, we write the API specifications for SSP APIs,

SSP APIs are generally FHIR APIs, the only difference being that SSP sits in the middle, routing

MESH
Some of our asynchronous APIs use MESH (Message Exchange for Social care and Health). MESH is our mess

With MESH, sending systems send messages to a messaging hub and the messages are placed on th
check the messaging hub for incoming messages on their queue. This is known as a “pull” or “polling” m

MESH is built as a RESTful API with endpoints for sending messages and for polling for received mess

The message payload format depends on the specific API. For example, pathology messages use HL7
FHIR.

NEMS
The national service for publish-subscribe events is the National Events Management Service
(NEMS).

With NEMS:

receiving systems use the NEMS API to subscribe to event types

publishing systems use the NEMS API to publish events of that type
NEMS sends relevant events to subscribed systems via MESH

LDAP
The Spine Directory Service API uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

LDAP is a simple way to access information held in a hierarchical directory structure over an Int
internet. It is an open standard with multiple versions. See individual API documentation for deta

EDIFACT
Some of our oldest asynchronous messaging APIs use EDIFACT.
Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) is an international EDI sta

OAuth 2.0
Some of our APIs use OAuth 2.0 for authorisation. OAuth 2.0 is an open standard for API authorisation and is ge

There are a variety of 'flavours' of OAuth 2.0, and we use three of them:

'authorisation code flow' - where the end user authenticates directly with one of our identity prov
of obtaining an access token
'token exchange' - where the end user authenticates with an identity provider separately using O
token with an API access token
'JSON web tokens' - where the calling application authorises securely without end user involvem

For more details on how we use OAuth 2.0, see the various security patterns on our security and authorisation p

OAS

Some of our APIs use OpenAPI Specification (OAS) - previously known as 'Swagger' - to describe the API's inte

OAS is a global standard for describing RESTful APIs in a human and machine readable format.

The OAS file for each API contains general documentation as well as specific details of endpoin
bodies.

We use the OAS file under the covers to generate the API specifications in our API catalogue.

You can also download the OAS file for an API - go to the API specification and look for the "Ge
this specification in OAS format" button.

You can use a tool such as Swagger Codegen to generate stubs, test harnesses and SDKs in your favourite pro

Our OAS files use OAS version 3.

To see a list of APIs that use OAS, see our API catalogue, filtered to show APIs that use OAS.
rds for new APIs. But it’s costly to rebuild APIs when
rn than others.

exchange. It is the successor to the HL7 V3 standard.

n for a wide variety of languages such as Java, C#.NET,

e documents that are both machine and human-readable.

althcare workers.
side Message Handling Service adaptor that you can integrate into your own infrastructure.

SP where the responding system is another local system.

ystems - they only have to deal with requests from a single
APIs, even though we don’t own the responding systems.

uting traffic and making security easier.

r messaging hub that allows systems to send and receive asynchronous messages. MESH replaced an older system called

on the recipient’s “queue”. Receiving systems must constantly

lling” mechanism.

messages.

e HL7 v2 EDIFACT, whereas transfer of care messages use

an Internet Protocol (IP) network such as HSCN or the

or details of which version is used.
EDI standard for the exchange of messages that was adopted by organisations wishing to trade globally. The United Nations

d is generally considered to be the best was to secure modern RESTful APIs.

y providers (NHS CIS2 or NHS login) as part of the process

sing Open ID Connect (OIDC) and then exchanges their ID

volvement

dpoints, including request and response headers and

Azure Virtual Desktop Fundamentals
Gain the ability to plan the architecture for an Azure Virtual Desktop deployment, manage access and se
and apps, and monitor and maintain an Azure Virtual Desktop environment. In about 13 hours, you’ll lear
to deliver remote desktop and remote app experiences in Microsoft Azur

Items in this collection

MODULE
Azure Virtual Desktop Architecture
MODULE
Design the Azure Virtual Desktop architecture
MODULE
Design for user identities and profiles
MODULE
Implement and manage networking for Azure Virtual Desktop
MODULE
Implement and manage storage for Azure Virtual Desktop
MODULE
Create and configure host pools and session hosts for Azure Virtual Desktop
MODULE
Create and manage session host image for Azure Virtual Desktop
100% completed
MODULE
Manage access for Azure Virtual Desktop

35 min
100% completed
MODULE
Manage security for Azure Virtual Desktop

44 min
MODULE
Implement and manage FSLogix

1 hr 16 min
MODULE
Configure user experience settings

1 hr 27 min
MODULE
Install and configure apps on a session host
MODULE
Plan for disaster recovery
 29 min
MODULE
Automate Azure Virtual Desktop management tasks
MODULE
Monitor and manage performance and health
nt, manage access and security, manage user environments
about 13 hours, you’ll learn how to use Azure Virtual Desktop
eriences in Microsoft Azure.
Azure Synapse Analytics

End-to-End Data Pipelines (steps)

a) Ingest data from various data sources
b) Load all these "data sources" into a data lake data Storage for further processing
c) Perform "data cleansing" over a range of different data structures & types
d) Prepare, transform, & model the data
e) Serve the cleansed data to thousands of users through BI tools & applications

24 Modules
Items in this collection
MODULE
Introduction to Azure Synapse Analytics
100% completed
MODULE
Survey the Components of Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Explore Azure Synapse Studio
MODULE
Design a Modern Data Warehouse using Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Use Azure Synapse serverless SQL pool to query files in a data lake
100% completed
MODULE
Create a lake database in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Use Azure Synapse serverless SQL pools to transform data in a data lake
MODULE
Secure data and manage users in Azure Synapse serverless SQL pools
MODULE
Optimize data warehouse query performance in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Integrate SQL and Apache Spark pools in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Understand data warehouse developer features of Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Manage and monitor data warehouse activities in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Secure a data warehouse in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Analyze data with Apache Spark in Azure Synapse Analytics
100% completed
MODULE
Monitor and manage data engineering workloads with Apache Spark in Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Integrate data with Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
60% completed
MODULE
Petabyte-scale ingestion with Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
MODULE
Perform code-free transformation at scale with Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
MODULE
Orchestrate data movement and transformation in Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
MODULE
Execute existing SSIS packages in Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
MODULE
Operationalize your Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
MODULE
Send and receive data using Azure Data Share and transform data using Azure Data Factory
MODULE
Plan hybrid transactional and analytical processing using Azure Synapse Analytics
MODULE
Implement Azure Synapse Link with Azure Cosmos DB
Windows Server Hybrid
Gain expertise in configuring and managing Windows Server core and advance workloads
technologies. In about 30 hours, you’ll learn how to implement/manage on-premises and hy
migration, and more.
• 29 hr 2 min
• 34 Modules
Official collection by MicrosoftCreated by

Items in this collection

• MODULE

Implement hybrid identity with Windows Server

Deploy and manage Azure IaaS Active Directory domain controllers in Azure
Administer and manage Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machine remotely
Manage hybrid workloads with Azure Arc
Perform Windows Server secure administration
Plan and deploy Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machines
Customize Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machine images
Automate the configuration of Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machines
Run containers on Windows Server
Orchestrate containers on Windows Server using Kubernetes
Implement DNS for Windows Server IaaS VMs
Implement hybrid network infrastructure
Implement Windows Server IaaS VM IP addressing and routing
Implement Storage Spaces and Storage Spaces Direct
Implement Windows Server Storage Replica

collection
MODULE
Implement hybrid identity with Windows Server
MODULE
Deploy and manage Azure IaaS Active Directory domain controllers in
MODULE
Administer and manage Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machine remotel
MODULE
Manage hybrid workloads with Azure Arc
MODULE
Perform Windows Server secure administration
MODULE
Plan and deploy Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machines
MODULE
Customize Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machine images
MODULE
Automate the configuration of Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machines
MODULE
Run containers on Windows Server
Collections | Microsoft Learn
Designing Azure Infrastructure Solutions
25 Modules

74% completed
Contents
· MODULE
Design governance
94% completed
· MODULE
Design authentication and authorization solutions
92% completed
· MODULE
Design a solution to log and monitor Azure resources
100% completed
· MODULE
Design a solution for backup and disaster recovery
100% completed
· MODULE
Design a data storage solution for non-relational data
100% completed
· MODULE
Design a data storage solution for relational data
100% completed
· MODULE
Design data integration
100% completed
· MODULE
Design an Azure compute solution
100% completed
· MODULE
Design an application architecture
100% completed
· MODULE
Design network solutions
100% completed
· MODULE
Design migrations
o 40 min
100% completed
· MODULE
Introduction to the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
100% completed
· MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Cost Optimization
6% completed
· MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Operational excellence
2% completed
· MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Performance efficiency
8% completed
· MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Reliability
1% completed
· MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Security
4% completed
· MODULE
Getting started with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
100% completed
· MODULE
Prepare for successful cloud adoption with a well-defined strategy
100% completed
· MODULE
Prepare for cloud adoption with a data-driven plan
100% completed
· MODULE
Choose the best Azure landing zone to support your requirements for cloud operations
94% completed
· MODULE
Migrate to Azure through repeatable processes and common tools
100% completed
· MODULE
Address tangible risks with the Govern methodology of the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure1 hr 16 min
100% completed
· MODULE
Ensure stable operations and optimization across all supported workloads deployed to the cloud
100% completed
· MODULE
Innovate applications by using Azure cloud technologies
100% completed
DevOps Engineer
22 hr 2 min
24 Modules
Items in this collection
MODULE
Capture Web Application Logs with App Service Diagnostics Logging 55 min
100% completed
MODULE
Control and organize Azure resources with Azure Resource Manager 46 min
100% completed
MODULE
Deploy Spring microservices to Azure 38 min
MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Performance efficiency
1 hr 5 min
8% completed
MODULE
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - Operational excellence
1 hr 37 min
2% completed
MODULE
Analyze your Azure infrastructure by using Azure Monitor logs 36 min
100% completed
MODULE
Monitor cloud resources 40 min
100% completed
MODULE
React to state changes in your Azure services by using Event Grid 35 min
60% completed
MODULE
Design a full-stack monitoring strategy on Azure 57 min
100% completed
MODULE
Introduction to GitHub
1 hr 32 min
MODULE
Migrate your repository by using GitHub best practices43 min
MODULE
Upload your project by using GitHub best practices 43 min
MODULE
Manage repository changes by using pull requests on GitHub 49 min
MODULE
Settle competing commits by using merge conflict resolution on GitHub
52 min
MODULE
Search and organize repository history by using GitHub 38 min
MODULE
 Manage an InnerSource program by using GitHub 50 min
MODULE
Communicate effectively on GitHub using Markdown 1 hr 6 min
MODULE
Maintain a secure repository by using GitHub best practices 35 min
MODULE
Automate DevOps processes by using GitHub Apps 43 min
MODULE
Automate GitHub by using GitHub Script 25 min
100% completed
MODULE
Manage software delivery by using a release based workflow on GitHub
1 hr 44 min
MODULE
Build continuous integration (CI) workflows by using GitHub Actions
1 hr 7 min
MODULE
Build and deploy applications to Azure by using GitHub Actions 59 min
100% completed
MODULE
Implement a code workflow in your build pipeline by using Git and GitHub 1 hr 27 min
Azure Network Engineer
Gain expertise in planning, implementing, and maintaining Azure networking solutions, including hybrid ne
14 hr 55 min
18 Modules
Items in this collection
MODULE
Introduction to Azure Virtual Networks

Design and implement hybrid networking

Design and implement Azure ExpressRoute

Load balance non-HTTP(S) traffic in Azure

Load balance HTTP(S) traffic in Azure

Design and implement network security

Design and implement private access to Azure Services

Design and implement network monitoring

Introduction to Azure Front Door

Introduction to Azure Web Application Firewall

Introduction to Azure Private Link

Introduction to Azure Bastion

Introduction to Azure Firewall

Introduction to Azure Firewall Manager

Introduction to Azure DDoS Protection

Introduction to Azure Virtual WAN

Introduction to Azure NAT Gateway

Intro to Azure DNS Private Resolver

ng Azure networking solutions, including hybrid networking, connectivity, routing, security, and private access to Azu
ccess to Azure services. In about 16 hours, you’ll learn how to design, implement, and manage hybrid networking.
age hybrid networking.