Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure, aims to provide transparent, timely, and cost-effective services. To achieve this, they have implemented an innovative information strategy, known as iStrategy, which has revolutionized their approach to automation. The outcome: Rijkswaterstaat has created an interconnected ecosystem.

The Challenge

Organizations that successfully implement automation can continually enhance their services. With this belief, Rijkswaterstaat completely reexamined its automation strategy. The primary consideration was that automation is no longer merely a technical issue but a transformative change affecting the entire organization. The challenge was to devise a method that was both fully manageable and capable of maintaining flexibility and quality.

Mendix

Mendix offers a cloud-based rapid application development platform that allows users to swiftly develop, integrate, and deploy sophisticated web and mobile applications. This platform has enabled Rijkswaterstaat to deliver valuable business solutions, combining high quality and agility with reduced costs.

One of Mendix’s key advantages is its visually driven, low-code approach, lowering the barrier for non-IT professionals and enabling full business participation in the automation process. This collaboration is crucial for creating practical, valuable results.

Rijkswaterstaat can develop a working prototype in just weeks using Mendix. This prototype typically delivers 80-90% of the required functionality and is refined through close collaboration with end-users to ensure it meets their needs and preferences.

The Solution

Effective automation begins with a clear understanding of the challenge or need. It is essential for business and IT departments to be in sync. To achieve this, Rijkswaterstaat employed enterprise engineering to map out the organization’s ‘essential model.’ They utilized DEMO (Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations), which allows the organization to describe its own processes, resulting in a ‘minimum viable product.’ This approach fosters commitment from all stakeholders.

Using a rapid application development platform like Mendix, they were able to quickly create a working prototype based on the essential model. This prototype was iteratively refined with input from the business side. Once the prototype went live, it was integrated with SAS business intelligence for data analysis, SharePoint for document management, and SAP for processes such as ordering, purchasing, and payroll management.

Rijkswaterstaat maximizes the flexibility of their approach by assembling small, multi-disciplinary teams composed of internal and external professionals. These teams operate within clear frameworks, with iStrategy and platform strategy being the most critical. iStrategy emphasizes standardization and reuse, while the platform strategy focuses on rationalization, ensuring that all applications are built using consistent building blocks.

The rapid application development platform runs on Pivotal Cloud Foundry, a comprehensive toolkit for virtualized deployment and management. Application building blocks are shared through an internal app store accessible to all teams, and in the future, other government organizations will also be able to access it.

Photo by Fons Heijnsbroek (unsplash.com)