Exceptional Results for Team Malta in Third SDG Projectathon Event

Following months of diligent pursuit, we are now celebrating the third place achieved by TeamMalta in the gamification of the third Single Digital Gateway Projectathon event held in Brussels from the 18^th to 20^th October. Our team of software engineers from the Digital Enabling Services Department showed tremendous grit, great stamina, and commitment to help achieve this outstanding result. The team managed to perform all the different test case types and accounted for more than twenty percent of all the tests run during the event.

A Projectathon is a marathon of peer-to-peer interoperability and compliance tests in a structured environment. The gamification of the third type of this event was intended to generate a friendly competition to do well among Member States in a spirit of collaboration and to infuse the event with a positive vibe and energy, something which indeed worked very well. The tests were built in such a manner as to encourage the widest possible coverage of the technical design specifications and the collaboration with as many Member States as possible during the three-day event.

In its essence, the game was simulating the real-life communications that will be happening between Member States to exchange data. To illustrate the process, if an Italian citizen wished to access a cross-border procedure portal to register for a second degree offered by an education institute in Malta, she would first authenticate to the portal with her Italian credentials using the eIDAS Node infrastructure. The procedure would then use the Common Services to determine what evidence type is required to fulfill its requirements, and to determine the location of the required evidence in the other Member State. Subject to an explicit request from the user, the procedure would then use the eDelivery system to submit a request for evidence. Upon receiving the information, the procedure must then allow the user to preview the evidence and provide confirmation for use of the data.

TeamMalta played the Projectathon game with great skill and determination, engaging with some of the best engineering talent at European level. The first day saw us take a clear lead while we tactically pursued simultaneous breadth and depth in the testing strategy. During the second day we invested the time to troubleshoot the various connectivity issues while witnessing great leaps forward from other big Member States. We consolidated our system and fixed it to adjust to interpretations of the test cases. In the third day, we were following up with the monitoring agents and encouraging other teams to verify our own system components. At the end of the event, we emerged exhausted but very happy with the result, the lessons learnt, and the many new relationships formed.

The SDG Once-Only Technical System demonstrates European innovation. Beyond that, it removes obstacles while imposing no obligations on citizens or businesses. The core principle of the OOTS is to link administrations across Europe, with the projected vision where European citizens can easily move, work, and live in other Member States with the consequent strengthening of the bloc.

With this project, MITA is once again at the leading edge of enabling digital transformation in the Public Service. The excellent results achieved in the Projectathon demonstrate the exceptional quality and talent of our software engineers, and our commitment to nurture young technologists by providing opportunities to gain exposure to some of the most enterprising ICT projects being done on our Islands.

Moving forward, we will now be setting the OOTS in production and assisting the Government to leverage this infrastructure by building new cross-border eGovernment services or adapting existing services. Simultaneously we will nurture the relationships built during the Projectathon and start preparing for future events. Interesting times ahead!