Modeling an e‐government observatory for rural SMEs using UML with RUP

Developing Web‐based systems for agriculture and rural development requires the collaboration of experts from different scientific fields and backgrounds. Thus, it is crucial to ensure that the involved specialists have a common language that everybody understands. On the other hand, although the information and communication technologies (ICT) and particularly the Internet are drivers for overcoming the disadvantages of rural areas with respect to markets and suppliers, rural businesses are characterized by low ICT adoption and limited use of e‐government services. In this light, this paper focuses on the analysis, design and deployment of an e‐government observatory for rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) according to the unified modeling language (UML)‐based rational unified process (RUP) life cycle approach. The proposed observatory allows rural SMEs to find information both on e‐government services offered in their region, as well as to have access to e‐learning content on how they can use such services. The successful implementation and evaluation of the observatory, provides also useful contributions about modeling, analyzing, designing and documenting such systems using UML with rational unified process.