Origin
The purpose of the Department of the Navy's Functional Area Management (FAM) Initiative is to identify, analyze and ultimately reduce the number of IT software applications and databases in use across all on Navy networks. In May 2001, the DON had an estimated 100,000 IT applications deployed on various desktops and networks across the Navy enterprise. As tasked by Congress, the Navy developed the FAM process to begin to document and rationalize these IT applications. The mandated end state for this rationalization process was a 95% reduction of all applications.

In order to achieve this mandated reduction, the Under Secretary of the Navy memo of 14 May 2002 established the 24 functional areas, granting each Functional Area Manager (FAM) the authority to direct the migration, consolidation, or retirement of applications and databases. The FAM's primary tasks:

• Significantly reduce the number of DON IT applications and databases
• Reduce IT overhead costs and facilitate implementation of the Navy Marine-Corps Network (NMCI)
• Enable and assist the development of the Defense Financial Management Modernization Program (DFMMP, now the BMMP)
• Promote web enablement, eBusiness strategies, and the use of common business and administrative process across the Department.

Current Scope
The FAM process has evolved into three distinct stages: short-term rationalization, mid-term rationalization, and long-term portfolio management. The short-term stage involved the establishment of a portfolio baseline of applications and assigning them by their functionality to the appropriate FAM. This process helped to show that the original estimate of 100,000 applications was inflated due to duplicate and erroneous entries. This baseline was registered in the DON Application and Database Management System (DADMS).

The mid-term stage included the further registration of outstanding systems and the completion of on-line questionnaires within DADMS for every single registered application. These questionnaires involved technical, business and functional criteria and helped to "score" applications based on their value to the Navy. Based on these scoring criteria, FAMs made decisions to best meet their 95% reduction by the end of the mid-term phase.

The applications remaining after the mid-term phase are the current components of the portfolio management stage. FAMs are now using advanced techniques such as Business Case Analyses (BCAs), functionality matrices, and refined operational activity taxonomies to eliminate functionally redundant applications and further streamline the Navy's IT and Capital Planning infrastructure to better align with DoD initiatives such as BMMP, BEA and GiG NCES, while ultimately achieving superior support for the warfighter in the long-term.

The Acquisition FAM began the short-term rationalization phase with approximately 3,900 applications. The mid-term 95% reduction goal of 192 applications was achieved successfully by the June 2003 deadline with 177 registered applications in DADMS. The Acquisition FAM is led by the eBusiness Policy & Oversight Office under DASN Acquisition. RDML Brown is the Acquisition Functional Area Manager.