There is significant
work needed to be completed to achieve the full potential existing within
the FEA. We are aware of the gaps existing within our emerging activities
and will develop the remaining elements to complete the framework, for
example, the Data Reference Model and integration of the CIO Council’s
security and privacy profile into the framework. We are emphasizing the
establishment of common language and taxonomy to represent the FEA, so
stovepipes continue to fall. Agency alignment with the FEA needs to be
transparent and incorporated into agency EA programs. The FEA continues
to provide a transformational opportunity to better enable collaboration
across the federal government, within and between agencies, and with state
and local governments.
FEA Implementation
The FEA is being implemented
in various ways. The framework has yielded results demonstrating a new
ability for the federal government to drive collaboration and accelerate
consolidation of redundant activities, saving taxpayer dollars. The FEA
has been involved by providing analytical underpinning for the 24 E-Gov
initiatives and the Line of Business (LoB) activities and is being incorporated
into agency guidance and policy for use during budget formulation activities.
In addition, we have been meeting with all agencies and have established
a dialogue around the FEA information supplied to OMB as part of the FY05
budget process. OMB has been able to take advantage of FEA data for the
development of the FY04 and FY05 President’s Budgets. This year
will be the first time agencies have access to and use of the same data
to accomplish some of the objectives outlined earlier. Some specific examples
of both federal and agency applications follow:
Lines of Business
“Line of Business”
(LoB) is a functional representation of the overall business responsibilities
of government. Our analysis of LoB data is a prime example of the FEA’s
value in using architecture to identify new efficiencies in government.
Rather than identifying collaboration or consolidation opportunities up
front, and then building architectures to implement them (as was done
with the selection of the 24 E-Gov initiatives), the LoB analysis effort
is a product of architecture.
Specifically, FEA
review of information collected from agencies in the FY04 and FY05 budget
processes revealed five government-wide LoB collaboration opportunities
to reduce redundant investments and improve efficiencies. In response
to this preliminary review, OMB launched a government-wide effort in February
2004 to analyze the first set of LoB initiatives. The LoB Task Forces
are now using EA-based principles and proven best practices to identify
business-driven, common solutions to transform government by breaking
down traditional agency silos and increasing collaboration. These five
LoBs and their agency task-force leads are:
Financial Management
(FM) – The Departments of Energy and Labor
Human Resources Management (HR) – The Office of Personnel
Management
Grants Management (GM) – The National Science Foundation
and the Department of Education
Federal Health Architecture (FHA) – The Department of Health
and Human Services
Case Management (CM) – The Department of Justice
The LoB Task Forces
will identify common solutions and collaborate with participating agencies
to complete joint business cases by early September 2004. Implementation
of these solutions will begin in FY05, leading to significant improvements
in process efficiency, system interoperability, and data sharing.
EA Assessment
Framework
Recently, OMB developed
an EA Assessment Framework to help agencies improve their EA programs
and benefit from the results of using EA as a strategic planning tool.
The EA Assessment Framework will be used annually by OMB and agencies
to identify opportunities and facilitate the discussion of EA performance
objectives. This ongoing collaboration between OMB and agencies will facilitate
year-round architectural improvements. These improvements will lead to
better resource allocation decisions and enhanced efficiency and effectiveness
of a wide range of government programs.
OMB’s EA Assessment
Framework is designed to help each agency assess the capability
of its EA program. For our purposes, capability refers to the overall
maturity of the EA’s work products; the ability to identify specific
IT investment recommendations; the reflection of the FEA reference models;
and the potential for intergovernmental collaboration on IT solutions.
The OMB framework complements the General Accounting Office (GAO) EA Management
Maturity Framework, which assesses EA program capacity.
Results from agency
EA assessment meetings have been encouraging. In general, most agencies
have developed the methodologies and processes necessary to support their
EA programs, and have solid descriptions of their baseline environments.
In the coming months, OMB will work closely with agencies to integrate
performance objectives and measures into their EAs and to develop detailed
target architectures and supporting transition plans.
In support of agency
enterprise architecture efforts, OMB’s EA Assessment Framework was
recently added as a requirement to the Scorecard of the President’s
Management Agenda (PMA). By institutionalizing the annual review of agency
enterprise architectures, improvements and savings can be better targeted
and results measured.
Agency Enterprise
Architectures
OMB continues helping
agencies align their efforts with the FEA Program, ensuring EAs across
government are consistent in terms of language, structure, and general
approach. We are also working with agencies to use EA information to identify
areas for interagency collaboration. Toward this goal, OMB started the
second-phase pilot of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Management System
(FEAMS), a web-based tool allowing agencies access to government-wide
architecture data organized around the FEA. FEAMS is ready for agencies
to use in the FY06 budget process. For the first time ever, agencies can
look across government and identify potential collaboration partners and
shared technology components to utilize in developing their own plans
for IT investments.
EA and Improved
Program Performance
Agency enterprise-architecture
data is now being used in IT. For instance, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) is making substantial progress in eliminating redundant,
non-integrated operations, systems, and processes for IT infrastructure
and mission areas. DHS consolidated business cases submitted for the FY05
budget listed relevant systems for consolidation, reported plans for migration
and elimination, and identified an integrated business process. The benefits
of successfully implementing these efforts include improved capabilities
to safeguard our nation, and taxpayer savings through the prevention of
unnecessary investments.
Another example is
Federal Student Aid (FSA), which manages a $321 billion loan portfolio
within the Department of Education. FSA used the FEA to baseline its enterprise
architecture program, which includes business process modeling; Capital
Planning and Investment Control (CPIC); and IT infrastructure. FSA’s
EA program is enabling the consolidation of approximately 14 major stove-piped
systems down to eight integrated systems.
At the Department
of the Interior, the Recreation.gov E-Gov initiative is using the FEA
reference models to collaborate with the Forest Service and U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. The end result is better delivery of recreation-related
information and services to citizens.
EA Community
of Practice
Collaboration among
agency leaders in business operations and technology, including the Federal
Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council and its Architecture and Infrastructure
Committee (AIC), is serving to “operationalize” EA activities
and the FEA. This is beginning to result in tangible improvements in strategic
planning and IT portfolio management.
To support rapid improvement
in agency EA practices, OMB supported the AIC in establishing the Chief
Architects Forum (CAF) in April 2004. The forum assists Chief Architects
by sharing EA best practices and addressing the challenges agencies they
face in developing their EAs and in using architecture information for
key decision-making processes. The Chief Architects meet quarterly and
maintain an ongoing dialogue on best practices and key issues.
We are also strengthening
our relationship with state and local governments through the National
Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and other organizations.
These partnerships will increase the coordination and integration of intergovernmental
IT resources.
Security and
Privacy
One of our strongest
areas of emphasis is on developing an FEA security and privacy profile
– an overlay to assist federal managers in discovering early-on
where risk exposure exists, the potential range of controls needed to
address such risk, and the potential costs of those controls. Using the
FEA privacy and security profile as a reference in the development of
agency EAs is fundamental to strong security and privacy. Since an EA
helps to inventory agency systems and identify the dependencies and relationships
among them, the need for security and privacy exists in virtually every
agency program and within every EA layer, including data, business process,
and technology. These needs can have a profound impact on process and
system design and must be fully identified, understood, and integrated
at the earliest stages of planning and development. The FEA Program is
helping agencies to achieve this type of early integration, promoting
efficient operations and preventing unintended consequences which may
require costly corrections at the end of development.
Future Outlook
Short
Term
In the short term we will focus on evolving the FEA reference models and
further enhancing resources for agencies, such as FEAMS and the EA Assessment
Framework. These efforts will directly result in more mature architectures
and reveal increasingly useful data on federal IT investments. In addition,
OMB seeks to develop the government-wide practice of enterprise architecture
so agencies can proactively collaborate together to make investment decisions
prior to submitting their agency’s budget to OMB.
Long Term
In the longer term, the Administration will continue to create opportunities
for transforming government’s delivery of service to citizens. This
may include identifying additional lines of business through FEA data
and developing common solutions to be shared for improved efficiency and
to produce results. Second, we will work to fully integrate performance
measurement concepts throughout the FEA reference models to ensure agencies
are considering outcomes in all aspects of IT portfolio planning. This
will begin to demonstrate the return on investment for EA and more clearly
illustrate the direct relationship of IT to program performance. The Administration
will continue building relationships with state, local, and tribal governments
in order for federal efficiencies to be extended vertically to help in
technology transformation and information sharing at all levels of government.
Conclusion
The Administration
will continue to collaborate with agencies and with Congress, state, local,
and tribal governments to ensure the promise of enterprise architecture
is fully realized across government. The FEA Program and agency EA programs
are starting to achieve strong results. Through technical development,
outreach, information sharing and analysis, the FEA Program will continue
to focus on improving program performance throughout government to deliver
services and produce results for the citizens. I look forward to working
with you on these matters.