Enterprise Architecture at NIH

You may have heard some buzz about enterprise architecture (EA) through your own work, from colleagues, or elsewhere. Given the relative infancy of the field and the complexity of the subject, many may not know what it is. We would like to provide an overview of enterprise architecture, explain why it’s important to NIH, and show how you can help.

Overview of EA

"Enterprise architecture" is the design that determines how information technology (IT) supports the business of the enterprise. An analogy for enterprise architecture is city planning. Imagine all of the functions that the city of Washington D.C. fulfills: government, transportation of goods, trash removal and disposal, emergency response, and energy delivery services—just to name a few. These functions are the "business model" for the city.

The "city plan" specifies building codes, prescribes land use, and specifies road patterns to support the city's business functions. The zoning laws and codes ensure that innumerable contractors, home-owners, businesses, and other entities can operate in and contribute to the overall success of the city. Similar to a "city plan," the NIH Enterprise Architecture ensures an effectively planned IT infrastructure to support the business requirements of NIH and all of its employees, contractors, partners, and volunteers. The EA provides the over-arching plan for individual systems and infrastructure architecture as the city plan does for individual buildings and infrastructure.

Benefits of EA to NIH

Many benefits can be derived from an enterprise architecture design, but the most important benefit for NIH is the ability to integrate systems more effectively. We will realize this benefit across all of NIH by implementing common logical and physical systems designs, developing a common understanding of data at NIH, and adopting a set of shared, sound IT architecture principles.

In addition, federal statutes and a series of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) IT directives require that NIH develop, implement, and comply with an NIH Enterprise Architecture.

A Collaborative Approach

We have adopted a collaborative approach to enterprise architecture. Although the NIH Office of the Chief IT Architect (OCITA) leads the activities for developing and maintaining the NIH Enterprise Architecture—and for increasing awareness of it—all of NIH’s ICs contribute to the process.

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Domain teams form the backbone of the NIH enterprise architecture program. These teams, with members from all ICs, meet on a recurring basis to document common designs, to recommend technology solutions, and to review architecture principles. Domain teams have already met and defined the architecture for data, networking, applications, application integration, security, collaboration, and enterprise systems monitoring.

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Individuals at the NIH can contribute to EA through the NIH Request for Comments (NRFC) process. This process enables an individual or an organization to recommend an architecture standard, to recommend a best practice, or to provide important information to the NIH IT architecture community. To learn more about the NRFC process, send e-mail to EnterpriseArchitecture@mail.nih.gov.

Regardless of your role in IT, the NIH Enterprise Architecture impacts you and your job in some way. The principal NIH Enterprise Architecture principle states that ". . . the NIH Enterprise Architecture applies to all aspects of NIH information technology." All NIH organizations must follow it so that we can provide a consistent and measurable level of IT quality to everyone.

NIH Portal—Document Directory for Enterprise Architecture

More Information

As we continue to develop and implement the NIH Enterprise Architecture, we will continue our efforts to increase awareness of this critical component of IT at NIH. If you have any questions about enterprise architecture, NIH's program, or the NRFC process, please send e-mail to the Office of the Chief IT Architect at EnterpriseArchitecture@mail.nih.gov, or visit us on the NIH Portal.