GAO Releases Report on DoD Business Systems Modernization Enterprise Arc

This report applauds DoD's level of effort, dedication of resource ($100 Million contract awarded to IBM), and committeemen to Enterprise Architectures. It finds that this initial effort (about $55 Million), provides a foundation from which to build and produce a business EA (aka BRM). We should all applaud OSD's dedication to Enterprise Architecture and to the progress they have made over the past few years in advancing the DoD Architecture Framework (DODAF), recognizing it is a work in progress.

However, when one reads through this rather scathing document, GAO identifies a number of deficiencies in what is the best funded EA effort ever undertaken. It should be noted that it does not criticize the architecture methods, but the lack of proper planning and EA outcomes, something that the OMB FEA-PMO reference models are designed to address. The primary weakness appears to be the lack of measurable system decision criteria that would enable DoD to get from the "as-is" to the "to-be" state, the primary outcome from any EA. There is light at the end of the tunnel however. With a future marriage of the OMB Reference Models and the DODAF (formerly C4ISR), I envision that many of these deficiencies could be corrected, and an SDLC roadmap that leads us to our target will emerge. Additionally, industry best practices represented in ICHnet.org and IAC EA SIG architecture white papers may also provide valuable insights on how GAO concerns and documented deficiencies could be resolved. If interested, check out some of the Architecture Lifecycle white papers post at www.ICHnet.org . Succeeding with Components, Value Chains, Business Lines are very relevant. The preponderance of industry guidance (including OMB's FEAPMO) is a move to component-based architectures as a means of both modeling and linking these disparate EA views. CBA is also supported by emerging standards efforts (OMG MDA, IEEE 1471, ISO RM-ODP, OASIS BCM, ICH Value Chain),

Based on recent testimony given to Congressman Davis' Reform committee, GAO's EA Maturity Model Survey, and comments made by senior government executives over the past few months, there are not enough trained architects to go around, which may have contributed to the problems stated in the GAO report. To help remedy this situation, the IAC EA SIG and the ICHnet.org are organizing a Fall Solution Architecture Bootcamp on Oct. 28-29, (Crystal City Hilton) to better enable practical application of these emerging methods, frameworks and reference models. A wide range of Enterprise Life-Cycle topics will be covered in two parallel tracks to meet the diverse need of both the OCIO and Business Line Managers.

These parallel tracks will provide a technical and management perspective of the key topics to provide the entire management team with the necessary tools and training required to transform their architectures into implementation reality:

OMB FEA PMO Reference Models; BRM, PRM, SRM, TRM, DRM (www.FEAPMO.gov)
DOD Architecture Framework and mapping to OMB Reference Models
Intelligence Community Enterprise Architecture and how it dove tails with other frameworks and reference models
NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Toolkit (www.NASCIO.org)
ICH Value Chain Analysis; A business driven approach to propagating Enterprise Architectures and IT Capital Planning (www.ICHnet.org)
OMB 300bs, linking IT Capital Planning with OMB Reference Models
GAO EA Capability Maturity Model (www.GAO.gov)
Industry Methods and Tools (OMG MDA, IEEE 1471, ISO RM-ODP, OASIS BCM, Zachman Framework, IBM Patterns etc).

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