Enterprise architecture is a design framework that manages an organization’s business processes, software and hardware, local- and wide-area networks, people, operations, and projects with the organization’s overall strategy. As with real property asset management, successful enterprise architecture planning means understanding an organization’s mission and people, as well as where these people are located, the capacity of the locations in which they work, and the tasks they perform that support mission fulfillment.
According to the OMB Enterprise Assessment Framework 2.0, issued in December, an agency’s enterprise architecture must contain “an inventory of agency business processes . . . linked to layers of the agency enterprise architecture and used to inform investment decision-making.” An effective enterprise architecture, according to OMB, must be “business-driven,” requiring links between the IT architecture and business processes.
To be fully compliant with the OMB framework, an agency must understand the impact of its facilities on its business practices. This relationship is critical to creating an enterprise architecture transition strategy. OMB’s annual initial assessments have been moved to February/March from the original September deadline to help inform agencies’ budget decision-making processes. The results of the annual assessment process are indicated in the current status score for the PMA’s e-government initiative.
OMB has recognized that many agencies might not have completed the requirement for enterprise architecture artifacts — or anticipated outcomes — by the initial March assessment. Agencies may request a reassessment by OMB, as long as the request is made at the time they receive their initial annual assessment.
The OMB framework defines five practice levels that tie business processes to business architecture, including required activities and “artifacts” resulting from those activities:
- Level 1: Agency has identified business processes based on the federal enterprise architecture business reference model, including functions and subfunctions. Artifacts: baseline business architecture.
- Level 2: Baseline business processes are linked to the layers of the agency’s baseline enterprise architecture including performance, services, technology and data, as well as other business elements such as stakeholders, organizations, facilities, programs, investments and activities, and security processes. Artifacts: baseline business architecture.
- Level 3: Target business processes are developed, linking to the same business elements as in Level 2, including facilities. Artifacts: target business architecture.
- Level 4: The business target architecture informs transition planning and investment decision-making. The transition strategy demonstrates transformation from baseline to target business architecture. Selected investments demonstrate alignment to target business architecture. Artifacts: target business architecture, transition strategy, Capital Planning and Investment Control Guide.
- Level 5: The business architecture is monitored, measured and updated on a regular basis. Artifacts: updated target business architecture and transition strategy.
No agency can create an acceptable enterprise architecture transitional plan by OMB standards without understanding how its business processes are influenced and affected by the facilities it owns or leases, the functions of the people working in those facilities, and the security levels and secure infrastructures required for those functions. Without this, none of the “artifacts” required of the activities at each practice level can adequately be addressed.
Because an agency’s budget is tied to its status in complying with this part of the PMA, it must make its capital requests in the context of these operational conditions.
OMB recognizes that many agencies might not complete their enterprise architecture artifacts by the initial March assessment. Therefore, as mentioned above, agencies may request a reassessment by OMB, as long as the request is made at the time they receive their initial annual assessment.
The reassessment will not take place until at least 90 days after the initial assessment, but agencies can request that it be performed even later in the year. The agency will have the opportunity to submit revised artifacts to demonstrate improvements in maturity since the initial assessment.
The moral of this story? Make sure your agency ties its enterprise architecture transitional plan to your facilities, mission and business practices. Otherwise, you may risk a lower grade on your PMA scorecard.
Autor: Ray Summerell
Quelle: Federal Times, 21.04.2006
