Bureau in U.S. Treasury Builds Comprehensive Enterprise Architecture in Just One Year with Advanced Modeling Toolset from Computas

Business Wire, Feb 19, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 2003

Browser-Based Metis Toolset Satisfies Government Mandates for

TEAF, Federal Enterprise Architecture; Improves

Decision-Making Across the Organization

The chief IT architect of a bureau in the U.S. Treasury Department faced a major challenge in meeting the federal government's mandates for creating an enterprise architecture (EA).

When she joined the bureau in January 2001, the bureau's CIO directed that the EA - which provides a comprehensive blueprint for the organization's business processes and Information Technology investments - be built in one year.

An important part of the bureau's EA initiative was to create an architecture that complies with both the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and the newly launched Federal Enterprise Architecture mandate from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Complying with Clinger-Cohen entailed creating an architecture that utilizes the Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF), the Treasury Department's required format for modeling EA "work products." Complying with the Federal Enterprise Architecture - which is geared to maximize the government's investments on delivering better results and avoiding duplication in operations and services - required building 'on top of' the TEAF framework.

-- "Our challenge was Schedule," the bureau's chief IT architect

says. "To meet our performance objectives for enterprise

architecture we needed to complete the full cycle of EA

products within one year - including a baseline EA and target

EA, with a transition plan for getting the target

accomplished. In addition, we also needed to make sure

everything aligned with both the TEAF and the Federal

Enterprise Architecture. We installed a modeling tool, and met

our performance objectives in the designated timeframe.

"Our return on investment is that the EA 'knowledge' within our bureau is now reusable, and accelerates better decision making. Once you can share accurate data, decisions move faster," the IT architect concludes.

Federal Enterprise Architecture Compliance Easily Achieved

Beyond conforming to the TEAF framework, the Treasury Department bureau is one of the first organizations in the U.S. government to achieve compliance with the OMB's emerging Federal Enterprise Architecture. The Federal Enterprise Architecture provides the ability to look across agencies and identify high-payoff opportunities for applying IT and management reforms. Though not dictating the details of a single, uniform architecture, OMB nonetheless requires compliance with the Federal Enterprise Architecture as a condition of IT budget approvals starting in fiscal 2004.

"It is quite easy for us to take each Federal Enterprise Architecture reference model as it is introduced, and map the business processes in our EA model to it just by putting that model on top of ours and redrawing the relationships," the IT architect says. "Our modeling toolset facilitates that by providing a flexible meta-model that we define ourselves."

The use of an XML repository to manage the EA work products instead of relying on a database is another important factor in the bureau's ability to meet its one year schedule. As a result, any change in the model is automatically updated in all subviews; any change in a subview is automatically updated to the main model and other subviews; models can be inserted into models and maintain their identity; models can be split into models; and there is the ability to interrogate models and get an answer (in the form of another model).

Web Browser Access to Models Delivers the Right View to the Right Person; Speeds Decision Making

The IT architect says the ability to easily access dynamic visual models via a Web browser is one of the best drivers of collaboration and decision making.

"Any authorized user can have our knowledge base - or the subset of it that is relevant to them - at their fingertips. This information, which shows the different systems and their relationships, was previously accessible only by the IT department. Now, a user in one department who is thinking about a new feature can access our intranet and see if something is already being done elsewhere in the bureau that meets their requirement. The potential for improved efficiency and cost savings through component reuse is enormous.

"Making the knowledge available to everyone allows us to pull the business people into the process," the IT architect says. "We can do the development work on business components, and make it available to the users for reviewing through their browser. We tell them, 'Take a look and let us know what you think,' instead of having grueling meetings with a lot of briefing charts where only the IT people know what the systems are doing. People can evaluate their systems and give us feedback at their leisure."

Collaboration with Other Agencies

The flexibility afforded by on-line visual enterprise architecture results in smoother operations not only within the bureau, but also potentially in collaborative efforts with other government agencies. For example, the bureau partners in consumer sales programs with another Treasury Department organization. "Because we had our enterprise architecture up and running, they could look at it and identify areas of commonality in our sales programs," the IT architect says.