Enterprise Architecture
In this research paper we will be discussing The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) FEAF is business driven and is the U.S. Federal Government’s answer to enterprise architecture that provides a framework for complex established systems to be able to share information technology across agencies. We will be discussing a case analysis that covers the five interrelated reference models that is used to bring commonality and consistent enterprise architecture for the improvement of the government agencies adopting FEAF. Like the other frameworks FEAF is an abstract view and are covered by the 5 FEAF reference models. These models are designed to facilitate communication, cooperation, and
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The strengths of FEAF is the flushing out of duplicated efforts between Agencies once the framework is applied. This opens the door to collaboration providing opportunities to continue to share information between the Agencies involved. By identifying duplicated efforts a larger Return on Investment (ROI) can be achieved. When the framework is applied and the Agencies principles are identified strategic goals can be reached. Another benefit to the FEAF approach is a design to help eliminate duplication of effort which leads to waste. Another is the being able to develop a common approach to government, industry standards that are legally compliant. Of the legal mandates the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 says that Federal Agencies must develop and maintain enterprise architecture. (2) Of the many EA frameworks FEAF has the most coverage but it still does not cover all the desired aspects of EA. The weakness in FEAF is that it is designed for federal agencies. While this is good it does not necessarily fit corporations unless you are catering to Federal Agencies. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services uses FEAF to build their business architecture, data architecture, application architecture and technology architecture. These architectures are what maintain the CMS EA tool called Troux Architect. This tool allows for the alignment Office of Management and Budget's FEAF. (1) Being able
With the IT team, the company needs to develop and define an Enterprise Operating Model and Architecture that include business strategy, current IT assessment, IT strategy and IT plans.
In order to leverage IT for the benefit of the whole organization enterprise architecture must be developed to oversee IT strategy. Centralizing IT strategy at the start of the new business strategies will be important to make sure IT and business are working together with common goals that deliver the most value. The following steps are to be completed within each department:
Up until this point, Third Star Financial Services has operated via a succession of mergers and acquisitions where systems were inherited but never integrated into the network. Its data management has been virtually non-existent and entirely ineffective. Evidence of this can be found in the absence of an enterprise-wide data management solution and the presence of several disparate systems operating independently with no measurable benefit to the company. Due to a lack of actionable data, management makes decisions based on instinct rather than through analysis. A direct consequence of this is a steadily declining market share and loss of high-level employees to competing companies. Fortunately, this discrepancy has been identified and Third Star executives have established the new goal of modernizing and streamlining operations. Using concepts outlined by the Data Management Association (DAMA), this proposed enterprise architecture will allow Third Star to transform their data from a liability to an asset.
The purpose of this project is to conduct an analysis research into the implementation and management of this business enterprise system. This project deals with developing and upgrading the computer system to handle to daily work load of our business while being able to conduct communication between sites and data back-up. Furthermore, we will analyze other various architectures features such as: system requirements, architecture selection, resources and timeline, security and the
With the increasing use of the internet to perform organizational functions to deliver services to the public, the federal government saw the need to improve customer service in 2002. The enacted E-Government Act of 2002 required federal agencies utilizing information technology to become citizen focused, establish a chief information officer (CIO), develop and meet security requirement in accordance with the Federal Information Security Act (FISMA), protect confidential information, and support electronic government initiatives (Bolten, 2003). The legislation required agencies to develop their IT infrastructures to meet the needs of the public and link information systems agency-wide. Additionally, the conversion and management of electronic records would improve the communication and accessibility of information for the federal agency, employees, and the public.
Title III of the E-Government Act, entitled the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and systems that support the operations and assets of the agency, including those provided or managed by another agency, contractor, or other sources (Staff, 2016). FISMA was amended by The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The amendment was established to modernize the Federal security practices to focus on security concerns. The results of these changes will strengthen continuous monitoring, continue focusing on agency compliance, and report on issues caused by security incidents. FISMA, Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Clinger-Cohen Act), clearly highlights the plans for a cost-effective security program. In support of and reinforcing this legislation, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) through Circular A-130, “Managing Federal Information as a Strategic Resource,”1 requires executive agencies within the federal government to:
While this is a good opportunity to build a business and has a lot of potential Ralph has hired an Enterprise Architecture Consultant to provide a solid Business Model which will allow for more consistency and will provide a foundation for more growth in the market. The Consultant will research the company, how it currently operates and will identify areas where business process standardization would provide benefits to the organization.
1.In your opinion, what are three main topics of chapter one? How do you know if you have a good foundation?
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Customer-centric, Service Oriented, State-of-the-art, Secure, Intelligent (CSI) systems redesign project would benefit from the application and use of an enterprise architecture program. The enterprise architecture team will work with many stakeholders within the DMV organization to outline the goals of the organization in terms of requirements, values, and ideal solutions that will help reach their objectives. The blueprinted solution needs to be customer focused and service oriented while addressing all of the DMV CSI redesign properties which includes system security, and state-of-the-art methods to support the new processes. Some more applicable benefits of having an Enterprise
The Department of Defense needed an architecture model to address growing complex systems where integration and interoperability were posing problems. February 1996, the Information Technology Management Reform Act, more commonly known as the Clinger-Cohen Act, was to reform and improve the ways that Federal agencies managed and acquired information technology resources with specific guidance in the United States Office of Management and Budget Circular (OMB). “The Clinger-Cohen Act supplements the information resources management policies by establishing a comprehensive approach for executive agencies to improve the acquisitions and management of their information resources by; focusing information resource planning to support strategic missions,
All Federal agencies of the United States government are experiencing issues and setbacks in one of the most critical areas, if not the most important part of the agencies, information technology. The United States Government lacks a universal solution of sharing IT policies and best practices. This missing virtual Wikipedia across all agencies is creating numerous problems in terms of organization, time, and resources. Many government agencies are using their own repositories that are either outdated and/or incompetent to standards that are questionable, arguably non-existing. Because of the lack of standards, IT productivity and security are at a low. With the increase of technology used across the agencies, it is customary to always adapt
Enterprise Architecture is an all-inclusive approach to managing the complexity of IT from a business viewpoint. A framework is used to help describe how to create and use an EA, in a manner that delivers business benefit in a cost - effective way. Each framework has a different approach to adding value to the business. These criteria will identify the ways an enterprise architecture framework adds business value, how adaptability and flexibility effect the overall adoption of an enterprise architecture framework, how the deliverables contribute to the success of an enterprise architecture, how does each framework take a strategic approach to reduce complexity of enterprise architecture, and how the framework encompasses the Software Development Lifecycle.
Jaap Schekkerman, the founder of IFEAD’s, developed the Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework (E2AF) in the early 2000’s. The E2AF is a communication framework that is a blended framework which takes standards from IEEE 1471, describes views and viewpoints of an architecture from a software-intensive system and elements of FEAF and TOGAF and a matrix structure similar to Zachman. E2AF is an architecture program that describes subjects and relations with all key stakeholders. It helps address the topics and process steps needed to reach an organizations overall goals and objectives (Schekkerman, 2006).
Building block two: the use of information technology systems in large government are large and expensive, and experience has shown that some systems have been costly and disastrous failures (Borins, 2006). Information technology is widely considered as a way of innovation, but with the technologic advancement it has been a challenge for government.