Home...Executive Summary

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a strategic planning and management discipline that is used to assist in the methodical design and management of a complex enterprise.  EA uses quantitative engineering techniques, perfected in complex manufacturing processes such as aircraft design and development, in order to cope with the accelerating change and radical increases in information, experienced by the modern enterprise.

EA provides assurance that business processes and technology investments are aligned with organization goals and objectives. EA assures that the predicted or promised benefits of projects are rationally measured and that the measured results and lessons learned are fed-back into strategic planning in order to improve the development process.  EA enforces reuse of existing assets (particularly information and process components) and EA encourages integration of processes in order to improve operating efficiency.

EA has evolved out of the information technology discipline and is most directly applied to the selection, design and development of IT investments; however, EA is as readily applicable to any management domain and any asset class within the enterprise. 

EA is mandated by Congress through the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and by OMB through Circular A-130:

• Agencies must have an EA;
• The EA must be used to justify and control investments;
• The CIO must be responsible for implementing the EA.

The primary purpose of the EA is to develop a course of action whereby VA business process engineering investments and information technology investments are assured to contribute significantly to accomplishing VA’s strategic goals and veteran service objectives.

The Mission of VA’s Enterprise Architecture is to articulate a direction in and foster the implementation of IT investments that:

• Support the mission and goals of VA;
• Improve service to veterans;
• Enforce economical investment and asset management;
• Exploit technological innovation to meet business objectives.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is continually challenged to improve its operating efficiency and the quality of service provided to its clients. Enterprise Architecture is used as a planning process for:

• Communicating and collaborating with VA stakeholders to capture and articulate VA business and service requirements;
• Defining VA's baseline (As-Is) business, information (data) and technology architecture;
• Defining VA 's target (To-Be) business, information and technology environment and identifying and performing the steps for moving from the baseline to the target stage (transition plan);
• Promoting information sharing, data reuse, sharable process component re-use and utilization of the President's Management Agenda Line of Business (PMA-LOB) solutions and e-Gov initiative solutions, inaugurated by OMB;
• Advising the Capital Planning and Investment Process (CPIC) on IT project selection and advising the Project Management Oversight Process on IT Project Conformance, and developing and exercising performance metrics to assure that IT project objectives are met;
• Identifying technology standards and best practices for business process re-engineering and technology selection and system development and identification and Selection of Emerging Technologies to meet VA 's client service needs;
• Aligning VA's EA with that of other federal Departments and Agencies through the Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office (FEA-PMO) initiatives, sponsored by OMB.

These then are the activities supported by the products and services provided in the EA Version 4.2 Architecture Assessment (February 2007). They are abstracted here and are explained in detail through the body of the EA V4.2 Assessment Web-portal publication.

The most important activity within EA and within the Office of Enterprise Architecture Management (OEAM) is communication and collaboration with VA's Stakeholders to determine business and service requirements and to validate results -- this activity is detailed within the EA Communications and Training Plan .

In order to know how to get to where it wants to go, VA must know from where it is starting.  The Baseline Architecture provides a description of existing business functions and processes, a description of existing information classes and an existing application inventory, as well as modeling constructs for associating these into composite views. This material is essential in developing a transition plan to get to the desired Target state.   The current Baseline Architecture information is detailed in the Baseline Architecture section.

Second in importance, only to stakeholder communications and collaboration, is defining and developing the Target Architecture.  This is where EA can make a proactive contribution to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of VA operations and to the quality of service offered to veterans.  The products defining this work and the current IT portfolio are detailed in the Target-Architecture section.

Facilitating information and process reuse, and utilizing PMA-LOB solutions, e-Gov solutions and COTS product solution election form a recurring theme throughout EA V4.2.  These themes are particularly emphasized within the IT portfolio discussions in the Target-Architecture  section and in the FEA-Alignment section.

Beginning with EA V4.2, OEAM is working with business and IT leadership to define a series of Segment Architectures. A Segment Architecture may define the discrete properties of a series of highly related business lines and their underlining technologies or it may define a series of enterprise-wide sharable services. Segment Architectures are used to create well-defined delineations of scope between process domains and well-defined interfaces to obtain shared services.  The use of Segment Architecture facilitates efficient IT project implementation and can reduce project risk and cost.  Segment Architecture development is directed by OMB and is fully supported by OEAM as an EA best practice.  VA’s Segment Architecture approach is discussed within the Segment Architecture Sub-Section of the Target Architecture .

OEAM has focused upon EA and portfolio results and upon EA collaboration during 2006 and 2007.  The Target Architecture has been expanded to emphasize these areas as follows: The Project Abstracts sub-section has been expanded to provide a value-proposition matrix, a Results section has been added to demonstrate progress achieved in meeting portfolio and EA objectives, and a Target Project Support Section has been added to emphasize OEAM’s direct support and involvement with EA business and Technology elements.

This monumental initiative is spearheaded by the development of the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) reference models by OMB in conjunction with the CIO Council.  VA's participation in the development of the FEA and VA's alignment with the federal reference models is represented in the FEA Alignment  section of EA V4.2.  This section also supports the Performance Line of Sight model which traces the implementation of VA's business objectives and metrics across business lines and processes and into the IT portfolio.

Please direct questions or comments concerning EA V4.2 and its usability to Al Zuech, Director, Enterprise Architecture Service at al.zuech@va.gov .