CSPP 51075 Spring 2011

FEA refresher
 Overview
▪ Background
▪ Five Reference Models

Federal segment architecture methodology
(FSAM)
 What is segment architecture?
 How is FSAM related to FEA?
 What is it for?
Responsibility for FEAF
moves to the Office of
Management and Budget
1999: FEAF v1.1
released
1996:
Congress
passes
ClingerCohen Act.
1987: Zachman
publishes "A
Framework for
Information
Systems
Architecture"
1998: CIO
Council begins
work on its first
major project,
the Federal
Enterprise
Architecture
Framework
(FEAF)
2002:OMB
renames FEAF to
FEA
2011?
2004: General
Accounting
Office reports
that only 20 of 96
federal agencies
have established
at least the
foundation for
effective
architecture
management.
2008: FSAM v1.0
released by CIO
Council’s
Architecture and
Infrastructure
Committee
FEA
SA
FSAM
Federal
Government
Office of
Management
and Budget
General
Services
Administration
Federal CIO
Council
(et cetera)
Office of EGovernment
and IT
FEA Program
Management
Office
FEA
SA
FSAM

Attempt by Federal Government to unite its various agencies under a common
EA

FEA Program Management Office “equips OMB and federal agencies with a common
language and framework to describe and analyze IT investments, enhance collaboration and
ultimately transform the Federal government”
▪

Clinger-Cohen Act (1996), aka Information Technology Management Reform Act

Put the director of the OMB in charge of:
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪


Goal: Facilitate communication, cooperation, collaboration, and sharing across agencies by giving
standard terms and definitions for the domains of enterprise architecture
Improving acquisition and use of IT by federal government
Developing process to analyze risks and results of IT investments
Overseeing the development and implementation of standards and guidelines for federal IT systems
Encouraging the heads of executive agencies to adhere to best practices
Assessing and comparing other models for IT management that are being used by other organizations
Mandated that the heads of executive agencies design and implement process to improve the
effectiveness of their IT investments
A CIO Council, consisting of CIOs from all major governmental bodies, was
created to oversee this effort


Chair of the CIO Council is the Deputy Director for Management for OMB
Vice Chair is elected by the CIO Council from its membership. Membership on the Council
comprises CIOs and Deputy CIOs from 28 Federal executive agencies
FEA
SA
FSAM

Five interrelated reference models





Performance
Business
Service Component
Technical
Data
FEA
Taxonomy, i.e.
classification of
artifacts
Architectural
Process, i.e. recipe
for creating artifacts
▪ Enable cross-agency analysis
▪ Helps to identify redundancies, gaps, opportunities for collaboration

Three general profiles
 Geospatial
 Records Management
 Security and Privacy
▪ Intended to promote consistent, common EA practices that improve government
performance
FEA
SA
FSAM


A Reference Model is a set of references to
artifacts necessary to define the scope, content,
rules and processes subsumed under a particular
architectural domain, including relationships to
other models
Each model contains:




PPSG
Baseline state, target architecture
Transition roadmap/migration plan
Reference to governance plans that specify how
activities are to be governed
FEA
SA
FSAM

Framework for measuring
performance and outputs
across enterprise
Measurement area
e.g. Customer
Results
 Provides means of measuring
success of IT investments and
their impact on strategic
outcomes

Three objectives:
Measurement category
e.g. Timeliness and
Responsiveness
 Produce enhanced
performance information
 Create clear line of sight from
inputs to outputs
Measurement grouping
e.g. Response time
▪ Articulate cause and effect
 Identify opportunities for
performance improvement,
across organizational
boundaries
Measurement indicator
e.g. how many minutes
you’re placed on hold
FEA
SA
FSAM

Framework for business view
(as opposed to
organizational) view of LOBs
Business area e.g.
Services for Citizens
 LOBs include internal
organizations, services for
citizens
 Independent of the agency
performing the LOB
Define mission-critical lines
of business, business
processes, and functions
 Describes enterprise around
common business areas,
instead of department by
department

 Promotes collaboration
LOB e.g. Natural
Resources
Subfunction e.g. water
resource management,
which is a standard
business capability
FEA
SA
FSAM

Provides framework for
classifying service components
according to how they support
performance and business goals
 Defines the types and instances of
services required to support
business processes
 Gives a more IT view of systems
that can support business
functionality

Organized along horizontal
service areas, independent of
business function
Service domain
e.g. Back Office
Services
Service type e.g.
Human Resources
 Provides foundation for reuse of
components
▪ Component = self-contained business
process/service with predetermined
functionality that may be exposed
through a business or technology
interface
Component e.g.
Recruiting
FEA
SA
FSAM

Component-driven,
technical framework for
categorizing the
standards and
technologies to support
delivery of Service
Components
 Identifies and describes
the technology
(components, interfaces)
used to support BRM
 Defines technologies and
standards that can be used
in building IT systems.
Service area e.g.
service access
and delivery
Service category
e.g. service
transport
Service standard
e.g. HTTP protocol
FEA
SA
FSAM

Standards-based framework to
enable information sharing and
reuse, via standardizing:
 Data description
 Data discovery, through viewing
Data sharing:
query access,
exchange
data in context within a taxonomy
 Data sharing – access and
exchange

Defines the concepts,
structures, values, enumerations
required by the BRM in the
context of the TRM
 Standardizes method of describing
data, e.g. defines an entity as
something that contains attributes
and participates in relationships
 Facilitates inter-agency
communication about data
Data description:
data and data
assets
Data context:
taxonomies
FEA
SA
FSAM

Agencies are judged on:
 Architectural completion
▪ Maturity of EA
 Architectural use
▪ How effectively the agency uses EA to drive decisionmaking
 Architectural results
▪ Benefits gained from using EA
FEA
SA
FSAM

Advantages:
 Provides detailed transition process
 Designed to manage complexity of enterprise

Disadvantages
 Not as useful as Zachman, taxonomy-wise
 Still at a fairly high level
FEA
SA
FSAM

In Jan 2008, FSA Working Group within Architecture
and Infrastructure Committee was formed
 Wanted to leverage existing EA best practices to develop a
standard methodology for creating and using segment
architectures (SA)
 Developed FSAM: a step-by-step process influenced by EA
best practices
▪ FSAM contains simple templates that speed up SA development
and usage, and guided steps for developing SA
▪ These steps are meant to help architects establish clear relationships
between goals, business requirements, info management requirements, and
performance measures within each segment
▪ FSAM intended to be a scalable, repeatable process
▪ Designed to allow segment-specific customization
FEA
SA
FSAM

FEA perspective of how EAs should be viewed:
the segment model
 An enterprise is made up of organizational units called
segments
 Segment = major LOB functionality, e.g. HR
▪ Segment != individual agency
 Segment = organizational unit for an EA
▪ Not just related to technical implementation, but also related
to business architecture and data architecture
 Segments are defined globally, which facilitates reuse
across political boundaries e.g. across federal
agencies
FEA
SA
FSAM

“Detailed results-oriented architecture (baseline and target) and a transition
strategy for a portion or segment of the enterprise.” -OMB

Two types of segments:

Core mission-area segments
▪
▪
▪

Business services segments
▪
▪
▪
▪

Represents unique service area that defines/is central to the mission or purpose of the agency
E.g. for the Health and Human Services agency, “health” is a core mission-area segment
Other examples: tactical defense, air transportation, energy supply, pollution prevention
Areas that are foundational to most, if not all, (political) organizations/agencies within the overall
enterprise
Supporting core mission-area segments, at the level of individual agencies
Defined at the enterprise level i.e. overall government
Examples: financial management, HR
Above the individual segment level, there are “enterprise services”




Includes common/shared IT services supporting core mission-area segments and business
services segments
Spans across agency boundaries to encompass whole enterprise
Only effective when functions at enterprise level, defined at enterprise level
Examples: security management, business intelligence
FEA
SA
FSAM
FEA
SA
FSAM
▪ Relationship of the 3 different segments across multiple
agencies
FEA
SA
FSAM
FEA
SA
FSAM
ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

Identifies common/shared assets

SEGMENT ARCHITECTURE

Defines roadmap for a core mission
area, business service or enterprise
service

Driven by business management,
delivers products that improve the
delivery of services to citizens and
agency staff.

From investment perspective, drives
decisions for a business case or
group of business cases supporting a
core mission area or common or
shared service.
Could be strategies, business
processes, investments, data,
systems, technologies

Driven by strategy, helps agency
identify whether its resources are
aligned to its goals and mission

From investment perspective, drives
decisions about the IT investment
portfolio as a whole
FEA
SA
FSAM

Related to EA through 3 principles:
 Structure
▪ SA inherits FEA framework
▪ May extend framework to meet custom needs of a core mission area or
shared service
 Reuse
▪ SA reuses important assets defined at EA level
▪ Data
▪ Common business processes and investments
▪ Applications and technologies
 Alignment
▪ SA aligns with important elements defined at EA level
▪
▪
▪
▪
Business strategies
Mandates
Standards
Performance goals
FEA
SA
FSAM
FEA
SA
FSAM
Performance Improvement Lifecycle
FEA
SA
FSAM

Provides a detailed results-oriented architecture to agency

Typical SA will:
 Capture the segment-level change drivers
 Identify baseline and target performance
 Provide transition plan for segment toward target

Outcomes of a well-developed SA:
 Identifies opportunities to deliver business value, defines target performance
measures to monitor and demonstrate performance improvements
 Describes opportunities to reuse or provide common solutions
▪ Contributes to common understanding of what a segment does, and how the segment
supports the agency’s goals
▪ Useful for cross-agency initiatives
 Approved in context of the agency’s EA
 Drives investment planning and allocation for core mission area or
common/shared service
▪ Aligns with business resources
FEA
SA
FSAM

Federal agencies are required to submit EA Segment Report to OMB
 One report for each segment identified
 Quarterly updates
 Segment report contains:
▪ Identification of segment
▪ Describe segment and its current state
▪ Mappings
▪ Maps the segment to FEA and to investments, programs, and cross-agency initiatives
▪ Performance
▪ Creates line of sight for segment performance
▪ Includes any success stories attributed to segment architecture
▪ Transition planning
▪ Provides segment transition milestones to track segment development
▪ Collaboration and reuse
▪ Provides information on business, data, and information system sharing and reuse by the segment
and any partners/other stakeholders

Agencies have to align each IT investment to a primary segment, and
optionally a secondary segment
FEA
SA
FSAM

Defines agency IT assets
 E.g. applications or components used to
automate and improve individual agency business
functions
 Scope of solution architecture = single project
 Related to EA and SA through definitions and
constraints
▪ E.g. SA provides definitions of data used within core
mission area, which are accessed by individual solutions
▪ Solution may be constrained to specific
technologies/standards defined at EA level
FEA
SA
FSAM

Architectural analysis
 Define clear vision for segment, relate it to overall
organizational plan

Architectural definition
 Define target state for SA and performance goals,
consider design alternatives, design SA

Investment and funding strategy
 Look for funding for the project

Program-management plan, execute projects
 Create plan for managing and executing project,
including milestones and metrics
FEA
SA
FSAM
FEA
SA
FSAM
Leverage FSAM for multiple segment architecture
development efforts
 Use FSAM as a consistent process to measure and
streamline their segment architecture development
processes

 In many instances, segment architectures are developed using
different methods and techniques within the same enterprise
 FSAM will help Enterprise Architects maintain consistency in
approach for segment architecture development and use
▪ Consistent approach within FSAM will help Enterprise Architects
reconcile the segments into an enterprise-wide view of the architecture
 Can leverage the FSAM's standard transition planning artifacts
to develop the Enterprise Transition Plan
FEA
SA
FSAM

Determine the executive sponsor – someone willing to sponsor
the segment transformation
 Active role in shaping direction of SA

Develop purpose statement for segment
 Communicate why we’re creating the SA
▪ Establish why SA is important and our goals for SA

Solicit core team members
 Subject matter experts from the relevant organizations affected by SA
 Want competent people to develop actionable SA

Create core team charter and project plan
 State roles, roster, project scope, decision-making structure
 Begin with common intentions, common expectations

Establish communication strategy
 Identify audience, select communication media
FEA
SA
FSAM

Establish segment scope and context
 High-level identification of segment stakeholders, business
domains, mission-area services, etc.
 Create segment summary description
▪ Include overview of security/privacy requirements and drivers for the
segment

Identify and prioritize strategic improvement
opportunities
 Identify stakeholder needs, segment risks, performance gaps

Define segment strategic intent
 Review improvement opportunities, clarify target outcomes,
establish performance scorecard

Validate and communicate scope and strategic intent
FEA
SA
FSAM

Determine current environment associated with strategic
improvement opportunities
 Identify the portions of current business requirements that are
relevant to improvement opportunities identified in step 2

Determine business and information improvement
opportunities
 Align strategic improvement opportunities to business and data
architecture, identify adjustments needed

Define target optimal business and data architecture
 Includes business processes, data relationships, data stewards

Validate and communicate target business and data
architectures
FEA
SA
FSAM

Conceptual solution architecture (!= Solution Architecture):
 This defines segment systems and services (e.g., business and data
exchange)
 Including supporting technical and service components used to
automate and improve business functions within a segment
▪ Specification of components should be vendor-agnostic as much as possible

Assess systems and technology environment for how well they
support performance, business, and data requirements
 Define the currently existing conceptual solution architecture, check
for necessary adjustments needed

Define target conceptual solution architecture
 Emphasis should be on reuse opportunities

Identify and analyze system and service transition dependencies,
risks, potential issues
 Look for possible alternative transition options

Validate and communicate conceptual solution architecture
FEA
SA
FSAM

Analyze each transition option to determine
costs, benefits, risks
 Develop implementation recommendations

Develop draft blueprint and sequencing plan
 Draft blueprint = summary of results from business
analysis, strategy
▪ Provides overview of target data, services, technology
environment, transition option analysis, implementation
recommendations
 Implementation sequencing plan = info on timing and
dependencies of the work breakdown

Review, finalize, obtain core team approval
FEA
SA
FSAM

FSAM is a useful addition to FEA
 FSAM provides concrete guidelines for creating
segment architecture
 Emphasis on communication at each step means
that results of an agency’s SA creation can be
learned from and reproduced by other agencies

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fea_docs/FEA
_CRM_v23_Final_Oct_2007_Revised.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fea_docs/FEA
_Practice_Guidance_Nov_2007.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fea_docs/FY1
0_Ref_Model_Mapping_QuickGuide_Aug_2008_Revised1.pdf

http://www.fsam.gov/about-federal-segment-architecturemethodology.php

http://www.cio.gov/Documents/FSAMv1.pdf

http://www.fsam.gov/federal-segment-architecture-methodologytoolkit/step1.php