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FEDERAL
SECTOR
REPORT
November 2005
IN THIS ISSUE
The
FEA and Budget Alignment
Links
of
the
Month
Consulting
Services
Home
Page
(c) 2005 by the
P2C2 Group, Inc.
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PUTTING THE FEDERAL IN
EA
The federal budget will be getting tighter
in upcoming years, and the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) offers
a long-term solution. This can ultimately benefit agency budgets,
particularly true if you act now and get ahead of the transition curve.
However,
many agencies will need to redirect their EA activities to take
advantage of the FEA, because they still don't get it: Enterprise
Architecture isn't just about inventorying trees in the agency IT
woods, removing deadwood, and tidying up the brush. It's about mission
support: structuring information technology to serve as a painless and
cost-efficient environment for performing necessary business functions
that achieve measurable, mission-driven outcomes.
Many
of us forget to put the "F" in front of EA. The United States
Government is one enterprise, not a Holy Roman Empire of
semi-autonomous fiefdoms. Yet too often EA is lost in the woods of
agency-level stovepipe solutions. Agencies tend to argue that their IT
requirements are unique, which is seldom the case. With the exception
of certain national security systems, 80% of government electronics and
information technology spending is generic, even though the COTS
products may be combined somewhat differently like LEGO™
components.
Much
of today's EA activity focuses on inventorying, organizing, and
justifying the agency-level IT assets; developing blueprints of how to
replace the most egregious legacy systems; and devising a more
consistent schema that is peculiar to the agency. The problem with this
approach is that agencies are developing dozens and dozens of EA
solutions that rationalize and justify individual agency architectures
… but may not necessarily fit together in terms of a coherent, simple,
federal-wide architecture.
The
truth is that there will never be a single FEA until agencies dispense
with the notion that their organizations are islands, where IT must be
owned internally, and solutions must come from within.
Making IT a Utility
Actually, it would not be
terrible if agencies shared control of their information technology. We
use electricity for lights, water for toilets, and phones for voice
messages without maintaining agency-level control over these utilities.
Today
agency mission is the driver in
federal IT, and proprietary technology matters less and less.
Standards, such as XML and associated specifications, are making IT
platforms a commodity, as Scott Berinato pointed out in a recent CIO
magazine article, .Net, Web Services, and the End of the Vendor Era.
More pointedly, Karen
Evans has stated that "IT is a utility, and it's dependable, and it's
there." The Office of Management and Budget administrator for
e-government and information technology has made it clear that IT
should be seen as a federal-wide enterprise, not something
revolving around individual agencies. Her comments were highlighted in Evans:
Use IT as a utility in Federal Computer Week.
This line of thinking
suggests that agencies should be figuring out how to adopt and align
with a collaborative FEA, rather than construct their own EA solution.
This would mean that:
- It does matter for stakeholders to have a
voice in how an IT utility is run to meet the needs of customer
agencies, taxpayers, and the public
- Service Level Agreements and Memoranda of
Understanding will be the lingua franca of FEA-driven IT
utilities... requiring thoughtful negotiation
- An agency can plug into an existing
resource in the federal enterprise without needing to replicate
(duplicate) those resources
- It makes no sense to fight over ownership
and control--because it's all owned by the United States Government ...
or outsourced by common consent to the private sector
- It doesn't matter who is running the
resource as long as it's available, reliable, and meets requirements.
The IT Utility Network
The federal IT utility
won't be like an monolithic electrical power plant. Rather, it will be
like a national power grid--where many different plants are generating
resources and contributing to the overall supply. That's exactly where
federal IT is already headed: Initiatives for unified human
resources, payroll, and financial systems are examples of the many
emerging initiatives to put the most efficient solutions online in the
federal IT grid.
An agency may operate one
or several of these powerhouse solutions, but the overall IT resources
for each agency will depend on the federal-wide grid ... most of which
will be beyond the individual agency's boundaries.
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What CIOs Need to Do
The job of the CIO is to
enable his or her agency management team achieve maximum bang for the
mission at a justifiable IT cost. It doesn't really matter whether the
results are gained through in-house IT resources or pulled like a
rabbit out of a hat.
Federal
IT shops will help top management with process improvements that take
advantage of an efficient IT environment. And IT professionals will
have more time to contribute to the agency's business efficiency
because they won't be stressed out running a "do everything in-house
with custom solutions" IT operation.
What
is mandatory however is a strategy for getting "from here to there." As
mentioned above, there are upfront costs for making the transition, and
each agency will need to exhibit some "tough love" to negotiate a
budgetary transition. If successful, the agency can ultimately
experience a dramatic decrease in IT and OTHER COSTS.
This
article doesn't get into it, but the biggest savings from the FEA
revolution will be OTHER COSTS, streamlining business processes outside
of the IT arena. In most organizations, business processes accumulate
many quirks that slow down the momentum of the organization in carrying
out mission requirements. Revisiting procedures and streamlining them
can literally save taxpayers billions of dollars.
What Congress Can Do
Our lawmakers need to
streamline laws and regulations. Congress appends quirky process
requirements and deadlines that impede efficient operations and
obstruct a consistent business architecture for government. A federal
enterprise-wide IT utility requires an efficient, standardized process.
If Representative Smith wants 60-volt electricity while Senator Jones
prefers 240-volts for another agency, there are unreasonable and
unnecessary inefficiencies. Yet clinkers like these appear everyday and
result in convoluted business processes that are difficult to support
under a unified FEA.
Contractors
need to adopt generic, industry-wide standards for IT and attain a very
high CMM
level of proficiency in performance. This is already happening.
The largest IT companies responsible for "back end" services are
already becoming general managers of major assets in the IT utility
grid. Large and mid-size firms will continue to dominate markets for
operating specialized niche IT assets. Small companies will play a
support role, usually in functional specialty areas. Quality,
reliability, availability, measurable performance, and cost controls
will be paramount to market dominance.
Other
companies will play on the front-end--helping the government plan,
acquire and evaluate the emerging utility-oriented IT environment. This
is where the P2C2 Group is positioned.
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Governance
Architecture
Portfolio
Management
Investment Control
Acquisition
Performance
Project
Management
Risk Management
Security
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LINKS OF THE MONTH
Just
as a reminder, everyone should stay tuned for new developments in Federal Enterprise Architecture. As we
publish this newsletter, for example, agencies are preparing to respond
to OMB's requirements for EA Assessment Framework 2.0.
This
is a great time to explore quality options for consulting services.
E-mail or call to schedule a discussion with the P2C2 Group. Tell us
more about your needs, and we can recommend a solution ... complete
with a project plan, a team, and a cost estimate.
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CONTRACT VEHICLES
The P2C2 Group, Inc. is widely accessible through world-class prime
contractors, GSA schedules and other multiple-award contracts, and 8(a)
firms. Call Jim Kendrick at 301-942-7985 to discuss vehicles
appropriate to your agency.
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HOME PAGE
The year 2005 has been a joy.
I've had the pleasure to work with smart associates and interesting
clients. The P2C2 Group has grown as a company and has gained broadened
recognition. In addition, there has been time to enjoy life with
Elena, my kids, and some high-minded friends such as those in the
accompanying photo.
Best
wishes,
Jim Kendrick
Technology Management Consultant
4101 Denfeld Avenue
Kensington, MD 20895
301-942-7985
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