The above article was published in the June 2004 edition of FEDTECH Magazine. It addresses my observations on the enterprise architecture component of the Bush administration's IT management agenda. The article is one in the series I write entitled "The Business of IT."

1. THE BUSINESS OF IT: MY KINGDOM FOR AN ARCHITECTURE
Paul Wohlleben: “I believe the single greatest
management impact a senior executive in government
can have is to avoid duplication of systems, programs
and infrastructures.”
I
Paul Wohlleben is a former
t seems everywhere you turn in the federal
federal CIO and a partner at community these days, you’re bombarded with
Grant Thornton LLP. His
column examines the key discussions about information technology
issues that are involved in architecture: What is it? Why is it important?
managing IT in government
organizations. How do I create one? How do I manage with
one? Where do I find IT architects? In survey after
survey, federal CIOs list IT architecture as one of
their top priorities.
Contrast this with the situation of costs and improvement of results.
only a few years ago, when CIOs were OMB has embarked on a course
not conversant in architecture-speak. that will consolidate systems,
To make matters worse, IT architects— programs and infrastructures to
and their eye-glazing briefings on achieve those objectives, and IT
budding architectural projects—were architecture is the compass. As
routinely banished from proximity a key planning and analysis tool,
to the executive suite. architecture is being used to guide
What has changed? both strategic and tactical decisions.
Why has IT architecture Let’s look at the duplication of
come so overwhelmingly systems and efforts to solve what are
in vogue? What makes essentially the same problems—a
CIOs repeat the refrain, common issue both within agencies
“Architecture, and across government. Such
architecture, my duplication results in increased costs,
kingdom for an as well as inefficiencies in process
architecture”? and information handling at the
The short answer enterprise level.
is that Office of
Management and Looking Across Common Functions
Budget (OMB) At the federal level, OMB has
leadership in spearheaded creation of the Federal
President Bush’s Enterprise Architecture (FEA), which
administration clearly lets OMB look across many of
sees IT architecture—when the common business functions of
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE BARRETT
used in conjunction with IT government. The agency has begun
capital planning—as a key to use this capability to examine
management tool. More proposed IT investment projects and,
precisely, the President’s most importantly, to refuse to fund
Management Agenda is shining efforts that will duplicate a similar
a bright spotlight on more existing capability or a project that is
effective management under way.

2. Looking through the FEA lens, Agencies Need a Vision
OMB also has begun to scrutinize However, while OMB has unflaggingly
information technology infrastructure pushed the envelope on the practice IT MANAGERS RATE
across the federal government and to of information technology TOP 10 CHALLENGES
press for consolidation. architecture, the story at the
Using this tool, OMB can peer department and agency levels is much In November 2003, 114
through the fog of claimed more mixed. To be effective, agencies federal IT managers
“uniqueness” of both application must have a vision of what mission participated in a survey by
systems and infrastructures and reveal success is; sponsorship must come the Association for Federal
the unifying similarities among them. from a level senior enough to ensure Information Resources
Management (AFFIRM) and
This clarifies management vision and that key organizational components
rated the top 10 challenges
facilitates the making and executing participate in development of the
they faced that year.
of budget decisions. architecture; and they must have
But, as powerful as such tools are, agreement on a governance process
the most powerful—the Performance
Reference Model—has yet to be fully
that will let the agency use the
architecture to drive
1 Getting adequate funding
for IT programs and
projects
unleashed. the organization to its vision.
Several large departments have
Imagine a Model
Imagine, if you will, a model of
sizable IT and business process
architecture efforts under way, and
2 Hiring and retaining skilled
professionals
common business processes and the they have made good progress with
3 Formulating or implementing
an enterprise architecture
While OMB has unflaggingly
‘‘
pushed the envelope on the 4 Implementing IT capital
planning and investment
management across
practice of information the agency
technology architecture, the story at the
department and agency level is much 5 Unifying islands of
automation within their
lines of business across
more mixed. To be effective, agencies agencies
must have a vision of what mission 6 Making the business
and cultural changes
success is.” needed for full E-Gov
transformations
discrete activities that together make them. They have demonstrated
up those processes, used in conjunction
with metrics that specify expected
progress with the three key
components of success: vision, 7 Aligning IT and
organizational mission
goals
performance. sponsorship and governance.
Then imagine a cost associated with However, too often, agencies do
each unit of performance. For example, a
number of agencies publish regulations
not have these elements in place.
Instead, they are developing 8 Consolidating common
IT functions
through the formal rulemaking process. architectures in the stovepipe of the
One of the Quicksilver initiatives is the
E-Rulemaking project.
Let’s assume that OMB calculated an
IT organization, with little over-the-
horizon thinking regarding a
governance process.
9 Simplifying business
processes to maximize the
benefit of technology
average cost to publish a regulation and Illumination will come as time
that the budgeting process consisted of
providing a level of resources derived
from that average cost per unit times
brings understanding and maturity.
But it may not matter. As anyone
involved with government knows,
10 Balancing public access
to information with the
need for information
the number of regulations you in the end the budget is the most security.
expected to promulgate that year. Is it effective management tool.
Source: AFFIRM Web site:
too radical to believe that budgeting for That raises the paramount www.affirm.org/Pubs/wpapers/FedChief
the costs of these common business question: How soon and how far will .htm
processes may be based on such a the performance budgeting envelope
model? I think not. be pushed?
CDWG.COM JUNE 2004 FEDTECH 17