Summary
The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) mission is to promote the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the U.S. airspace system. To this end, FAA is modernizing its air traffic control systems, a multibillion dollar effort that GAO has designated as a high-risk program. GAO's research into the practices of successful public- and private-sector organizations has shown that developing and using an enterprise architecture, or blueprint, to guide and constrain systems investments is crucial to the success of such a modernization effort. GAO was asked to determine whether FAA has established effective processes for managing the development and implementation of an enterprise architecture.
FAA has two architecture projects--one for its National Airspace System (NAS) operations and one for its administrative and mission support activities--that together constitute its enterprise architecture program. However, it has established only a few of the management capabilities for effectively developing, maintaining, and implementing an architecture. For example, the agency reports that it has allocated adequate resources to the projects, and it has established project offices to be responsible for developing the architecture, designated a chief architect for each project, and released Version 5.0 of its NAS architecture. But the agency has yet to establish other key architecture management capabilities--such as designating a committee or group that represents the enterprise to direct, oversee, or approve the architecture, and establishing an architecture policy. FAA agreed that the agency needs an effective enterprise architecture program and stated that it plans to improve its management of both projects. For example, the agency intends to establish a steering committee; develop a policy that will govern the development, maintenance, and implementation of the architecture program; and have an approved architecture project management plan for the non-NAS architecture. GAO's experience in reviewing other agencies has shown that not having an effective enterprise architecture program can be attributed to, among other things, an absence of senior management understanding and support and cultural resistance to having and using one. It has also shown that attempting major systems modernization programs like FAA's without having and using an enterprise architecture often results in system implementations that are duplicative, are not well integrated, require costly rework to interface, and do not effectively optimize mission performance.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Randolph C. Hite
Government Accountability Office: Information Technology
(202) 512-6256
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To ensure that FAA has the necessary agencywide context within which to make informed decisions about its air traffic control system and other systems modernization efforts, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to demonstrate institutional commitment to and support for developing and using an enterprise architecture by issuing a written and approved enterprise architecture policy.
Agency Affected: Department of Transportation
Status: Implemented
Comments: In 2006, the FAA's Acquisition Management System, which establishes policy and guidance for all aspects of lifecycle acquisition management for the FAA and is approved by the FAA Administrator, was updated to require FAA to develop and use an enterprise architecture.
Recommendation: To ensure that FAA has the necessary agencywide context within which to make informed decisions about its air traffic control system and other systems modernization efforts, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to ensure that the chief information officer (CIO), in collaboration with the chief operating officer, implements, for the NAS architecture project, the best practices involved in stages 2 through 5 of our enterprise architecture management maturity framework.
Agency Affected: Department of Transportation
Status: In process
Comments: FAA has begun to implement, for the National Airspace System (NAS) architecture, the best practices involved in stages 2 through 5 of our enterprise architecture (EA) management maturity framework. For example, NAS enterprise architecture plans now call for describing the as-is environment, to-be environment, and sequencing plan and written and approved EA policies now exist for EA development and maintenance. However, a number of best practices have not been fully implemented. For example, according to FAA, NAS architecture progress measures were developed and adopted in September 2006, but there has not been sufficient time to explicitly measure progress of the architecture against those measures. In addition, according to FAA officials, NAS architecture products and management processes do not currently undergo independent verification and validation, but the agency plans to establish an independent verification and validation process during fiscal year 2007.
Recommendation: To ensure that FAA has the necessary agencywide context within which to make informed decisions about its air traffic control system and other systems modernization efforts, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to ensure that the CIO focuses first on developing and implementing a NAS architecture.
Agency Affected: Department of Transportation
Status: In process
Comments: FAA has begun to strengthen its enterprise architecture, which includes both the National Airspace System (NAS) and non-NAS architectures. According to agency officials, FAA recently upgraded the NAS architecture and integrated the architecture into its strategic management and capital planning and investment control processes. The agency has also adopted the Department of Defense Architecture Framework for NAS architecture products. According to agency officials, the current version of the NAS architecture will be reviewed and approved by FAA's Chief Information Officer in January 2007.
Recommendation: To ensure that FAA has the necessary agencywide context within which to make informed decisions about its air traffic control system and other systems modernization efforts, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to ensure that the CIO implements, for the non-NAS architecture project, the best practices involved in stages 2 through 5 of our enterprise architecture management maturity framework.
Agency Affected: Department of Transportation
Status: In process
Comments: FAA has begun to implement, for the non-National Airspace System (NAS) architecture project, the best practices involved in stages 2 through 5 of our enterprise architecture (EA) management maturity framework. For example, non-NAS enterprise architecture plans now call for describing the as-is environment, to-be environment, and sequencing plan and written and approved EA policies now exist for EA development and maintenance. However, a number of best practices have still not been fully implemented. For example, according to FAA officials, the FAA Chief Information Officer has not yet approved the non-NAS architecture, but will approve the April 2007 version of the non-NAS architecture. In addition, according to FAA officials, non-NAS architecture products and management processes do not currently undergo independent verification and validation, but the agency plans to establish an independent verification and validation process during fiscal year 2007.
