The USDA Enterprise Architecture Program is driven by the need to make good business decisions in a timely fashion. This includes support for IT investment analysis, managerial planning, and support for IT project managers and developers. A major purpose of the Enterprise Architecture at USDA is gap analysis, including related decisions as to how to transition the architecture from its existing state to the desired target.

Additionally, a purpose of the Enterprise Architecture program at USDA is to promote the development, use, and sharing of standards and other information. USDA's IT operations and development efforts are decentralized, with each agency developing and implementing technology designed to support their respective business needs with limited sharing efforts.

The USDA Enterprise Architecture operates on a federated model, with portions leveraged from previous Enterprise Architecture efforts. New sections of the architecture are being developed on an ongoing basis. This includes the common enterprise portions, agency portions, architectures developed in common with federal departments (e.g., the Federal Health Architecture and the National Wildland Fire Architecture), and state-level architectures.

http://www.ocio.usda.gov/e_arch/e_programs.html