FAQ: BEA
Frequently Asked Questions for BEA 5.0
- What is the Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA)?
- Where can I find a copy of the BEA?
- Why is the BEA important to the Department of Defense?
- Is the BEA the only transformation tool?
- How are the BEA and Enterprise Transition Plan (ETP) related?
- What are the DoD's Business Enterprise Priorities? How do they relate to the BEA?
- What is the scope of the BEA? Will priorities change in each version?
- Does the BEA 5.0 address gaps from previous versions? What other revisions were made?
- Has the scope in the BEA 5.0 changed from the initial scope in the BEA 4.1?
- Does the BEA provide solutions?
- Does the BEA use the DoD Architecture Framework? If so, what products are included?
- What is the focus of the BEA 5.0?
- What are the next steps for the BEA?
- When is the next scheduled release of the BEA?
The Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) is the enterprise architecture for the Department of Defense's (DoD's) business information infrastructure and includes processes, data, data standards, business rules, operating requirements, and information exchanges. The BEA serves as the blueprint to ensure the right capabilities, resources and materiel are rapidly delivered to our warfighters through ensuring accurate, reliable, timely and compliant information across the DoD. The BEA achieves improved support to the warfighter through enabling streamlined processes, getting the Armed Forces what they need, where they need it, when they need it.
The BEA 5.0 can be found at the Business Transformation Agency web site at www.defenselink.mil/bta/. Select the "Business Enterprise Architecture" link under the NewsWire or select "BEA" link in the "Products" menu options below the page banner.
The BEA is critical to the DoD because it defines business transformation priorities, business capabilities required to support those priorities, and systems and initiatives that enable these capabilities. The BEA articulates the future vision of change within the Department's business enterprise. The BEA also guides and constrains investments that impact business operations in the DoD.
No. The BEA is one element of the DoD's greater transformational effort, not the sole element. The major milestones for the systems and initiatives that are critical to achieving the transformation priorities are outlined in the Enterprise Transition Plan (ETP). Although the ETP is a separate document, the BEA and the ETP are integrated and cross-referenced at the appropriate intersections.
The BEA is the blueprint and the ETP is the roadmap for the Department's business transformation. The BEA provides the architectural framework for the Department's interoperable information infrastructure. The ETP articulates a systematic process for delivering improved capabilities that will have a major impact on the performance of DoD's business mission.
The Business Enterprise Priorities help focus the Department's attention and resources
on areas that will have the greatest impact across the enterprise. These six priorities
will provide enduring improvements and benefits to the Department's business infrastructure.
The six Business Enterprise Priorities detailed in the current version of the BEA
are:
- Personnel Visibility (PV), which is the fusion of accurate human resources
(HR) information and secure, interoperable technology within the Human Resources
Management (HRM) core business mission. PV is defined as having reliable information
that provides visibility of military service members, civilian employees, military
retirees, contractors (in theater), and other U.S. personnel, across the full spectrum
- during peacetime and war, through mobilization and demobilization, for deployment
and redeployment, while assigned in a theater of operation, at home base, and into
retirement.
- Acquisition Visibility, which is defined as achieving timely access
to accurate, authoritative, and reliable information supporting acquisition oversight,
accountability, and decision making throughout the Department for effective and
efficient delivery of warfighter capabilities. Benefits: a more flexible business
environment that supports better investment decisions, greater accountability, increased
management agility, and improved reporting to Congress.
- Common Supplier Engagement (CSE), which is the alignment and integration
of the policies, processes, data, technology and people to provide a consistent
experience for suppliers and DoD stakeholders to ensure reliable and accurate delivery
of acceptable goods and services to support the warfighter. Benefits include improved
supplier relationships through consistent data and processes between DoD and its
suppliers; reliable and accurate delivery of goods and services; increased visibility
of supplier activities that increase ability to meet socioeconomic goals; and operational
efficiencies in contingency and garrison operations through standardized data, processes,
and systems.
- Materiel Visibility (MV), which is defined as the ability to locate
and account for materiel assets throughout their lifecycle and provide transaction
visibility across logistics systems in support of the joint warfighting mission.
Benefits include timely and accurate information on the location, movement, status,
and identity of unit equipment, materiel and supplies, greatly improving overall
supply chain performance.
- Real Property Accountability (RPA) provides the warfighter and Core Business Missions (CBMs) access to near-real-time secure, accurate and reliable
information on real property assets, and environment, safety, and occupational health
sustainability. Accurate and timely data is fundamental to effective management
of the assets, and ultimately to military success. The Real Property and Installations
Lifecycle Management CBM will provide the warfighter and other CBMs with continuous
access to Installations and Environment (I&E) information.
- Financial Visibility (FV) means having immediate access to accurate
and reliable financial information (planning, programming, budgeting, accounting,
and cost information) in support of financial accountability and efficient and effective
decision making throughout the Department in support of the missions of the warfighter.
The scope of the BEA is defined by the six Business Enterprise Priorities (BEPs),
as constrained by the following four "Golden Questions":
- Who are our people; what are their skills; where are they located?
- Who are our industry partners, and what is the state of our relationship with them?
- What assets are we providing to support the warfighter, and where are these assets deployed?
- How are we investing our funds to best enable the warfighting mission?
The answers to these questions provide the unfulfilled information needs of DBSMC
decision makers. As new priorities are identified and existing priorities mature, the DoD may refine and extend the BEA to address these priorities.
BEA 5.0 addresses selected architecture gaps identified in the previous release's AV-1, Overview and Summary, the Findings and Recommendations and the Enterprise Transition Plan. In addition to new content, the current release includes architecture maintenance work to clarify existing content and improve the usability, production, and functionality of the architecture. The table below identifies gaps addressed by each BEP for BEA 5.0.
| BEP |
Gaps Addressed in BEA 5.0 |
| Acquisition Visibility (AV) |
- Updated Acquisition Data Elements to support Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Data Initiative
|
| Common Supplier Engagement (CSE) |
- Incorporated standard transactions data concepts for Receipt and Acceptance process
- Redefined aspects of Manage Entitlement process (in conjunction with FV)
- Updated requirements for Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker (SPOT)
- Performed minor content and technical updates
|
| Financial Visibility (FV) |
- Improved data representation of Standard Financial Information Structure (SFIS) for interoperability
- Performed minor content and technical updates
|
| Materiel Visibility (MV) |
- Improved representation of enterprise level data elements alignment with Logistics Master Data (LMD) and Defense Logistics Management System (DLMS)
Data
- Added Logistics Business Planning Look-Ahead activities
|
| Personnel Visibility (PV) |
- Added Cross-Service Support Requirements (CSSR) and Enterprise Human Resources Information Standards (EHRIS)
- Added Investment Priority Management activities
- Performed minor content and technical updates
|
| Real Property Accountability (RPA) |
- Added additional Location information for geospatial enablement
- Improved representation of Real Property Inventory (RPI) and Environmental Liabilities (EL)
- Improved representation of Product Hazard Data (PHD)
|
No. The transformation effort guiding BEA development focuses on providing tangible outcomes for a limited set of priorities and developing architectures that are linked, realistic, and actionable. The scope of the architecture release has been defined by six BEPs, which permits the BEA to evolve in a controlled and consistent fashion. BEA 5.0 continues these efforts.
No. The BEA provides the architectural framework for an information infrastructure for the DoD, including business rules, requirements, data standards, system interface requirements, and the depiction of policies and procedures. This framework is provided through a set of DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) products, including Operational, Systems and Services, Technical Standards and All View products.
The BEA is an enterprise-level transformation architecture. Under the tiered accountability paradigm, specific solutions will be developed at the Component and Program level, based upon BEA requirements.
Yes. As with prior releases of BEA, this release included the following set of DoD
Architecture Framework products.
| Name |
Title |
Translation |
| AV-1 |
Overview and Summary |
Executive overview |
| AV-2 |
Integrated Dictionary |
Encyclopedia |
| OV-2 |
Operational Node Connectivity Description |
Who does what? |
| OV-3 |
Operational Information Exchange Matrix |
Who says what to whom? |
| OV-5 |
Activity Model |
What gets done? |
| OV-6a |
Operational Rules Model |
What are the business rules? |
| OV-6c |
Business Process Model |
How do things get done? |
| OV-7 |
Logical Data Model |
What information is needed? |
| SV-1 |
Systems Interface Description |
What IT systems will support what gets done? |
| SV-5 |
Operational Activity to Systems Function Traceability Matrix |
What can be supported through IT systems? |
| SV-6 |
Systems Data Exchange Matrix |
What information is exchanged between systems? |
| TV-1 |
Technical Standards Profile |
What are the Standards? |
BEA 5.0, released in March 2008, focuses in two areas:
- Additional content for Implementation and Investment Management
- Standardization of Data Structures
BEA 5.0 will increase the value that architecture brings to DoD's transformation efforts. This improvement is guided by responses to an on-line questionnaire and a series of focus groups, both of which served to provide requirements for stabilizing the BEA, increasing its usability, and enhancing its visualization. Focus groups included representatives from investment review boards, Component enterprise architects, and program managers and staff of major DoD business systems. Planned improvements will enable the BEA to better support informed decision making and investment review, ensure the BEA is useful, usable, and properly configured to guide implementation and allow federation of the BEA, Component, and Program architectures in support of common business capability improvements. The requirements gathered will serve as the foundation for senior leadership to then determine the prioritized scope and content for BEA 5.0 and beyond.
During the BEA 5.0 development process, the following factors emerged as drivers for the BEA 6.0 release and future releases:
- BEA Compliance
- Enterprise Standards for Data
- SOA Services for System Interoperability in support for implementation of ERPs across DoD
- Architecture Federation
Historically the BEA has been released on a semi-annual basis. Releases now occur annually, beginning with the BEA 4.1 release in March 2007. The decision to move to an annual March release, concurrent with release of the March Congressional Report , stabilizes the BEA to reduce the frequency of changes that services and programs must assert to when showing compliance to the BEA. As such, the BEA release schedule
corresponds with the Investment Review Board's (IRB) Fiscal Year appropriation decision schedule.
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