What is FMCSA Enterprise Architecture (EA)?
FMCSA EA is an Agency-wide management tool that guides information technology (IT)
investment decisions. It serves as the Agency's "blueprint" for planning, designing,
developing, and acquiring IT services, and aligning them with business processes.
Simply put, EA is the "glue" between FMCSA's business and IT.
Why is FMCSA EA Important?
The goal of the FMCSA EA is to develop, use, and maintain an ever-evolving EA
blueprint that is continuously aligned with FMCSA business processes and goals. Having
the EA structure in place will enable the Agency to provide an accessible source of consistent,
accurate, useful, reliable, and secure information and knowledge to FMCSA customers. This
service is a key factor in giving industry, state partners, and the general public what they
need to make informed choices and take appropriate actions regarding safety on America's highways.
Why is FMCSA Doing This?
The FMCSA mission is to reduce truck and
bus-related crashes and fatalities and make America's
highways safer, but there are extraordinary challenges to this mission—over-crowded roads,
keeping FMCSA safety data accurate and secure, and ensuring ease of access to and use of that
data. To face these challenges and continue fulfilling its mission, FMCSA must modernize its
business processes along with its information technologies.
A successful modernization process requires FMCSA to have a "blueprint" and the tools
necessary to move from our current ways of doing business toward a smoother and more
effective means of doing business. Both the blueprint and tools are provided through EA.
Having a consistent EA in place becomes increasingly important as we move forward. Simply put,
EA increases certainty around decisions we make regarding our IT solutions and how they support
the way we do business—all of which will help FMCSA fulfill its mission for safety.
FMCSA EA Aims to:
- Provide business leaders with a means to understand IT and inform business leadership of the
capabilities provided by IT;
- Create an IT architecture that helps map an organization's business processes with its
IT systems, enabling private and public sector institutions to free-up funds for more value-added,
mission-critical activities;
- Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations;
- Support business and IT decision making, as well as planning, implementation, and
maintenance of IT services.
Developing FMCSA Enterprise Architecture
The design and delivery of FMCSA EA is organized under the Office of Research and Information Technology, headed by Terry Shelton, Associate Administrator for Research and Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. The program is led by Hesh Ansari as Chief Architect and Division Chief of IT Development.
The EA team, in collaboration with other FMCSA staff and external partners, has set the overall structure of FMCSA's EA program along with the processes and governance that support the program. Also completed is the EA Program Plan, which identifies the set of activities that are required to develop, maintain, and use the FMCSA EA.
In the future, the intention is that the FMCSA EA will remain adaptable so that the Agency stays responsive to a variety of demands over time, including new legislation and executive directives, emerging technologies, and opportunities for improvement.
How Do FMCSA's EA Efforts Line up with the Larger Federal Picture?
Just as important a benefit to the Agency is that our EA efforts bring us into compliance with the Office of Management and Budget requirement that FMCSA have an EA plan in place.
Our EA approach also lines up directly with what the Federal government has developed as
specific standards for what an EA plan must include. These standards are incorporated into
a Federal Enterprise
Architecture (FEA), which provides a common framework that Agencies use to develop and operate
their own EA activities. Having these Federal guidelines helps in standardizing IT investment
decisions, resulting in better safety information, procedures, and policies.
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