IT Investment and Planning Statewide Enterprise Architecture

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IT Investment and Planning

Department

Statewide Enterprise Architecture

Background

What is Enterprise Architecture?
Enterprise Architecture (EA) translates business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution.

EA relates broadly to the practice of business optimization through the alignment of business lines, business information, business solutions and technology to meet strategic goals.

Why Pursue Enterprise Architecture?
Enterprise Architecture can improve service delivery, lower costs and increase the performance of state government. The federal government and many states have adopted EA methods, rigors and concepts to bring about organizational improvements and meet strategic goals.

EA implementation addresses many of the goals set out in the Enterprise Information Resources Management Strategy (EIRMS). The EA effort directly supports and enables Objective 1.2 of the EIRMS to develop an Enterprise Architecture. This objective contributes to Goal 1 of the strategy, to effectively plan and execute government IT projects.

How will Enterprise Architecture be implemented?
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is not a one-time project, not a document, or any number of diagrams. EA is an ongoing program for translating business vision and strategy into enterprise change. EA creates, communicates and improves the key principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution. EA will provide contexts and guidance to projects that will improve the reliability, interoperability and sustainability of business solutions, processes, information and technology used by governmental entities in Oregon.

The CIO Council chartered the first iteration of an EA program in November 2006. Iteration-1 focuses on establishing prerequisites, building a foundation for future progress and completing the high-level of models and principles by July 1, 2007. More information about the goals, organization and plans for Iteration-1 is published in the program charter.

Where are we now?
Program maturity assessments provide a means of evaluating program development and program valuation. Maturity assessments identify constraints that might inhibit program success. The information derived from the maturity assessment is used to focus efforts on activities providing the most value to the enterprise. Assessments help to determine a target maturity for the next iteration the program. Finally, a maturity assessment helps to track the development of the program over time.

The Enterprise Architecture program completed a maturity assessment in the fourth-quarter of 2006. Overall, the assessment showed the components of the EA program to be immature and in the formative stages of growth. The statewide self‑assessment “consensus” score indicates both opportunities and challenges for growth and maturation of an EA program. The successful completion of Iteration-1 will result in incremental program maturation and lay the foundation increased program maturity.

Framework for Govt Excellence

A fundamental change in the way government investments are planned and performed is required. This fundamental evolution can be made possible by following comprehensive and rigorous Enterprise Architecture methods to describe government's current and future structure and behavior. Key principles and models can then be used to create, communicate and improve government programs, information systems, personnel and organizations. This alignment can translate vision and strategy into effective enterprise change.

The Framework for Government Excellence supports this change by providing a structure for rationalizing and optimizing government investments. It is a simple abstract representation of the complex state government environment. The framework provides a common vision and language for the real-world formation of Oregon Government Excellence. It also provides structure for organizing documents, charts, models and other representations of the enterprise. The framework will guide initiatives, projects, and program changes to meet the enterprise goals of state government's diverse agencies.

Principles for Govt Excellence

Principles provide a timeless quality. They define a value system, are relatively stable and remain consistent. Concise, well understood and sanctioned principles combined with an executive commitment to their use can drive consistent, enterprise-wide change.

The Principles for Government Excellence document provides a proposed set of value statements for state government use in making strategic decisions and serves as a guide future decision-making around our Framework for Government Excellence and existing processes, such as:

Strategic planning
Business and information resources management planning
Enterprise Portfolio management
Business case development
Issue management

This Enterprise Architecture Program deliverable was approved by the State CIO, Chair of the CIO Council, and Enterprise Architecture Sponsors. The document will be further refined over time.

State Architects

Forty-nine people have completed the TOGAF (The Open Group Architectural Framework) training since the fall of 2007. This group represents the Construction Contractors Board, Department of Administrative Services, Department of Human Services, Employment Department, Forestry, Lottery, Department of Transportation, and the Public Employees Retirement System. During each training it became obvious that these people had a lot to share with each other for the betterment of Oregon State government. This list provides these individuals ability to collaborate with their peers and others having similar architectural interests.