NIEM Engagement Process
The NIEM Engagement Process was developed to help organizations:
- Assess the value of applying NIEM to their information-sharing and exchange activities.
- Develop a NIEM adoption strategy based on their specific capabilities, needs, and priorities.
The flexibility of the NIEM Engagement Process enables it to be applied to a wide range of organizations with varying technical environments.
Organizations that adopt NIEM realize benefits such as:
- Enhanced Mission Capabilities: By increasing interoperability between diverse organizations, NIEM can help agencies enhance services across key mission and function areas.
- Reduced Costs: Reusing NIEM components and leveraging the repeatable NIEM development approach can reduce development and maintenance costs.
- Community Support: NIEM is driven by a large, diverse, and actively engaged stakeholder community that can offer support for issues ranging from governance to exchange development.
The Basics
The NIEM Engagement Process provides a reusable framework that organizations can use to:
- Assess information-sharing capabilities and readiness to adopt NIEM.
- Evaluate the potential costs and benefits of NIEM.
- Develop a NIEM adoption roadmap and tactical implementation plan.
Designed to identify the need for, and use of, NIEM for organizations’ information sharing and exchange activities, the NIEM Engagement Process is a self-service model that includes tools and methods for organizations to assess their current and potential exchange processes, evaluate the readiness of exchange processes based on NIEM core capabilities and organizational priorities, and prepare for NIEM adoption.
After completing this process, organizations can conduct periodic check-ins with the NIEM Program Management Office (PMO) to discuss progress and receive support and guidance for efficient NIEM adoption.
How it Works
In order to reach results that will allow an organization to determine a tactical action plan for NIEM adoption, there are several inputs needed. This includes contributions from knowledgeable individuals who have functional awareness and technical involvement of the activities being assessed. Organizations should identify exchange activity stakeholders that are business owners (i.e., executive officials, program managers) and technical resources (i.e., data architects, developers) as points of contact for research and interview purposes.
The NIEM Engagement Process – User Guide is available to provide an end-to-end process description.
With corresponding tools available for assistance, the NIEM Engagement Process consists of the following of phases:
- Stakeholder Interviews: Perform interviews with organizational points of contact to gather input for the NIEM Readiness Assessment and Cost Model. Questions are based on the NIEM Core Capabilities.
Tools Available: NIEM Interview Framework, NIEM Core Capabilities, NIEM Data Collection Tool
- NIEM Readiness Assessment: Assess the readiness of the organization to adopt NIEM based on interview findings and initial research. Tools Available: NIEM Readiness Assessment
- NIEM Value Quantification and Qualification: Determine the organization’s potential costs of NIEM adoption. Define performance metrics for the information exchange. Tools Available: NIEM Cost Model User Guide and NIEM Cost Model
- NIEM Adoption Plan: Establish an adoption approach that will result in the development of a tactical action plan for NIEM implementation. Tools Available: NIEM Road to Adoption
Download all NIEM Engagement Process tools and documents (.zip)
Learn more about the NIEM Cost Model here.
Interested in finding out how the NIEM Engagement Process has worked for others? Explore our NIEM Engagement Process testimonials!