Business Systems Modernization: Strategy for Evolving DOD's Business Enterprise Architecture Offers a Conceptual Approach, but Execution Details Are Needed
GAO-07-451
Published: Apr 16, 2007. Publicly Released: Apr 16, 2007.
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Highlights
In 1995, we first designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) business systems modernization program as "high risk," and we continue to designate it as such today. To assist in addressing this high-risk area, Congress passed legislation consistent with prior GAO recommendations for Defense to develop a business enterprise architecture (BEA). In September 2006, DOD released version 4.0 of its BEA, which despite improvements over prior versions, was not aligned with component architectures. Subsequently, Defense issued a strategy for extending its BEA to the component military services and defense agencies. To support GAO's legislative mandate to review DOD's BEA, GAO assessed DOD's progress in defining this strategy by comparing it with prior findings and recommendations relevant to the strategy's content.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To further assist the department in evolving its BEA, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as the chair of the Defense Business Systems Management Committee, to task the appropriate DOD organizations, to ensure that this plan describes, at a minimum, how the Business Mission Area (BMA) architecture federation will be governed; how the BMA federation strategy alignment with the DOD Enterprise Architecture federation strategy will be achieved; how component business architectures' alignment with incremental versions of the BEA will be achieved; how shared services will be identified, exposed, and subscribed to; and what milestones will be used to measure progress and results. |
Closed – Not Implemented
The department has not taken sufficient actions to address the elements of this recommendation. To its credit, DOD has initiated actions that continue to evolve its business enterprise architecture (BEA) including issuing in 2008 an update to its business mission area (BMA) federation strategy and roadmap, along with the department's overall Global Information Grid Architecture Federation Strategy. The department more recently began to draft policies for establishing governance of the BMA architecture federation, assigning responsibilities and measures for the development and use of enterprise architectures at various levels (e.g., program, components, and mission area), and addressing in greater detail how business enterprise services will be identified, registered, and exposed, and shared. In addition, DOD's Business Transformation Agency released its service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy in December 2009 that, among other things, describes the process for developing and exposing shared services. The department is also working on a BMA federation implementation plan, which is intended to provide definition for milestones related to capabilities, products, and services listed in its high-level road map. However, these policies and plans have yet to be released and the SOA strategy only outlines high-level, near-term milestones, such as implementing particular component SOA frameworks in a given year. Moreover, the department has also yet to address how component business architectures' alignment with incremental versions of the BEA will be achieved. According to DOD officials, more detailed guidance on its federation activities would be included in the next version of the BMA Federation Strategy and Roadmap, which they said that they were in the process of updating. We plan to continue to review progress made to formalize policies and ensure effective implementation of those policies that will help achieve architecture federation throughout all levels of the department.
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Defense capabilitiesEnterprise architectureInformation technologyInteroperabilityStandardsStrategic planningSystems conversionsProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementationChief information officers