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Currently viewing the tag: "Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture"
Business and technology elements are aligned by means of Enterprise Architecture (EA) so as to attain strategic results, augment organizational performance, and drive departments to deliver their central missions more efficaciously.
Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) achieves this for any U.S. federal agency and assists systems go beyond interagency boundaries.
We discuss here 1 of the 6 interconnected reference models of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework—the Infrastructure Reference Model (IRM).
IRM takes care of definition of infrastructure technology elements, as well as provides direction for promoting favorable results across technology implementations.
IRM implementation aids in:
- Reduction of lifecycle costs through sharing and reuse, also helps in exploiting economies of scale.
- Increased interoperability throughout the government including its partners by identification and endorsement of demonstrated industry standards and associated platforms and products.
- Detection of pragmatic design-patterns as clusters of technology packets or blends of technologies that work well collectively to sustain efficient acquisition and deployment.
- Efficient control and sustainment of IT assets/resources through contribution to the delivery of consolidated and measurable infrastructure services and service levels as envisaged in Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework (EAMMF).
- Supplying of realistic use cases and methods corresponding to IT capabilities to facilitate business initiatives and better access to information across enterprises.
Common Approach to Federal EA as well as Purpose and Outcome of IRM are, respectively, the root of IRM Guiding Principles. IRM guiding principles are:
- IRM ought to be a robust-enough taxonomy and approach to fulfill future requirements and adjust new technologies.
- IRM must be defined with regard to technology infrastructure services put forward.
- IRM has to be expounded as a hierarchy of IT infrastructure components.
- IRM should be developed in such a way to promote usability, convenience, and reporting.
- IRM should simplify interoperability and shared services.
- IRM ought to be criteria-based, both international and national, concurrence-driven standards organizations, with numerous levels of abstraction.
- IRM has to be accommodating of the Application Reference Model (ARM) and Data Reference Model (DRM) by touch points.
Enabled by the Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture and supported by the IRM, 4 primary outcomes of IRM include the following:
- Service Delivery
- Functional Integration
- Authoritative Reference
- Resource Optimization
IRM scope encompasses hardware, platforms, networks, and the facilities that house the infrastructure. The 3 levels of the model include:
Level 1—Domain comprises of Platform, Network, and Facility.
Level 2—Area covers 13 areas, each belonging to 1 of 3 domain elements.
Level 3—Category consists of 90 total categories and each linked to 1 of 13 areas.
The interconnectedness of the IRM domains allows analysis of IT assets throughout the 3 dimensions.
For an implementation of an IRM-based categorization of assets to be useful, additional data points should be captured. These data points include:
- Manufacturer of the asset.
- Cost
- End-of-life/end-of-support date
- Mapping to the Security Reference Model (SRM)
Data points classified by IRM are relevant to detecting prospects of sharing services, decreasing redundancy, and stimulating consolidation.
IRM classification can be embraced, as part of implementation, by the ensuing extensively recognized best practices, guidance, and standards, both in the public and private sectors.
Interested in learning more about the FEAF: Infrastructure Reference Model (IRM)? You can download an editable PowerPoint on the Infrastructure Reference Model (IRM) here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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Enterprise Architecture (EA) denotes management best practices for lining up business and technology resources to realize strategic results, expand upon Organizational Performance, achieve Cost Optimization, and steer departments to achieve their core missions through Operational Excellence.
Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) was first introduced in September 1999 by the Federal CIO Council for evolving an EA within any U.S. federal agency. FEAF assists through documentation and information that conveys a summarized outlook of an enterprise at various tiers of scope and detail.
FEAF offers a shared approach for the consolidation of strategic, business, and technology management as a component of Organization Design and Performance Management. FEAF introduced a methodology for an Enterprise Architecture that transcended several interagency boundaries.
The Collaborative Planning Methodology suggested along with FEAF is envisioned as a complete planning and implementation lifecycle, for employment down all tiers of scope defined in the Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture—i.e., International, National, Federal, Sector, Agency, Segment, System, and Application.
May 2012 saw a full new guide, called the “Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture.” The guide offers an overall approach to establishing and employing Enterprise Architecture in the Federal Government for expanding joint approaches to IT service delivery. The Common Approach homogenizes the expansion and employment of architectures within and between Federal Agencies.
A 2nd version of FEAF was published in January 2013, meeting the criteria set forth by the Common Approach. It underscores the importance of Strategic Planning and Strategic Goals as the source for driving business services, which consequentially provides the requirements for enabling technologies. At the heart of it is the Consolidated Reference Model (CRM), which links 6 reference models and equips all departments with a shared language and framework to explain and evaluate investments.
The FEAF comprises of 6 interconnected Reference Models, linked through Consolidated Reference Model (CRM), each relating to a sub-architectural domain of the framework.
These Reference Models convey word-based abstractions of original architectural data and deliver a structure for relating significant elements of the FEA in a collective and uniform manner:
- Strategy Domain -> Performance Reference Model (PRM)
- Business Domain -> Business Reference Model (BRM)
- Data Domain -> Data Reference Model (DRM)
- Applications Domain -> Application Reference Model (ARM)
- Infrastructure Domain -> Infrastructure Reference Model (IRM)
- Security Domain -> Security Reference Model (SRM)
CRM is intended to permit inter-agency evaluation and detection of overlapping investments, disparities and prospects for cooperation within and across agencies.
By means of the collection of reference models a common nomenclature and system is cultivated for describing IT resources. Making use of this standard framework and terminology, IT portfolios can be managed more suitably and taken advantage of throughout the Federal Government.
A brief description of the reference models is as follows:
Performance Reference Model (PRM)
PRM relates agency strategy, internal business factors, and investments, presenting a way to measure the influence of those investments on strategic outcomes.
Business Reference Model (BRM)
BRM depicts an organization through arrangement of common mission and support service segments rather than through vertical lines of control, thus encouraging cooperation within and across agencies.
Data Reference Model (DRM)
DRM assists in detection of existing data assets located in solitary storages and aids in comprehending the meaning of that data, ways of accessing it, and means for leveraging it for supporting performance outcomes.
Application Reference Model (ARM)
ARM classifies the standards and technologies involving systems and applications that support the delivery of service capabilities, allowing agencies to share and reuse common solutions and benefit from economies of scale.
The Infrastructure Reference Model (IRM)
IRM sorts the standards and technologies relating to network/cloud to aid and facilitate the provision of voice, data, video, and mobile service components and facilities.
The Security Reference Model (SRM)
SRM offers a mutual language and approach for deliberating on security and privacy in connection with Federal agencies’ business and performance goals.
Interested in learning more about Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) and its reference models?” “You can download an editable PowerPoint on Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) Primer here and FEAF associated PowerPoint series presentations on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
