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Transforming Government Through Enterprise Modernization Kathy Kirwan, Dennis Sawyer, and Don Sparrow Enterprise modernization is a complex, ongoing evolutionary process that involves the integrated transformation of strategies, policies, organization and governance structures, business processes and systems, and underlying technologies. Only by aligning these elements with its business goals can an agency achieve a successful modernization program. Government agencies have the advantage of applying lessons learned from the commercial business world, which are based on the analysis of both modernization failures and successes. For example, commercial companies have taught us that organizational change management processes must be incorporated into all aspects of a modernization program. Also, although time-consuming and costly to develop, a structured enterprise life cycle methodology and an enterprise architecture are priceless—and essential. Every enterprise modernization program is different, reflecting the organization and its goals. Another lesson: Expect unintended consequences of change to become frequent events, driving the need for continuous decisions and strong governance. All government information technology (IT) and modernization programs present major challenges, one of which is the acquisition process. While contract management in the federal sector has never been easy, enterprise modernization adds new levels of complexity. First, the government organization and its contractors are simultaneously developing new systems and improving legacy systems. Second, an enterprise approach to system integration is needed to ensure cost-effective interoperability among multiple systems within the organization and with other agencies' systems. Third, requirements and system design must be incrementally defined for the multiple enterprise-wide systems undergoing change in an enterprise modernization program. So why would an organization choose to initiate a complex enterprise modernization program? The commercial sector's motivation for pursuing enterprise modernization programs is to conduct its businesses more effectively and efficiently—improving the bottom line. The federal government is also motivated—especially through directives and regulations from oversight organizations—to achieve more efficient, cost-effective operations and to provide better service to citizens. One of the core drivers for change in government agencies is to eliminate costly IT project failures and to ensure that organizations align IT investments with their business and mission goals. A key objective of an enterprise architecture is to clearly describe the IT–business alignment. In 1996, Congress passed the Clinger-Cohen Act, which requires all federal agencies to develop an enterprise architecture. In 2000 the Office of Management and Budget revised its Circular A-130 to require federal agencies to correlate their IT investment requests to their enterprise architectures. Developing Expertise In 1998, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) chose MITRE as its federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) to help with its third attempt to modernize the agency. Subsequently, MITRE formed the Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM), to manage the IRS FFRDC, which expanded our expertise in enterprise modernization into other government agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Treasury Department's Financial Management Services and Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Peace Corps. Our expertise in enterprise modernization has been evolving for many years. For example, MITRE has a long history of leadership and unbiased partnership in working with the Department of Defense (DOD) in modernizing its mission/warfighting programs. Recently, we began helping the DOD modernize its business and financial processes. And we have supported the Federal Aviation Administration for many years on its programs to modernize the National Airspace System. We have found that modernization programs involve a broad range of activities and require a wide array of skills and experiences, as these programs affect everything from computers to culture. For example, MITRE provides sponsors undertaking large modernization programs with expertise in strategy development, governance, enterprise planning and architecture, capital planning and investment, organizational change management, program and project management, and enterprise engineering. We have taken the lead in developing several key enterprise modernization tools, including enterprise architecture frameworks and enterprise life cycle methodologies. We are also investigating combinations of commercial products that could be used to build useful enterprise architecture repositories, and we are conducting research projects to advance enterprise modernization tools and approaches. Part of our role is to help develop best practices for modernization. We have produced a number of technical documents that could help an organization plan each stage of its enterprise modernization program. MITRE played a significant role in developing the Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architectures, published by the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, and we made strong contributions to the General Accounting Office's Summary of First Practices and Lessons Learned in Information Technology Portfolio Management. In addition, for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection modernization program, we produced the Enterprise Life Cycle Methodology Framework, which is a useful guide for any federal enterprise modernization program. IRS Because the IRS interacts in some fashion with nearly everyone in the country—handling tons of paperwork and fielding several hundred million inquiries a year—improving its business methods and IT systems is crucial. In 1998, the IRS launched a very large and complex enterprise modernization program that has already achieved some key milestones in government modernization. Because of the length—an estimated 10 to 15 years—and complexity of the IRS program, it requires strong governance involving collaborative partnerships among business and technical leaders in the agency, its advisors (e.g., CEM), and its contractors. Strong governance is critical because of the need to balance business priorities across the agency during modernization. Implementing massive change means more work for IRS managers and staff, who must continue to execute the agency's mandatory day-to-day functions while they assist in modernization projects. A MITRE CEM team is working closely with the IRS as it adopts an enterprise-wide perspective for developing business priorities and transition approaches. With our support, the IRS reached one milestone in December 2002 when it became the first federal government civilian agency with multiple systems to achieve a Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model (SA-CMM) Level 2 rating. SA-CMM emphasizes the value of developing repeatable project management processes—needed to help the IRS better manage its modernization program. Customs and Border Protection Since 1999, MITRE has been central to Customs' enterprise modernization initiatives. A new level of complexity was added to the modernization program in March 2003, when the U.S. Customs Service joined with other agencies (including the Border Patrol and inspectors from the Immigration and Naturalization Service) to form Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an integral arm of the DHS in its fight against terrorism and illegal drug traffic. Recently, CBP increased the scope of MITRE's assistance to include more technical oversight on the modernization program, development of a new Modernization Strategy, and strategic analysis and planning for program challenges related to CBP's transition to DHS. One of the goals of the CBP modernization is to upgrade the legacy mainframe-based Automated Commercial System, which monitors and processes imports entering the country. The new system, called the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), represents a massive upgrade that opens the system to many new external users who will access ACE via the Internet, requiring the agency to think about all its business operations in new and different ways. MITRE's role in the program encompasses strategic planning, program management, enterprise architecture, and enterprise engineering. Early on MITRE helped Customs redesign its source selection process in its search for a prime modernization contractor. The agency needed a streamlined process to meet Congressional budgetary deadlines in 2001, so MITRE staff developed a fast-track acquisition method—reducing the timeframe for selecting a contractor from nine months to 79 days and enabling the agency to request funding for its modernization program on time. We also developed a communication plan that keeps important modernization information flowing to stakeholders on a continuous basis, to help them adapt to the ongoing organizational and technological changes. DOD Business Management The Department of Defense daily confronts financial and business management issues that are complex, pervasive, and deeply rooted in its mission operations. In addition, the DOD currently relies on about 2,300 disparate business operation systems, including accounting, acquisition, logistics, and personnel systems, that will cost about $18 billion to operate, maintain, and modernize in 2003 alone. To address these issues, the Secretary of Defense established a department-wide Financial Management Modernization Program (FMMP) in 2001. One of its responsibilities was to develop an enterprise architecture—a plan for the design, development, and acquisition of complex information systems. We are providing independent expert technical review, verification, and validation of all program products, including the enterprise architecture exhibits. Our staff identified significant problems in initial development and program management of the FMMP enterprise architecture. In January 2003, MITRE established a "Red Team" to provide an overall program assessment for the program manager and the deputy chief financial officer. The Red Team drew resources from across CEM and MITRE's Washington Command, Control, and Communications Center. The team presented its results in March 2003; several of our recommendations influenced the program reorganization that began in April. That same month, the DOD released version 1.0 of its Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA). Using resources from across MITRE's FFRDCs, we conducted an independent assessment of the architecture, comparing it to relevant best practices and providing a broad technical perspective on this capstone release. The initial BEA reflected many of the weaknesses commonly seen when a complex new concept, such as an enterprise architecture, is first implemented. MITRE is playing a key role in helping the DOD establish the way forward—working with the architecture methodology, metrics, and other efforts to improve the BEA, and evaluating proposed activities for harmonizing the domain and enterprise vision. Department of Homeland Security Beginning in the summer of 2002, the chief information officer of the Office of Homeland Defense turned to MITRE to help develop an enterprise architecture for a soon-to-be-created cabinet-level organization, the Department of Homeland Security. As a new organization that merges more than 20 government agencies into five divisions, DHS is facing special challenges with respect to its goal to preserve each individual agency's mission and culture while creating a spirit of cooperation and interoperability among the five groups—and, above all, to improve our defense against threats to the security of the nation. MITRE began by developing a high-level view of the DHS business processes and their interrelationships. Capturing concepts-of-operations, node diagrams, activity trees, and information exchange matrices, these documents reflected the first unified view of the disparate organizations composing the new department. In March 2003, as DHS "went live," MITRE's initial IT assessments were turned over to a prime contractor for use in developing a DHS enterprise architecture. We were asked to perform a comprehensive IT asset inventory for the DHS. Under considerable time pressure, we compiled a detailed catalog for the Department. Our staff continue to participate by advising and guiding the enterprise architecture effort. Our role in DHS has continued to grow. Besides our specific work programs for DHS agencies, such as the Coast Guard and CBP, we are developing the wireless and geospatial aspects of the department's overall enterprise architecture. Additionally, we are examining all the IT initiatives of the Department to identify areas of overlap, gaps, and opportunities for increased efficiency. CEM's efforts to develop modernization best practices have attracted interest from outside the department. We will be working with the Department of Justice on its enterprise architecture, and the Department of Health and Human Services has engaged us to help it develop a broadly scoped enterprise architecture and enterprise modernization program.
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| For more information, please contact Kathy Kirwan, Dennis Sawyer, or Don Sparrow using the employee directory. Page last updated: November 12, 2003 | Top of page |
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