Developing and Implementing Well-Defined Modernization Blueprints

A key to successfully leveraging information technology for organizational transformation is having and using an enterprise architecture—or modernization blueprint—as an authoritative frame of reference against which to assess and decide how individual system investments are defined, designed, acquired, and developed.

• GAO’s experience has shown that attempting to modernize (and maintain) information technology environments without an architecture to guide and constrain investments results in mission operations and supporting systems that are duplicative, not well-integrated, and costly to maintain, and thus are inefficient and ineffective in achieving institutional goals and performance measures.
• GAO’s work across the federal government shows that the state of enterprise architecture development and implementation continues to vary considerably across departments and agencies, with some having more mature architecture programs than others. However, overall most departments and agencies are not where they need to be, particularly with regard to the content of their architectures and their approaches to assessing each investment’s alignment with them.
  
  Highlights of GAO-06-831 (PDF)
• Accordingly, GAO has made recommendations to departments and agencies that are aimed at improving the content and use of their respective architectures, some progress has been made in recent years.
  
  Highlights of GAO-07-564 (PDF)
• However, much remains to be accomplished before agencies will fully realize the value of having well-defined and implemented architectures.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

To advance the state of enterprise architecture development and use in the federal government,

• senior leadership in the departments and agencies need to demonstrate their commitment to this organizational transformation tool, and
• they need to ensure that the kind of management controls embodied in GAO’s Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework are in place and functioning.
  
  Full Report of GAO-03-584G (PDF, 32 pages)

GAO’s existing recommendations to departments and agencies are aimed at accomplishing this.

^ Back to topKey Reports

DOD Business Systems Modernization

Homeland Security

Enterprise Architecture

Homeland Security

Information Technology

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