Government/Military Trends
November 2005
Federal Enterprise Architecture: Sisyphus Victorious?
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For those involved in its implementation, the effort to transform government into an efficient and thrifty entity has at times seemed like a sisyphusian task. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the mortal king of Corinth who angered Zeus by revealing one of the god’s transgressions. For his betrayal, Sisyphus was condemned for eternity to push up a hill a boulder that always slipped from his hands and rolled back down to the bottom again. Some days, the challenge can seem a lot like that.
The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), commissioned February 6, 2002, within the Office of Management and Budget, is assigned the task of aligning federal strategic planning and its supporting IT resources and assets. The objective is to transform government into a citizen-centric e-organization that gets results, saves money, and fulfills legislative mandates. When implementation is complete, it is hoped that government agencies will operate quickly and effectively, offering services, decisions, and information in hours or days instead of weeks or months, and, most crucially, that they will be able to communicate seamlessly with one another.
As far back as 1996, with the passage of the Clinger-Cohen Act, which attempted to reform the IT acquisitions process, it was clear that costly IT disasters were commonplace. Many fear that enterprise architecture is just one more. Enormous investments in architecture have sometimes netted nothing but useless shelfware. But in recent years, geopolitical tragedies and natural disasters have revealed with agonizing clarity the necessity of a coherent information technology infrastructure and cross-agency communication. The modern-day transgression was government’s failure to plan ahead. Waste and redundancy occur at all levels. Systems that should share data don’t, and those that do are inefficient. Agencies attempting to fulfill their missions are forced to operate with one hand tied behind their backs because whatever architecture exists among them is unplanned.
The FEA could make good on its promise to impose order on chaos, resulting in streamlined, effective, and collaborative agencies. It is, however, an uphill struggle. Implementing enterprise architecture is never quick or easy, even under the best of circumstances. Since the FEA was created, following the issuance of the President’s Management Agenda, it has thirsted for resources and recognition. It has endured setbacks, and for a time it toiled along without a chief architect in OMB, a dismal time during which the House attempted to eliminate the position. Progress is being made, but a steep climb lies ahead. Calcified systems, resistant stakeholders, fear of change, and lack of a common language all must be overcome if FEA is to accomplish its goals within its projected timeframe: government wide transformation taking shape in 2008.
If myth could be rewritten, one would hope that Sisyphus could gather that last shred of determination, put a shoulder to his burden, shove that boulder to the apex of the hill, and then after only the slightest touch, watch it roll smoothly down the other side, his sentence finally ended. Perhaps the FEA too will defy the gods and achieve what so many have said it cannot. It could realize its ambitions and bring about genuine change, which would be a triumph of legendary measure.
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