OMB to agencies: Measure EA value

The Office of Management and Budget wants agencies to measure the value of their enterprise architecture program each quarter for the next 15 months. OMB’s Federal Architecture Program Management Office will release guidance to agencies in the coming months detailing how they should measure the value of enterprise architecture to program performance, according to a memo Dick Burk, OMB’s chief architect, sent to agency chief information officers and chief architects. The memo of June 8 requires agencies to submit enterprise architecture milestones they hope to achieve by September 2008. OMB said it will continue to measure agency performance each quarter. “The purpose of managing against these milestones is to mature agency EA programs incrementally between annual EA assessments, and to ensure agencies continue to make progress on developing and using their EA throughout the year,” Burk stated in the memo. “Agencies are encouraged to include activities related the development of an EA value measurement program into the quarterly milestones.” Last year, OMB asked agencies to include segment architecture and Federal Transition Framework milestones, which included developing one architecture segment and integrating cross-agency initiatives into their modernization blueprints. Now, OMB wants agencies to measure the effectiveness of their enterprise architectures. “Quarterly milestones should focus the agency on improving its EA programs in areas identified for improvement during the previous annual assessment,” the memo states. “As a result, the quarterly milestones should advance the maturity of the EA program so the agency can achieve business performance improvements assessed during the next annual EA assessment cycle.” Burk also told officials that quarterly reports should demonstrate how their agencies are completing and using their architectures. OMB is asking agencies to provide a detailed description of each milestone, a target completion date and a description of the evidence proving the agency completed the milestone. OMB assessed agency enterprise architectures June 1 and will do it again Sept. 1.