Where the work comes from

Officials at systems integrators say enterprise architecture projects come from a variety of sources.

Karl Kropp, director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture at Science Applications International Corp., said governmentwide acquisition contracts, new requests for proposals and General Services Administration schedules such as Management, Organizational and Business Improvement Services are all prominent sources for such work.

In general, task order-based contracts have generated some architecture business, with consulting services typically falling within the scope of such vehicles. "Enterprise architecture lends itself to task orders," said Ernst Volgenau, chairman and chief executive officer of SRA International Inc.

Enterprise architecture work might also be embedded in other types of projects. Fred Collins, senior enterprise architect at IBM Global Services Inc.'s federal division, said creating an enterprise architecture is often part of an agency's modernization effort. He cited to the Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency modernization plan, for which IBM is the prime contractor, as one example.