OMB readying Version 2.0 of EA assessment framework

Under Federal Enterprise Architecture Assessment Framework 2.0 due out later this month, the Office of Management and Budget will evaluate agency modernization blueprints every three months and tie how agencies are using their EAs to make decisions to their scores on the President’s Management Agenda.According to a draft copy of the framework, OMB would require agencies to “establish concrete, measurable milestones for the completion and usage of the EA.”Departments also would have to tell OMB how their EA transition strategies would save money or avoid costs, improve services to citizens, improve how they meet their mission, improve management and use of information to reduce the burden on the public, or standardize or consolidate hardware and/or software.OMB plans on releasing Version 2.0 of the EA assessment framework by the end of November. The CIO Council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee accepted comments on it last month, and OMB is in the process of finalizing the document.The administration released Version 1.5 in April and evaluated agencies’ EAs against it this year. Richard Burk, OMB’s chief architect, said most agencies have an effective architecture and that in 2006, agencies will be expected to make it .Most agencies scored at least a 3 out of 5 under Version 1.5, Burk said.But under the proposed new framework, OMB is raising the bar. In addition to the quarterly scoring, OMB would score agencies annually each March.“Assessment Framework 2.0 contains three additional primary objectives, which are known as capability areas: use, results and policy alignment,” the draft says. “Agencies will now receive an average score for each capability area” under the status score of the PMA.These new areas are in addition to completion, which was one of the requirements under the previous assessments. Completion includes how agencies use the EA in their work product development, if EA is used throughout the agency’s business processes, data, services and technology layers and if they have a transition strategy to get them to their target architecture.Under the new capability areas:To earn a green score on the PMA, agencies would need to score at least a 3 out of 5 in both completion and use or at least a 3 in results.