DOD’s  business systems modernization is one of the high-risk areas, and it is an  essential enabler to addressing many of the department’s other high-risk  areas. DOD Is in the Early Stages of Federating Its BEA and Much Remains to Be Decided and Accomplished

DOD’s BMA federation strategy provides a foundation on which to build  and align DOD’s parent business architecture (the BEA) with its  subordinate architectures (i.e., component- and program-level  architectures). According to BTA  program officials, including the chief technical officer, the department is  in the early stages of defining and implementing its strategy and intends to  develop more detailed plans. In particular, the strategy defines the department’s  federated architecture goals; describes federation concepts that are to be  applied; and explains high-level activities, capabilities, products, and  services intended to facilitate implementation of the concepts. However, it  does not adequately define the tasks needed to achieve the strategy’s  goals, including those associated with executing high-level activities and  providing related capabilities, products, and services. Specifically, the  strategy does not adequately address how strategy execution will be  governed, including assignment of roles and responsibilities, measurement  of progress and results, and provision of resources. Also, the strategy does not address, among other things, how the  architectures of the military departments will align with the latest version  of the BEA and how DOD will identify and provide for sharing of common  applications and systems across the department. As a result, the military departments and  defense agencies may pursue duplicative efforts. To the department’s credit, it recognizes  the need for greater detail surrounding how it will extend (federate) its  BEA. Recommendation for Executive Action

To further assist the department in evolving its BEA, we are reiterating our  prior recommendation for a BEA development management plan, and  augmenting it by recommending that the Secretary of Defense direct the  Deputy Secretary of Defense, as the chair of the DBSMC, to task the  appropriate DOD organizations, to ensure that this plan describes, at a  minimum, how the BMA architecture federation will be governed; how the  BMA federation strategy alignment with the DOD EA federation strategy  will be achieved; how component business architectures’ alignment with  incremental versions of the BEA will be achieved; how shared services  will be identified, exposed, and subscribed to; and what milestones will be  used to measure progress and results. To accomplish our objective, we reviewed DOD’s Business Mission Area  Federation Strategy and Road Map released in September 2006, comparing  the strategy and any associated implementation plans with prior findings  and recommendations relative to the content of the strategy.
Why GAO Did This Study

In 1995, we first designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) business systems modernization program as "high risk," and we continue to designate it as such today. To assist in addressing this high-risk area, Congress passed legislation consistent with prior GAO recommendations for Defense to develop a business enterprise architecture (BEA). In September 2006, DOD released version 4.0 of its BEA, which despite improvements over prior versions, was not aligned with component architectures. Subsequently, Defense issued a strategy for extending its BEA to the component military services and defense agencies. To support GAO's legislative mandate to review DOD's BEA, GAO assessed DOD's progress in defining this strategy by comparing it with prior findings and recommendations relevant to the strategy's content.

What GAO Found

DOD's Business Mission Area federation strategy for extending its BEA to the military departments and defense agencies provides a foundation on which to build and align the department's parent business architecture (the BEA) with its subordinate architectures (i.e., component- and program-level architectures). In particular, the strategy, which was released in September 2006, states the department's federated architecture goals; describes federation concepts that are to be applied; and explains high-level activities, capabilities, products, and services that are intended to facilitate implementation of the concepts. However, the strategy does not adequately define the tasks needed to achieve the strategy's goals, including those associated with executing high-level activities and providing related capabilities, products, and services. Specifically, it does not adequately address how strategy execution will be governed, including assignment of roles and responsibilities, measurement of progress and results, and provision of resources. Also, the strategy does not address, among other things, how the component architectures will be aligned with the latest version of the BEA and how it will identify and provide for reuse of common applications and systems across the department. According to program officials, the department intends to develop more detailed plans to execute the strategy. This means that much remains to be decided and accomplished before DOD will have the means in place to create a federated BEA that satisfies GAO's prior recommendations and legislative requirements. Without one, the department will remain challenged in its ability to minimize duplication and maximize interoperability among its thousands of business systems.