Enterprise architecture is essential for managing the growing complexity of government operations, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) emphasizes in the third installment of its series on the discipline’s use in state government.
Central to the message of the report, Enterprise Architecture: A Critical Design-First Discipline for Managing Complexity and Change, is a design-first approach — which calls for enterprise architecture to be built into the earliest stages of planning, rather than being introduced after projects and programs are already underway.
This latest installment, released Thursday, builds on the foundation set in March with the first report in the series, Business Architecture: A Strategic Blueprint for State CIOs. That report concentrated on business architecture, describing it as “a vital element for state CIOs, forming the foundation for strategy execution and continual transformation in state government.” In doing so, it framed business architecture as the mechanism for connecting objectives with the capabilities required to achieve them.
In May, the second report, Enterprise Architecture: A Guide to State Government Continual Transformation, expanded the focus to enterprise architecture as a whole. Here, NASCIO warned that state government systems often evolve “by default, not by design,” which can create inefficiency and redundancy.
The second report highlighted that without enterprise architecture, “the various departments, operations, functions, roles and responsibilities and investments will go in different directions, resulting in waste and redundancy in investment of time, personnel and finances.” Part 2 also emphasized the role of business architecture as core to enterprise architecture, pointing to its ability to identify shared opportunities and reduce duplication, such as multiple agencies negotiating separate contracts with the same vendor.
Expanding on this, the most recent report frames enterprise architecture as comparable to the blueprints used to construct complex systems like those in factories or cities. The report identifies several roles for enterprise architecture. These include creating alignment between strategy and execution, supporting integration and collaboration across agencies, providing governance that ties projects to business strategy, reducing redundant or siloed investments, and guiding state governments through ongoing transformation with a “continually refreshed roadmap.”
The report also acknowledges that while other areas, such as cybersecurity, privacy and digital services, have progressed steadily, enterprise architecture in state governments has been inconsistent. Specifically, it mentions the maturity of enterprise architecture practices has “seen an ebb and flow, a start and stop routine over the years with changes in state leadership and funding."
Taken together, the three NASCIO reports present enterprise architecture as a discipline that begins with business architecture as the foundation, builds toward a general framework for transformation, and requires a design-first approach to be effective.
*This article was originally published by Government Technology, Industry Insider — California's sister publication.
NASCIO Urges ‘Design-First’ Enterprise Architecture in State IT Planning
In its latest report, the organization calls for embedding architecture early in project development to avoid duplication, reduce costs and manage government complexity.
