Transcript Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework

Recommended Approach
for the FEA Data Reference
Model (DRM)
Amit K. Maitra
Consultant, Washington, DC
October 19, 2005
Speaker’s Bio
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Speaker’s Bio:
Amit K. Maitra is an industry expert on the Federal Enterprise Data Architecture Framework.
Mr. Maitra has over 20 years of experience in program planning, evaluation, and integration
of Federal Enterprise Architectures under the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Corporate Management Information (CIM) initiative; Department of State Enterprise Data
Architecture initiative; and Customs Partnership (eCP) program of the Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As Chief Enterprise
Data Architect for eCP, Mr. Maitra was directly responsible for providing Enterprise Data
Architecture support to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, with focus on
identification, evaluation, preparation, and planning of CBP-DHS Strategic Interoperability
and Business Line Implementation. Enterprise Architecture Programs.
Additionally, he was actively involved with the Industry Advisory Council Enterprise
Architecture Special Interest Group in providing industry best practices recommendations to
the Office of Management and Budget Federal
Information sharing, according to the DRM, can be enabled through the common
categorization and structure of data. Contrary to the prevailing notion, however, this
presentation argues that a better DRM solution lies in a Model Driven Architecture (MDA)
framework that:
Mr. Maitra is a Senior Enterprise Data Architect for Federal programs; his current interests
include the preparation, identification and planning of wireless components for a FEAFbased enterprise architecture. Incorporating the mission requirements of the customer, a
large Federal agency, these components are customized to reflect the agency's FEAFcompliant wireless and wireless geospatial needs and will facilitate horizontal and vertical
integration across and beyond the agency's boundaries.
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CONTEXT
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Global Environment
Changing Technologies
Revolutionary Moments: The Mandate
The Current Situation
The Solution: The DRM
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The Architecture
The Structure
The Tools
 Federated Data Management Approach
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The Result
 Paradigm Shift
 Concern
 Leadership at DoD
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Decisions: Net Centric Data Strategy & Community of Interest
Processes: NCDS & COI
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Underlying Theme
 Fully integrated information systems for a
shared data environment
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Focus
 Information, Access, Authorization, Emerging
Technologies
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Data Accessibility, Commonality, and
Compatibility Design
Data Dictionary
Data Quality
Security & Privacy Assurance
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Global Environment
 Characteristics
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Geographically distributed, dissimilar elements
of varying capabilities and responsibilities
Data distributed to and redistributed among
system facilities, interconnected by both
private and shared public communications
networks
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Changing Technologies
A Gentle Transition From XML to Resource
Description Framework (RDF)
The purpose of RDF is to give a standard way of specifying data
“about” something
Advantage of using RDF
If widely used, RDF will help make XML more interoperable
Promotes the use of standardized vocabularies ... standardized types (classes) and standardized
properties
Provides a structured approach to designing XML documents
The RDF format is a regular, recurring pattern
Quickly identifies weaknesses and inconsistencies of non-RDF-compliant XML designs
Helps us better understand our data!
Positions data for the Semantic Web!
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Changing Technologies: Web
Ontology Language (OWL)
RDF has limited expressive
capability
-- Mostly limited to taxonomic
descriptions
The things we model have
complex relationships so we
need to capture many different
facets, or restrictions on class
and property descriptions
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Revolutionary Moments:
The Mandate
“Our success depends on
agencies working as a team
across traditional boundaries to
serve the American people,
focusing on citizens rather than
individual agency needs.” ~
President George W. Bush
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The Current Situation:
The Federal Government is less than efficient in performing its business and meeting customer needs
due to data sharing inefficiencies caused by stove-piped data boundaries
Primary Issues and Information
Sharing Barriers
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No common framework or methodology to describe
the data and information that supports the
processes, activities, and functions of the business
No definition of the handshake or partnering aspects
of information exchange
Existing systems offer diffused content that is
difficult to manage, coordinate, and evolve
Information is inconsistent and/or classified
inappropriately
Without a common reference, data is easier to
duplicate than integrate
No common method to share data with external
partners
Limited insight into the data needs of agencies
outside the immediate domain
Data and Information context is rarely defined
Stove piped boundaries, no central registry
Lack of funding and incentive to share
Data sensitivity and security of data
New laws/issues result in continuous adding of Amit K. Maitra
databases that can not share data
Have Created
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Stove-Piped Data Boundaries
“As Is State”
INDUSTRY
HHS
FDA
CDC
DHS
INS
TSA
USDA
ENERGY
DOI
LABOR
Denotes data and information sets within 10
agencies.
The Solution: The Data Reference
Model (DRM)
The DRM provides:
Subject Area
Data
Classification
 A framework to enable horizontal
and vertical information sharing that
is independent of agencies and
supporting systems
 A framework to enable agencies
Data Object
Data
Property
Data
Representation
to build and integrate systems that
leverage data from within or outside
the agency domain
 A framework that facilitates
opportunities for sharing with
citizens, external partners and
stakeholders
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The Architecture
MODEL DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE
A virtual representation of all physical data sources:
- Applications are to be decoupled from data sources
- Details of data storage and retrieval are to be abstracted
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- Are to be easily extended
new information sources
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The Structure
META OBJECT FACILITY
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The Tools
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Federated Data Management Approach
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The Result: Interagency
Information Federation
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Paradigm Shift
 MDA is fundamental change
 MDA rests on MOF
 It is the best architecture for integration
 It shifts data architecture from Entity
Relationship Diagramming (ERD) to a
Business Context (Interoperability/Information
Sharing)
Business & Performance Driven Approach
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Concerns
 To what extent the government agencies,
Customers, Partners are willing to participate
along the Lines of Business (LOB), thereby
underscoring the importance of working
toward a common goal: Collective Action IAW
National Security/National Interests criteria
 These need to be tested and validated
against uniquely tailored performance
indicators: Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes
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Leadership at DoD
• Decisions
• Processes
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Decisions
“Net-Centric Data Strategy
& Communities of Interest
(COI)”
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Processes:
The DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy aims at breaking
down barriers to information sharing…
End-User Producer
“How do I share my data
with others?”
“How do I describe my
data so others can
understand it?”
End-User Consumer
“What data exists?“
“How do I access the data?”
“How do I know this data is
what I need?”
“How can I tell someone
what data I need?”
BARRIER
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BARRIER
User is
unaware this
data exists
Organization “A”
BARRIER
User knows this data exists
but cannot access it
because of
organizational
and/or
technical barriers
Organization “B”
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BARRIER
User knows data exists and can
access it but may not
know how to make
use of it due to
lack of understanding of what
data represents
Organization “C”
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The Net-Centric Data Strategy is a key enabler
of the Department’s transformation...
• The Strategy (signed May 9, 2003) provides the foundation for managing the
Department’s data in a net-centric environment, including:
 Ensuring data are visible, accessible, and understandable when
needed and where needed to accelerate decision making
 “Tagging” of all data (intelligence, non-intelligence, raw, and processed)
with metadata to enable discovery by known and unanticipated users in
the Enterprise
 Posting of all data to shared spaces for users to access except when
limited by security, policy, or regulations
 Organizing around Communities of Interest (COIs) that are supported
by Warfighting, Business, Enterprise Information Environment, and
Intelligence Mission Areas and their respective Domains.
The Strategy describes key goals to achieving net-centric data
management…
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COIs are a key ‘implementer’ of
data strategy goals…
Key Goals
Key COI Actions:
 Tag data assets with COI-
defined metadata that enables it
to be searched (visible)
 Organize data assets using
taxonomies developed by
experts within the COI
 Define the structure and
business rules for operating with
data and information (e.g. define
data models, schema,
interfaces)
 Identify, define, specify, model,
and expose data assets to be
reused by the Enterprise as
services
Make Data Visible
Make Data
Accessible
Enable Data to be
Understandable
Enable Data to be
Trusted
Enable Data
Interoperability
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