An Example of Enterprise Architecture Changing the Structure of Government

The Department of Interior's (DOI) Methodology for Business Transformation (MBT) is the archetype of an enterprise architecture process that has and is transforming a major unit of the US Federal Government.  According to members of the team, when the process was finally fully operational, it saved the DOI at least $500 Million in a year--however, that was after 9 years of development and implementation of the process and development and instantiation of the Asset and Enterprise Architecture Repository--to the tune of tens of millions.  Even then, the process still had a steep learning curve and was in constant update.  This is a problem with most current Enterprise Architecture efforts at this scale; they cost too much and take too long to show results.  Consequently, either the efforts are starved for resources into failure, or due to changing management, never have enough data and metrics to demonstrate their value.

The Enterprise Architecture process and repository I have a notional design for, will start to function within 3 months of the start of the implementation of the process. It will have some very modest results during the first year.  These results will compound during the following years.  After one year, the results should be measureable, barely; after three years significant, and after five years, transformative.

Also See my posts "A New Structure for the US Federal Government Executive Branch--A Really, Really Wild Hare" and "Using Enterprise Architecture to Reduce the Federal Debt"