The FBI lesson why Enterprise architecture is so important to the enterprise.

First of all I want to thank Alex Komissarov for sending me this information.

The FBI has been running a project called Trilogy for the last 3.5 years. The project aim is to replace FBI IT solution to increase FBI productivity. Trilogy reach major milestone in April 2004 but with delays and cost increase. To understand the reasons the FBI assign audit committee to write down an audit report.

The audit report found various reasons account for the delays and associated cost increases in the Trilogy project, including:

1. poorly defined and slowly evolving design requirements,
2. contracting weaknesses,
3. IT investment management weaknesses,
4. lack of an Enterprise Architecture,
5. lack of management continuity and oversight,
6. unrealistic scheduling of tasks,
7. lack of adequate project integration, and
8. inadequate resolution of issues raised in reports on Trilogy.

Pay attention that one of the leading reasons is a lack of enterprise architecture!

Here some more detailed information from the report regarding the lake of EA: “An Enterprise Architecture provides an organization with a blueprint to more effectively manage its current and future IT infrastructure and applications. As stated in the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report Information Technology: FBI Needs an Enterprise Architecture to Guide Its Modernization Activities, issued in September 2003, the development, maintenance, and implementation of Enterprise Architectures are recognized hallmarks of successful public and private organizations. The GAO reported that the FBI does not have an Enterprise Architecture, although it began developing one in early 2000. The GAO also found that the FBI lacks the management structures and processes to effectively develop, maintain, and implement an Enterprise Architecture. Additionally, the OIG’s December 2002 audit report entitled FBI’s Management of Information Technology Investments recommended that the FBI continue its efforts to establish a comprehensive Enterprise Architecture. The report also recommended that the FBI develop and implement a specific plan to integrate the ITIM and Enterprise Architecture processes. While the FBI agreed to develop a comprehensive Enterprise Architecture, this recommendation has not been fully implemented. The FBI has contracted for an Enterprise Architecture to be completed by September 2005. Without a complete Enterprise Architecture, the FBI’s systems are not defined. As a result, in the Trilogy project the FBI needed to conduct reverse engineering to identify existing IT capabilities before developing the infrastructure and user applications requirements.“

You can view the entire report at : http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/audit/FBI/0507/final.pdf