Standards-based Best Practices and the FEA Business Reference Model Linda Ibrahim, FAA EPIC Meeting, 8 August 2006

Topics The FEA Business Reference Model (BRM) Best Practice Guidance and the BRM An example Discussion

The FEA BRM The BRM: provides a view of the business functions of the federal government Structure: These functions are structured into a hierarchy: Business areas relating to purpose (4 of these) Lines of business within each business area Sub-functions within each LoB (this is the lowest level of granularity in the BRM) BRM Descriptions: Business areas, LoBs and sub-functions include a simple (one sentence or so) description

Example BRM descriptions Business area: Support Delivery of Services: “provides the critical policy, programmatic and managerial foundation to support federal government operations.” Line of Business: Planning and Resource Allocation: “involves activities of determining strategic direction, identifying and establishing programs and processes, and allocating resources (capital and labor) among those programs and processes.” Sub-function: Strategic Planning: “entails the determination of annual and long-term goals and the identification of the best approach for achieving those goals.”

Best Practice Guidance Integrated Best Practice Guidance: the FAA integrated capability maturity model (iCMM) provides process improvement guidance based on integrating/harmonizing 10 national and international standards and models into a standards-based process improvement framework Relation to FEA BRM: Current integrated best practice guidance has been mapped to the BRM as a mechanism to ensure federal processes consider best practice guidance when implementing to-be processes of the FEA (see handout) Proposal: Standards-based best practice guidance should be provided as part of the FEA, attached to BRM sub-functions, to help agencies when developing to-be business processes

Example Best Practice Guidance Strategic Planning: The following integrated standards-based practices from iCMM Integrated Enterprise Management Process Area support the FEA Strategic Planning sub-function: 1. Establish, maintain, and communicate a strategic vision that identifies long-term goals, values, performance expectations, and core activities. 2. Align the enterprise to operate efficiently and consistently to achieve the vision. 3. Establish and maintain the enterprise strategic plans that identify business objectives to be achieved, areas of business to be pursued and their interrelationships, and the significant goals to be accomplished. 4. Establish, integrate, and deploy tactical action plans to accomplish strategic objectives. 5. Review performance relative to goals and changing needs across the enterprise. 6. Translate performance review findings into action 7. Address the impacts on society of planned activities, products, services, and operations, considering regulatory and legal requirements and risks associated with products, services, and operations.

Discussion BRM Coverage: Current coverage of the BRM shows many areas are already addressed, others are not EPIC could: Foster the use of standards-based process guidance in areas currently addressed Suggest such guidance be included in the FEA Work with collaborators to extend standards-based best practice guidance in areas not yet covered Questions/comments/thoughts ? …………..