Enterprise Architecture
Overview
The goal of the DEH Project is to provide a comprehensive architectural framework to manage and align regional business processes, IT software and hardware, local and wide area networks, people, operations and projects to support the strategy to facilitate regional interoperability. Because the NCR is comprised of numerous enterprise architectures found with the 21 member jurisdictions, the DEH enterprise architecture is designed to deal with the complexity of data, systems, processes and people that comprise a regional enterprise. To deal with this complexity, a more distributed model for encapsulation of specific business functionality is required to support the DEH; at the same time, a set of guidelines is necessary to hold the architecture together.
To meet these challenges, the DEH utilizes a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solution to facilitate a collaborative environment for regional data sharing. By adhering to a SOA approach, the data architecture is coordinated as part of a larger information architecture and includes process alignment across jurisdictions and ESFs, as well as coordination with the technical and business architectures of the region’s other DHS interoperability initiatives. This architecture is supported by the use of National standards such as GJXDM, NIEM, CAP and NIST.
Enterprise Architecture
The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) is a business-based framework for government-wide improvement, constructed around a set of interterrelated reference models “designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across Federal Agencies.” Although the nature of transactions conducted across, and between, jurisdictional and ESF entities does not lend itself to the traditional enterprise architecture model found within a single entity, the FEA Consolidated Reference Model did provide a starting point for the design of the DEH architecture.
The table below illustrates the linkage between the FEA, National Standarads and the DEH Enterprise Architecture:
| Federal Enterprise Architecture | DEH Enterprise Architecture |
| Data Reference Model | |
| Performance Reference Model (PRM) | IC Project Review Process |
| Technical Reference Model (TRM) | |
| Service Component Reference Model (SRM) | |
| Security Management |
Guidelines
The DEH is predicated on the assumption that to achieve any level of interoperability, an open-system standards-based approach is necessary. Regional information architectures involve integration of information systems and data across diverse, federated agencies and jurisdictions. This implies that a solution will utilize commonly available, vendor-neutral, open standards but not prescribe a specific implementation or product for an agency or jurisdiction.
Regional data exchange guidelines will continue to evolve over time and must be integrated thoughtfully into the a technical environment that includes many proprietary legacy systems. While compliance with standards is the basis for interoperability, the DEH will continue to evaluate and interpret standards for applicability and usefulness to the region. The following standards are currently being utilized in the development of data exchanges: