Defense Department business transition plan debuts

The Defense Business Systems Management Committee has approved the Defense Department's Enterprise Transition Plan and version 3.0 of its business enterprise architecture.

BEA 3.0 has a transition plan and new process for senior Defense officials to evaluate IT systems for compliance with the overarching architecture.

Paul A. Brinkley, deputy defense undersecretary for business transformation, said the architecture includes a transition plan for Defense agencies, including the departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and U.S. Transportation Command.

The new version provides the architectural framework for an information infrastructure for DOD, including business rules, requirements, data standards, system interface requirements, financial accounting structures and business rules with corresponding implementation schedules that can be spread out over six, 12 or 18 months, Brinkley said.

"It creates a baseline of new thinking for how we're going to approach business transformation in the department," Brinkley said during a keynote address at the E-Gov Institute's fifth Enterprise Architecture Conference and Exhibition.

Defense officials have presented the transition plan and new BEA version to Congress. The plan calls for the department to lay out a new investment review process, requiring Gordon England, deputy secretary of defense, to review DOD systems on a monthly basis for compliance.

The Defense Department has 4,700 business systems, including databases that handle accounting, logistics and personnel functions. In a report earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office found redundant systems, little standardization and manual data entry into multiple systems.

In a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2005, Congress mandated that DOD provide its latest BEA version by Sept. 30.

Starting Oct. 1, senior Defense leaders could be held in violation of Title 31 of the Antideficiency Act and face jail time and fines if they fail to review all business projects worth more than $1 million to make sure agency initiatives are aligned with the BEA.

Washington Technology staff contributed to this report.