The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework, Version 2, describes a suite of tools to help government planners implement the Common Approach. At its core is the Consolidated Reference Model (CRM), which equips the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other Federal agencies with a common language and framework to describe and analyze investments. FEAF consists of a set of interrelated “reference models” that describe the six sub-architecture domains in the framework: Strategy, Business, Data, Applications, Infrastructure, and Security models. The use of these models and their applicability to interoperability are used to show the relationships between the capabilities demonstrated in each of the models.
The interoperability frameworks provided within the current version of the DoDAF are utilized from the DoDAF interface and data models to suggest methods for enhancement in the exchange of information and data types. The exchange of information should enhance the capability of analysts and investigators to discover and access necessary information. DoDAF version 2.02 has capability, data, service, operational, and standards models and viewpoints that help architects and planners collect and view enterprise information in an integrated way. The specific DoDAF artifacts used depend on the scope and level of detail needed to be captured, although there are some artifacts that are typically always developed in the set of artifacts such as an OV-1, which provides an overview graphic along with a narrative description of the enterprise to be described.
The GRA offers guidance on the design, specification, and implementation of services and related infrastructure as part of a justice service-oriented architecture (SOA). The GRA is an abstract framework for understanding significant components and the relationships between them within a SOA construct. It lays out common concepts and definitions as the foundation for the development of consistent SOA implementation. It is a description of the important concepts in an information sharing architecture and the relationships between those concepts.
Within the Intelligence Community (IC), the architecture frameworks and models are comprised of service lists, competencies, and a technical taxonomy model which relate to each other and is a way of looking at current and desired capabilities in a way to avoid, unless necessary, duplication of capabilities. The technical taxonomy breaks down technical services in a generic manner much like the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) stack spells out the various components required in the delivery of a capability, such as applications, frameworks, data, hardware, networks, and facilities. The IC taxonomy model also has three higher layers—for governance and policy, capabilities, and services, showing the relationship and drivers for each instantiation within the taxonomy models and other supporting IC models.
Intelligence Community Joint Architecture Reference Model (IC JARM) and Program Architecture Guide (IC PAG): The IC JARM represents the IC’s extension to the FEA CRM. It is comprised of an Enterprise Competency Model (ECM), Enterprise Services List (ESL), and Technical Services Taxonomy (TST). These are an interlinked set of clearly defined concepts produced by a body of experts in order to encourage clear communication and consistent description and analyses of investments and enhance intra-agency and inter-agency collaboration. The IC PAG is modeled from DoDAF and prescribes a set of consistent, viewpoint based artifacts at select points in the initiative’s life cycle.
Other activities ongoing within the Intelligence Community are IC Core and IC Information Technology Enterprise (ITE). IC Core is a reference architecture intended to depict the ability of the IC to store, discover, collaborate, and provide security access to data within the IC in order to share data among a diverse user community. IC Core includes a “platform-as-a service” concept, which allows services to be shared throughout the community. IC ITE concepts such as the use of the cloud, collaborative tools, and common desktop environments were used in this document for their applicability to interoperability.
TOGAF is a framework for an enterprise architecture which provides a comprehensive approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing enterprise information architecture. TOGAF is a high-level and holistic approach to design, which is typically modeled at four levels: Business, Application, Data, and Technology. It provides a well-tested foundational model to information architects. TOGAF relies heavily on modularization, standardization, and already existing, proven technologies and products, and supports loosely coupling and interoperability of services. (Also applicable, the Open Group has published three SOA standards and one SOA guide: The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model, The Open Group SOA Governance Framework, The Open Group SOA Ontology, and the Guide to Using TOGAF to Define and Govern SOAs. The Open Group has also published a white paper, Navigating the SOA Open Standards Landscape around Architecture, which was written by the Work Group together with members of OASIS and the OMG.)