Natural Allies for Improved Mission Effectiveness and Efficiency: Technology Business Management and Enterprise Architecture

Once fully applied, transparency of costs related to IT expenditures aligned to the TBM Taxonomy will allow leadership in the Federal Government to make budget decisions and trade-offs effectively. The OMB guidance is driving agencies to fully identify their Cost Pools and IT Towers by FY 2021. Transparency of IT products and services is the focus of EA practice and TBM practice is a welcome addition to the strategic information base that EA provides. They are natural allies in helping agencies achieve mission effectiveness and efficiency. For more information on TBM, see this earlier Arc Aspicio Blog Post: Running IT Like a Business: How Technology Business Management is Shaping the Future of Federal Agencies.

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Getting a handle on the spiraling costs of Information Technology (IT) investments poses many challenges. It is sensible for the government to treat investments in IT like utilities, just as it has for industry. Linking Technology Business Management (TBM) with established Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice smooths the journey to cost transparency. Better management of costs is a step toward better mission efficiency and effectiveness.

Since the mandate of the Clinger-Cohen Act in 1996, Federal Agencies have aligned their IT assets using EA. In the past few years, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has made the application of TBM a central focus of the IT Budget Guidance memorandum. Emerging from industry efforts to get control over the IT spend, TBM fits with the increasing commoditization of IT within the organization.

Like the Federal Enterprise Architecture’s (FEA) Business, Application, and Infrastructure Reference Models (BRM, ARM, and IRM), TBM provides a taxonomy focused on “Cost Pools” and “IT Towers” as a foundation for classifying the IT expenditures. Agencies can leverage their Enterprise Architecture products to help support the TBM requirements of OMB. To assist agencies in creating an effective TBM program, the General Services Administration has recently released a TBM Playbook. Read more about it here.