• DIEA Mission
  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
  • Transformation Context
  • Customers of Enterprise Architectures
  • DIEA 1.0 Overview
  • DIEA 1.0 Products and Evolution
• DIEA Priorites
  • Data and Services Deployment (DSD)
  • Secured Availability (SA)
  • Shared Infrastructure Environment
  • Computing Infrastructure Readiness (CIR)
  • Communications Readiness (CR)
  • NetOps Agility (NOA)
• Contact Us

DIEA 1.0 Products and Evolution

DIEA 1.0 Products

This initial iteration of the DIEA focuses on establishing a baseline framework of principles and rules that guide the Department's Defense Information Enterprise. Its core product is this architecture description document which:

• Explains the role of the Defense Information Enterprise
• Places DIEA in the context of the Department's Federated Enterprise Architecture
• Establishes Defense Information Enterprise priorities for near-term decision making
• Defines core principles and business rules that should guide all investments
  
  

This description documentation is complemented by a hierarchical activity model (an activity node tree), which decomposes each of the priorities into a set of core activities performed and/or governed by the DoD CIO. It may be accessed on the internet at URL:

http://cio-nii.defense.gov/sites/diea

It is here that the principles and rules laid out in the architecture description are tied to underlying DoD policies and guidance. The hierarchical activity model is linked both upward to Defense Information Enterprise principles and rules, and downward to the constraints, mechanisms, and best practices that govern implementation activities. The activity model thus provides a means for users to use the activities to navigate the many policies and standards applicable to the GIG. The activity model also serves as a classification scheme for investment management and thus serves as an important linkage point between the DIEA and other DoD architectures for federation purposes.

DIEA Evolution

While DIEA 1.0 represents a strong beginning, it is by no means complete. Given the evolutionary nature of IT development, the DIEA is, and always will be, a work in progress. In the background section, it was stated that enterprise architectures and related guidance answer three questions:

• What must we do?
• How must we operate?
• When will we transition?

The DIEA 1.0 addresses the first two of these questions, building a foundational level of principles and rules by which the entire enterprise shall abide. These concepts must become embedded across the Department before effective DoD-wide transformation can take place. The Department anticipates incorporating a transition plan in parallel with future releases of the DIEA to provide guidance that addresses when and how DoD will transition.

It is not expected that future releases will include a significant increase in the number of formal architecture products. Existing products will be refined, and additional operational views (particularly process models) may be included to demonstrate enterprise-wide solutions to specific DoD IT problems. Certain types of views, however, will likely never be included in the DIEA. For example, logical data models and traditional systems views are inconsistent with the DoD Data and Services strategies as well as the overall concept of net-centric information sharing. These architecture products, however, may well be appropriate for capability or Component architectures given the challenges of managing the transition from the legacy environment.

The Challenge Forward

The principles and rules outlined in DIEA 1.0 are few, but powerful. As they are embedded in decision-making processes across DoD, and applied to DoD investments, they will accelerate the Department’s evolution to net-centric information sharing. The key focus for the architecture going forward is institutionalizing its rules and principles across the Department. Steps towards institutionalization are in progress. The Department is:

• Focusing on supporting decision makers across the Department in using the DIEA as a tool to appropriately guide and constrain the IT investments for which they are responsible.
• Accelerating the evolution of the COI approach to solving data, information and services issues facing the Department.
• Addressing and resolving issues related to the funding and sustainment of the enterprise services model of operations.

A near-term priority for the DoD CIO is merging related enterprise architecture guidance-particularly the Net-Centric Operations and Warfare Reference Model (NCOW RM) and the Net-Centric Checklist-into the DIEA. This merger, in the next DIEA release, will provide a common, easily understood framework for critical architecture guidance. Additionally, a DIEA compliance guideline document will be developed and published, using the NCOW RM compliance documentation as input.

Achieving the goals of net-centric operations will require sustained commitment across all layers of the Department of Defense. DIEA 1.0 is an important step in DoD’s net-centric transformation – one that ensures efforts are aligned to achieving a common vision.