Geographic Information Technology Enterprise Architecture Project

							                    ISB Enterprise Architecture Program
  Geographic Information Technology (GIT) Conceptual Architecture Overview
                             December 1, 2005

Overview of Conceptual GIT Enterprise Architecture Initiative (Phase I)
The purpose of the GIT EA Initiative is to identify GIT information, technology and
business processes that state agencies want to manage and fund as enterprise assets.
The GIT Enterprise Architecture Initiative was launched in January 2005 to address
several objectives highlighted in the 2005 Washington State Geographic Information
Strategic Plan.1 The initiative is jointly sponsored by the ISB Committees on Enterprise
Architecture and Geographic Information Technology 2.

Initiative Objectives
      Facilitate a single enterprise view of GIT data for policy makers, business
         partners and citizens.
      Increase state agencies' capacity to fully support informed public policy and
         decision making and,
      Help resolve environmental, transportation, public safety and other complex
         multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional problems.
      Address multiple objectives of the 2005 Washington State Geographic
         Information Strategic Plan

Expected Benefits: State agencies' capacity to fully support enterprise level decision
making and to create informed public policy will be expanded by the implementation of
the GIT EA. Other benefits accrue over the long-term through developing, maintaining
and using key enterprise spatial information and infrastructure across the enterprise.
This approach facilitates a single enterprise view of the data for policy makers, business
partners and citizens. These essential improvements will help resolve environmental,
transportation, public safety and other multi-jurisdictional problems.

Process: The GIT EA is a chartered initiative of the ISB Enterprise Architecture Program
(EAP) and is using the program development methodology. This methodology calls for
three successive „iterations‟ through each component of the architecture framework to
develop and document the architecture. Each iteration results in continued refinement
and additional definition of the components. Phase 1 of the GIT EA Initiative addresses
the first of these iterations, the Conceptual Architecture.

The proposed architecture was developed by a chartered Documenter Team comprised
of representatives from nine agencies that are using the technology in a mission critical
way. The project was launched in February by conducting a 2-day vision setting
workshop attended by nineteen organizations. Subsequently the Documenter Team
created drafts of each Conceptual Architecture document based on templates developed
by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). All documents
have been provided to the IT and GIT communities for review and comment resulting in
a number of valuable improvements to the proposal.

Governance: Successful development and implementation of the GIT EA depends on
establishing governance roles and responsibilities. The proposed governance
relationships among the ISB, ISB/GIT, and ISB/EA committees are characterized by the
following (see accompanying diagram).
     1. EA decision-making authority ultimately resides with the Information Services
        Board.
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                    ISB Enterprise Architecture Program
  Geographic Information Technology (GIT) Conceptual Architecture Overview
                             December 1, 2005

   2. ISB EA and GIT committees jointly recommend to ISB adoption of GIT EA work
      products.
         a. ISB EA ensures that proposed architectures are in compliance with EA
              principles and framework.
         b. ISB GIT committee ensures that proposed architecture supports GIT
              business needs.
   3. Stakeholder communities, including the public and other government
      organizations, have active roles in the development of the architecture and
      multiple ways to influence elements of proposed architecture.

Architecture Components: Individual components of an Enterprise Architecture will be
completed utilizing the overarching principles established by the EAP. The Program has
adopted the National Association of State Chief Information Officer‟s EA Framework and
Methodology (v3.0). The GIT EA will include the following components: Business
Architecture, Technology Architecture, Information Architecture and Solutions
Architecture. (See accompanying diagram)3

GIT EA Principles supplement the Washington EA program principles. These GIT
focused principles provide additional guidance for decision making about GIT
architecture components. The principles address the following important considerations
for a data-centric technology such as GIT:
1. Spatial information and data is a valued investment and asset – Spatial
    information can accelerate and improve decision-making, increase accountability,
    and improve services. Information must be shared to maximize effective decision-
    making across agencies, and with other government partners. The value of
    information is not realized if it is held in isolated pockets or “silos”.

2. Spatial Data and Information Stewardship – Spatial data and information must be
   managed and maintained as a stewardship responsibility to support the mission of
   Washington State Government. Spatial data stewards will promote common
   business rules and standards that span agency boundaries and facilitate sharing
   information, communication, and improved data integrity.

3. Information Access - Easy and timely access to data and information needs to be
   the rule rather than the exception. This needs to be accomplished without
   compromising security, confidentiality, and privacy. Productivity, decision-making,
   and customer service all benefit from easy, direct, and timely availability of
   information.

4. Total Cost of Ownership – The GIT domain will use a total cost of ownership (TCO)
   approach for Tier One* decision-making. This will ensure that realistic estimates for
   costs and benefits become the foundation for enterprise GIT investment and funding
   decisions. The real costs of creating and maintaining multiple sets of redundant data
   become easier to identify and manage.

5. Mainstream Technologies and Industry Standards - GIT solutions will use
   industry proven and state-of-the-art mainstream technologies with emphasis given to
   those that comply with industry standards or open architecture principles.
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                    ISB Enterprise Architecture Program
  Geographic Information Technology (GIT) Conceptual Architecture Overview
                             December 1, 2005

6. GIT Framework Data as Primary Source - Certain fundamental data themes will
   have a particular dataset formally designated as the primary source of data for that
   specific data theme. This will allow agencies to focus limited resources on currency,
   quality, and accessibility. Multiple standalone versions of fundamental data themes
   may be an inappropriate use of scarce data management resources.

Conceptual Information Architecture Components – The proposed Conceptual
Information Architecture consists of the seven most commonly needed digital data
themes and the environment that supports the development and use of the data. The
GIT EA Information Architecture leverages work that state agencies have accomplished
in addressing their National Spatial Data Infrastructure Framework data needs. These
data themes provide a foundation upon which state agencies can build by adding their
own detail to compile other value-added data sets and information. Additionally we have
identified candidate regional or national standards for consideration during the Phase
Two of architecture development:
     Orthoimagery – includes georeferenced imagery prepared from an aerial
         photograph or other remotely sensed data
     Hydrography – includes surface water features such as lakes and ponds,
         streams and rivers, canals, oceans, and shorelines
     Transportation – includes features that make up the states transportation
         network (road, rail, transit, ferries, air, and non-mechanized transportations
         nodes)
     Elevation - data provides information about terrain and refers to a spatially
         referenced vertical position above or below a datum (standardized) surface
     Cadastral theme refers to property interests and represents the geographic
         extent of public land holdings
     Geodetic Control theme is the common reference system for establishing the
         coordinate positions of all geographic data.

Conceptual Technology Architecture Components: The process of defining the
Technology Architecture Components identifies current, emerging, and retiring IT
technologies for the purpose of making good use of existing investments and sound
judgments about future investments. The proposed technical architecture identifies and
classifies usage for forty-two components in the following seven technology areas:
     Data Access and Distribution
     Data and Application Transport
     Operating Systems
     Application Development
     Relational Database Management
     Geographic Information Systems
     Locational Data Capture

Conceptual Business Architecture Components: Managing Tier One data and
technology gives rise to the need for new enterprise level GIT business management
processes. The Business Architecture addresses GIT Tier One architecture
management functions in the areas of:
     GIT Data Management
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                      ISB Enterprise Architecture Program
    Geographic Information Technology (GIT) Conceptual Architecture Overview
                               December 1, 2005

     GIT Shared Infrastructure Management
     GIT Planning, Policy, Oversight, and Reporting
The business architecture also proposes governance roles and responsibilities for each
of the identified processes.


Conceptual Solutions Architecture: Solutions Architecture addresses how the
Information, Technology and Business Architecture components are used to address
key business needs. These components may include: a central portal for access to GIT
data, Web services to enable access to distributed data stores, shared repository
infrastructure to meet certain data management and storage needs, and a program
office to support selected Tier One GIT components.


   What’s Next: Phase II – Logical and Physical iteration of the Architecture



GIT EA Documenter Team Members (** denotes team architects)
George Spencer **               Marty Parson **                    Allen Jakobitz
Department of Transportation    Department Of Revenue              Military Department
GIS Manager                     GIS Manager                        GIS

Joy Paulus **                   Jeff Holm **                       John Tooley
Salmon & Watershed              Department of Information          Ecology
Information Management          Services - ISB Staff               GIS Manager

Tim Young **                    Dave Wischer                       Craig Erickson
Department of Fish and          Department of Natural              Department of Health
Wildlife – GIS Manager          Resources - GIS Manager            GIS




*The statewide Enterprise Architecture will identify data, technology and business
process elements that should be managed in common as enterprise IT assets. Those IT
elements are referred to as Tier One enterprise architecture elements. A Tier One
designation implies that these elements will be managed as a common enterprise IT
asset.




1
  Copy of Strategic Plan Executive Summary enclosed in Section 5
2
  See GIT EA Organizational Context Diagram in Section 5
3
  See GIT EA Framework Diagram in Section 5

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