1. introduction

The State of Arizona’s Enterprise Architecture (EA) describes a comprehensive framework for information technology that supports the Arizona State government strategic plan. Information Technology (IT) is not an independent science having a set of doctrines of its own. Rather, it applies the principles established in the various physical sciences, along with methodologies and human activities to business processes. EA facilitates the application of information technology and subsequent change in an orderly, efficient manner by describing a direction for current and future activities, supported by underlying principles, standards, and best practices. The implementation of EA presents opportunities for State agencies to interoperate together to deliver a higher level of courteous, efficient, responsive, and cost-effective service to the citizen owners and employees of State government. Individually, each State agency can independently implement EA components that are interoperable, however, e-government initiatives, economies of scale, consolidation, and cross-agency savings may best be realized not just through interoperability, but also by working together in partnership and sharing.

Arizona's IT Conceptual Architecture document explains the overall strategic alignment of Arizona’s EA with the State's goals and objectives, the principles behind the architecture, the domains to be addressed, the plans for addressing domains, and the technology trends to be taken into consideration. The conceptual plan was presented to the Information Technology Authorization Committee (ITAC), Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council, and other stakeholders. It is available for review at the Government Information Technology Agency (GITA) website, http://azgita.gov/enterprise_architecture.

EA includes important business, governance, and technical components. The technical components, collectively referred to as Enterprise Wide Technical Architecture (EWTA), provide technical guidance to State agencies. That guidance is supported by principles correlated to agency business functions, recommended standards, and applicable recommended best practices.

EA applies to all agencies. The agency director, working in conjunction with the agency CIO, is responsible for ensuring the implementation of EA within the agency’s “sphere of influence,” as designated by statute or rule. The EA Target Domain Architecture documents define an overall strategy and technical framework; however, by design, the individual roles and responsibilities, funding sources, and timeframes for the implementation of the target architectures are the responsibility of the agency.

Arizona’s EWTA Domains
Infrastructure	Application
Platform	Data/Information
Network	Software
Security

Data/Information Architecture was the fifth major EWTA domain developed by GITA and its architectural task teams. The EWTA was developed in phases and is updated periodically. The domain architectures are driven by the business and program priorities of Arizona State government. They are aligned with, and facilitate the strategic goals of the State and agency IT plans.

2. Data/Information Architecture Vision

The State of Arizona’s Data/Information Architecture suggests a strategy to collectively and collaboratively seek out, embrace, and facilitate the implementation of e-government solutions and strategic business initiatives that potentially cross over traditional agency boundaries through a community-of-interest-based approach. Because government, at all levels, provides a variety of disparate and distinct services, its environment for conducting business is inherently decentralized and distributed. Data/Information Architecture proposes a desired outcome within which communities of interest prudently transcend individual agency operations to mutually address new and changing business opportunities and legislation to more cost-effectively and efficiently deliver services, and interact with other governmental entities, and the private business sector.

3. Data/Information Architecture Definition

Data/Information Architecture focuses on the process of modeling the information that is needed to support the business processes and functions of agencies, and more strategically, of communities of interest. Where applicable, it spans traditional agency organizational boundaries to address interoperability, integration, consolidation, and sharing of resources by correlating agency business processes to common government services through the identification and definition of data/information relationships and dependencies.

Data/Information Architecture outcomes are expressed in the form of data models, information flows, and analysis of inputs/outputs and decision-making criteria for the activities of State government. Analyzing these outcomes within the desired context of collectively improving the efficiency and effectiveness of State government provides a common framework to potentially converge certain individual agency business processes into community-of-interest-based, realistic, attainable e-government solutions and strategic business initiatives that eliminate unnecessary redundant and overlapping individual agency activities. While certain unique agency data and processes may be required and necessary, they should not deter or impede the State’s strategic efforts to maximize opportunities to share information and integrate resources among agencies within communities of interest as well as to improve interoperability with other governmental entities and the private business sector.

4. target data/information architecture

Arizona’s Data/Information Architecture suggests a strategy for e-government. e-Government benefits citizens, business partners, other levels of government, and employees. e-Government has been defined as the use of:

Ø Internet-based technology to improve government services, reduce operational costs, enhance citizen participation, and rethink government processes; and

Ø Digital technologies to transform government operations in order to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and service delivery.

Technology, incorporated into business and aligned with EA, has the potential to transform government by improving service delivery, reducing costs, simplifying and streamlining requirements and services, and increasing efficiency and effectiveness. AZ State Government, other state governments, the federal government, the private sector, and citizens currently embrace e-government as an essential strategy to achieve market-based, citizen- and result-oriented government services. e-Government and strategic business initiatives and programs should be designed to:

Ø Make it easy for citizens and businesses to obtain service and interact with government;

Ø Improve government efficiency and effectiveness; and

Ø Improve government’s responsiveness to citizens, businesses, political sub-divisions, and the federal government.

Utilizing these themes to align e-government and strategic business initiatives with their primary beneficiaries allows service programs to be classified into four major strategic portfolios:

Ø Government-to-Citizen initiatives to fulfill a vision of one-stop online access to government services.

Ø Government-to-Business initiatives to reduce government burden on businesses, reduce redundant data collection and reporting, and enable digital communication with businesses.

Ø Government-to-Government initiatives to enable sharing and integration of information with all levels of government, and integrate key government operations such as disaster response.

Ø Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness initiatives that use technology to reduce costs and improve internal operations by adopting commercial best practices.

Numerous communities of interest exist within state government that affords opportunities to develop realistic and attainable e-government solutions that support strategic initiatives and align with Statewide Policy P100, Information Technology. Many communities of interest such as Health, Human/Social Services, Criminal Justice, Education, Environmental Quality, Transportation, and others extend beyond State government. Recognizing this reality, Data/Information Architecture continues the ongoing strategic theme of Arizona’s EWTA to emphasize and focus on technologies that are aligned with open, pervasive industry-wide standards, interoperability, portability, and adaptability to foster a common, compatible environment conducive to extending the State’s communities of interest to all levels of government and the private business sector.

Arizona’s EWTA provides the strategic technical guidance and definitions to create a comprehensive, interoperable, adaptive IT framework that facilitates and supports the economical and efficient development and implementation of e-government and strategic business solutions that improve government services, eliminate redundancies, and reduce costs. The Network and Platform domains of Arizona’s EWTA address the infrastructure requirements of business projects, while the Security domain focuses on the underlying security of the IT infrastructure. The Software domain concentrates on the secure software technologies, development strategies, and techniques necessary to automate agency, or community of interest, business functions. Data/Information Architecture correlates disparate agency business functions, modeling the desired outcomes into potential e-government and strategic business initiatives.

The purpose of data modeling is to develop an accurate model, or graphical representation, of the agency's information needs and business processes. The data model acts as a framework for business re-engineering and the development of new or enhanced applications to fulfill business requirements and processes. Data modeling aids in describing the types of interactions and information exchanges that occur within and between agencies and their various customers, constituencies, and business partners. The functional perspective of Target Data/Information Architecture data modeling facilitates identification of common business processes, information requirements, and opportunities for business process improvements not only with agencies, but as well across agencies boundaries within communities of interest. Data modeling is a tool that provides a detailed data/information process map to help agencies identify functional processes and programs that can be more effective and efficient through community of interest collaboration and partnerships.

Recognizing the benefits of direct involvement and widespread collaboration, GITA and the CIO Council propose to establish a Technology Government Working Group (TGOV.) TGOV will support the Governor’s strategic plan for e-government and the implementation of strategic business initiatives by assisting agencies to achieve success in areas of EA implementation, technology selection, and the adoption of recommended standards and best practices that can be leveraged on a statewide scale. TGOV leverages the knowledge and expertise of existing IT personnel to provide agencies with architectural guidance, technology recommendations and approaches that support the adoption and implementation of Arizona’s EA. Agencies having representation on the CIO Council are encouraged to participate and provide appropriate technical staff representation in the working group. See Appendix A. Technology Government Working Group (TGOV) for further information.

Using a structured, well-defined, architectural-process-based approach to implement strategic business initiatives and e-government solutions dramatically improves the potential for success. Enterprise Architecture helps to avoid problem areas such as duplicate efforts, failure to consider infrastructure and security requirements, and implementing proprietary technologies that are not interoperable, flexible, and scalable. A process-based approach increases the possibility for collaborative efforts by clearly identifying opportunities where community of interest partnerships can take place.

AZ Architectural Process-Based Approach

The recommended implementation approach for the Target Data/Information Architecture is as follows:

1. The EWTA Principles, Recommended Standards, and Best Practices, are being developed by GITA and its architectural task teams in conjunction with the CIO Council and ITAC, and with agency technical staff input and review. The EA domains provide the technical framework for the application of information technology and subsequent change in an orderly, efficient manner by describing a direction for current and future community of interest and agency business activities that is supported by underlying principles, standards, and best practices.

The development and implementation of EWTA is an ongoing process that encourages the continual refinement of the architecture to ensure sustained alignment with evolving business strategies, communities of interest, and requirements of the State as well as changing technology.

2. GITA is undertaking the Initial Agency Conceptual Data Modeling component to define the individual agency and statewide “As-Is” business and application processes and their respective data/information flows. These high-level conceptual models are contained in Appendix B. Statewide Context Diagram and Appendix C. Agency Conceptual Model.

Conceptual data modeling is a high-level graphical representation of the data needed to operate an organization or a business activity that is unbiased toward any single application and independent of its access and physical storage. It describes the information used by an organization in a business manner, not governed, by implementation-level issues and details.

Revision	Effective Date	Summary of Changes
NC	02/05/2003	Initial release
1.0	05/06/2003	The Enterprise Architecture Technology Trends section has been removed and consolidated into a new EA Technology Trends document. A hyperlink to http://azgita.gov/enterprise_architecture/ was added in place of the description of the economic, governmental, and technical trends that impact and influence EA.
		The Glossary of Terms section has been removed and consolidated into the GITA Policies, Standards, and Procedures (PSP) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) Glossary of Terms. A hyperlink to http://azgita.gov/policies_standards/glossary.htm was added in place of the glossary content.