FAIRFAX, Va. -- Venkatapathi Puvvada, chair of the Industry Advisory Council's (IAC) Enterprise Architecture Shared Interest Group (EA SIG), testified last week before the House Government Reform Committee Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations, and the Census at a hearing titled "Federal Enterprise Architecture: A Blueprint for Improved Federal IT Investment Management & Cross-Agency Collaboration and Information Sharing."

Puvvada, who is also the chief technology officer for the Global Public Sector of Unisys Corp., provided the information technology industry perspective of the more than 400 member companies of IAC. The EA SIG has been actively working with the Office of Management and Budget, Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council, National Association of State CIOs, and federal agencies in providing its views and best practices on a number of initiatives related to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) including approaches for collaboration and information sharing within and among federal agencies and across federal, state and local levels.

Puvvada said that "high marks should be given for progress on creating a blueprint for improved federal IT investment management, but major hurdles exist for cross-agency collaboration and information sharing." He went on to outline some of the major challenges that exist, including the lack of incentives for federal departments and agencies to collaborate, lack of emphasis in overcoming cultural, organizational and change management issues, and a dearth of sufficient funding, key resources, and skills to implement the FEA across the government -- all of which could derail future progress. He highlighted major success factors for FEA as strong executive leadership, clear governance and positive incentives for agencies to collaborate as keys going forward on FEA.

In his testimony, Puvvada emphasized that the FEA is critical to the government's ability to achieve significant improvements in the way it performs its missions. Furthermore, it is the only practical way to provide a consistent basis for comparison of investment decisions by department and agency business leaders. "Enterprise Architecture is not a technical exercise. It must be seen as a business transformation priority by the mission program and business line owners," said Puvvada. On behalf of IAC, Puvvada praised the efforts to keep Enterprise Architecture initiatives as a priority and promised IAC's continuing support.

Bob Woods, chair of IAC, commented, "I am so pleased that IAC had the opportunity to testify in front of Congressman Putnam and his committee today. Our Enterprise Architecture SIG has been working tirelessly in support of government and helping them to achieve their goals in this area. I hope the information that [Venkatapathi Puvvada] shared with the committee will help inform Congress."

The full testimony may be viewed at the Web site.

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