On September 8, 2004, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) received official grant award notification from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, in the amount of $500,000, for the continuation of the enterprise architecture (EA) development program.

The awarded grant proposal contains eight initiatives for the 2004-05 program year. These include:

• EA Business Case
• Marketing Effort & Awareness
• Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model Assessment/Validation Site Visits
• Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model Expansion
• National EA Consensus
  Facilitation Guide
• Implementation Guide for EA
  Repository Investigation

The grant, which is currently in its sixth year, will continue to focus on expansion and application of EA to address the critical limitations of interoperability among agencies within the justice and law enforcement communities.

NASCIO plans to expand its EA program funding to include agencies outside of the justice community; such as environmental protection, health and human services, homeland security, and transportation. Enterprise architecture will provide for interoperability to the various layers of government by encompassing state, local, tribal and federal agencies.

The focus of the EA program is to provide a portfolio of products & services that will aid the states in providing excellence in government through quality business practices, information management and technology policy.

For more information on the NASCIO EA program contact either Vince Havens, 859-514-9215, vhavens@amrinc.net or Eric Sweden, 859-514-9189, esweden@amrinc.net.