Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF): Collaborative Planning Methodology (CPM)

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, CMM for Enterprise Architecture (EA) - 5-Year Tracker (Excel workbook). This Excel spreadsheet evaluates and records targets of the CMM (Capability Maturity Model) level for Enterprise Architecture (EA) over a 5-year period. The following criteria/questions around EA are evaluated: 1. Architecture Process: Is there an established Enterprise Architecture [read more]

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Business and technology resources are aligned using Enterprise Architecture (EA) in order to achieve strategic results, improve organizational performance, achieve Cost Optimization and Operational Excellence, and guide departments to fulfill their central missions more efficaciously.

Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) does that for any U.S. federal agency and helps systems transcend interagency boundaries.

Planning is one of the most important elements for bringing about change in an organization, if not the most important.  Planning methodology for the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework is called Collaborative Planning Methodology (CPM).

Collaborative Planning Methodology is the next-generation successor to Federal Segment Architecture Methodology (FSAM).

Collaborative Planning Methodology encompasses 2 phases and a total of 5 steps under these phases:

Organize and Plan phase lets planners facilitate partnership between sponsors and various stakeholders in order to ascertain and prioritize requirements, explore other organizations with same needs, and devise plans to tackle the stated requirements.

Implement and Measure phase has the planners in assist role to other key personnel working to implement and monitor change related activities by supporting investment, procurement, implementation, and performance measurement actions and decisions.

Each step under these 2 phases has a number of activities that need to be completed in order to obtain the outcome for that step.  There are regular and essential iterations within and among the phases even though the phases have been displayed as successive.  Let’s discuss the key steps of the methodology in detail.

1. Identify and Validate

The objective of the 1^st step is to ascertain what is required to be attained, comprehend the main drivers for change, and afterwards delineate and prioritize the goals with stakeholders and operational staff. 

Key outcomes of the step include:

• Identified and validated needs.
• Overarching set of performance metrics.
• Determination of who (governance) will ultimately oversee and approve recommended changes to meet those needs. 

2. Research and Leverage

The aim of this step is to detect organizations and service providers who have already fulfilled or presently have requirements similar to those identified in Step 1.  This necessitates studying their experiences and outcomes in order to discover if they can be used and leveraged or whether an alliance can be created to fulfill the needs together. 

Key outcomes of the step include:

• Clear grasp on the experiences and results of other organizations.
• Determination by sponsors regarding applicability, usage of experiences of other organizations or formation of partnerships if the other organization is also planning to fulfill similar needs.
• Detailed analysis of alternatives.

3. Define and Plan

The purpose here is to form the integrated plan for the alterations essential to fulfill the requirements determined in Step 1. 

Key outcomes of the step include:

• Sponsor and stakeholders hold an integrated set of plans and articles outlining what is to be done, when is it to be done, what benefits will be achieved and when, and a projected cost.

4. Invest and Execute

Point of this step is to carry out investment decision and effect the changes as delineated in the Integrated Plan produced in Step 3. 

Key outcomes of this step include:

• Clear funding strategy and a decision to approve the investment of required funds.
• Implementation of recommendations for tackling the identified needs.

5. Perform and Measure

Objective of this step is to execute operations and measure performance outcomes against established metrics.  The recently applied changes are leveraged by the organization in Performance Management. 

Key outcomes of this step include:

• Performance outcomes gauged against pre-determined metrics.
• Production of significant outcomes e.g., feedback into planning with the view to making more adjustments in addition to what was implemented in Step 4.

Interested in learning more Collaborative Planning Methodology, its salient features, and the key activities in each step?  You can download an editable PowerPoint on Collaborative Planning Methodology here on the Flevy documents marketplace.

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