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TESTIMONY OF
DR. MARGARET MYERS
PRINCIPAL DEPUTY
TO THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
(DEPUTY DOD CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER)

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL THREATS AND CAPABILITIES
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REGARDING DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS

 March 31, 2004 

 
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am pleased to be here to discuss the role of the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer in the Department's business transformation.

Defense transformation means more than just leveraging technological advances, and it is more than a mechanical change. It requires a change in the way we think, the way we organize - it is a cultural change.  Secretary Rumsfeld has said, "the two truly transforming things, conceivably, might be in information technology and information operation and networking and connecting things in ways that they function totally differently than they had previously."

Forces employing transformational concepts need transformed business processes that produce the timely results required for 21^st Century warfighting.  It is critical to ensure that Defense transformation is viewed as an enterprise endeavor and is implemented in a balanced way.  We must provide capabilities to both the warfighting operations that are core to DoD and the important business operations, such as financial management and logistics that support our forces.

The Department's Business Management Modernization Program (BMMP) is an unprecedented effort to build a competitive advantage by transforming how we do Defense business.  Through business transformation, the Department will expend fewer resources on business processes and systems; ensure that men and women in uniform have the business information they need, whenever and wherever they need it; and inform Congress and the public, with confidence, on how we use our resources.

The DoD CIO partners with the DoD Comptroller in two key areas of the BMMP strategy: developing and using the business enterprise architecture to help reengineer the Department's business processes and establishing a portfolio management process to reduce and eliminate stove-piped systems.

The Comptroller is developing the Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) for the business domains as an extension of the Global Information Grid (GIG) Architecture.  The GIG Architecture is the Department's integrated enterprise architecture.  Both the GIG Architecture and the BEA are living architectures that represent frameworks for iteratively transforming warfighting capabilities and business processes throughout the Department.

The GIG Architecture and its development process were favorably reviewed by the Government Accounting Office as part of its 2003 review of Executive Branch enterprise architectures.  Both the GIG Architecture and the BEA are consistent with the Federal Enterprise Architecture.

The second major area in which the DoD CIO supports the Comptroller is with a strategy for managing information technology (IT) investments.  Historically, IT investments, to include business systems, were defined and managed as platforms or systems.  This resulted in duplicative investments to deliver the same or similar capabilities.  The duplication was caused, in part, by the size and breadth of the organization, as well as a focus on system or platform capabilities rather than mission capabilities, which limited the ability to share information.

Now IT investments are managed as portfolios.  Decisions on what IT investments to make, modify or terminate are based on the GIG Architecture, mission area goals, architectures, risk tolerance levels, potential returns, outcome goals and performance.  In the context of managing the Department's portfolios of IT investments, the Department has three major mission areas - the Warfighter Mission Area, the Business Mission Area, and the Enterprise Information Environment (EIE) Mission Area. 

In collaboration with the CIO Executive Board and component CIOs, the DoD CIO manages the EIE Mission Area, which enables the functions of the Warfighter and Business Mission Areas.  The EIE Mission Area encompasses communications, computing and core service systems, equipment, and software that provide a common information capability or service for Enterprise use.  Domains are subsets of mission areas and represent a common collection of related, or highly dependent, information capabilities and services.  Portfolio management of information capabilities and services within domains improves coordination, collaboration, integration, and consistency of processes and interfaces for information sharing. 

In closing, we are putting in place improved and timely information technology investment policies, procedures and architectures that are enabling change throughout the Department, assuring that we have the right capabilities to perform our mission and conduct effective information operations, and eliminating outdated ways of doing business.

Thank you for this opportunity to share our progress with you.

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