Master Index Page

The BEA is the enterprise architecture for the DoD Business Mission Area (BMA) and defines the DoD business transformation priorities, the Business Capabilities required to support those priorities, and the combinations of Enterprise Systems and Initiatives that enable those capabilities. The BEA is developed using a set of integrated DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) products, including All View (AV), Operational View (OV), Systems and Services View (SV), and Technical Standards View (TV) products. The BEA includes activities, processes, data, Information Exchanges, Business Rules, System Functions, System Data Exchanges, terms, and linkages to laws, regulations, and policies. The purpose of the BEA is to:

2. Where can I find a copy of the BEA?

3. Why is the BEA important to the Department of Defense?

The BEA is critical to the DoD because it defines business transformation priorities, business capabilities required to support those priorities, and systems and initiatives that enable these capabilities. The BEA articulates the future vision of change within the Department's business enterprise. The BEA also guides and constrains investments that impact business operations in the DoD.

4. Is the BEA the only transformation tool?

No. The BEA is one tool of the DoD's greater transformational effort, not the sole element. The major milestones for the systems and initiatives that are critical to achieving the transformation priorities are outlined in the Enterprise Transition Plan (ETP). Although the ETP is a separate document, the BEA and the ETP are integrated and cross-referenced at the appropriate intersections.

Another tool to support transformation on the technical side is the BMA Federation Strategy and Roadmap which outlines the target state Business Operating Environment (BOE) and the services and infrastructure required to support the environment; the Business Transformation Engine (BTE) and Business Transformation Infrastructure (BTI) respectively.

5. How are the BEA and Enterprise Transition Plan (ETP) Related?

The BEA and ETP provide the blueprint and roadmap for DoD business transformation, respectively. The Congressional Report provides a status against the milestones outlined in the ETP. Together, these three products provide the Department’s target environment, how to get to that target environment and progress being made towards the target environment.

Each of the aforementioned products, BEA, Congressional Report and ETP, are released on an annual basis. However, the BEA and Congressional Report are released in March while the ETP is released in September. The timing of these releases necessitates the alignment of the ETP to the previously delivered BEA, e.g. the September 2008 ETP aligns to the March 2008 BEA. Where MCR and ETP content references the BEA, the BEA is the authoritative source

6. What are the DoD's Business Enterprise Priorities? How do they relate to the BEA?

There are currently six Business Enterprise Priorities (BEP) that have been identified as the highest priority transformation initiatives at the DoD Enterprise level. The BEPs set the context, scope and focus of the BEA development effort to have the greatest impact across the enterprise. The six BEPs are:

Personnel Visibility (PV), which is the fusion of accurate human resources (HR) information and secure, interoperable technology within the Human Resources Management (HRM) core business mission. PV is defined as having reliable information that provides visibility of military service members, civilian employees, military retirees, contractors (in theater), and other U.S. personnel, across the full spectrum - during peacetime and war, through mobilization and demobilization, for deployment and redeployment, while assigned in a theater of operation, at home base, and into retirement.
Acquisition Visibility, which is defined as achieving timely access to accurate, authoritative, and reliable information supporting acquisition oversight, accountability, and decision making throughout the Department for effective and efficient delivery of warfighter capabilities. Benefits: a more flexible business environment that supports better investment decisions, greater accountability, increased management agility, and improved reporting to Congress.
Common Supplier Engagement (CSE), which is the alignment and integration of the policies, processes, data, technology and people to provide a consistent experience for suppliers and DoD stakeholders to ensure reliable and accurate delivery of acceptable goods and services to support the warfighter. Benefits include improved supplier relationships through consistent data and processes between DoD and its suppliers; reliable and accurate delivery of goods and services; increased visibility of supplier activities that increase ability to meet socioeconomic goals; and operational efficiencies in contingency and garrison operations through standardized data, processes, and systems.
Materiel Visibility (MV), which is defined as the ability to locate and account for materiel assets throughout their lifecycle and provide transaction visibility across logistics systems in support of the joint warfighting mission. Benefits include timely and accurate information on the location, movement, status, and identity of unit equipment, materiel and supplies, greatly improving overall supply chain performance.
Real Property Accountability (RPA) provides the warfighter and Core Business Missions (CBMs) access to near-real-time secure, accurate and reliable information on real property assets, and environment, safety, and occupational health sustainability. Accurate and timely data is fundamental to effective management of the assets, and ultimately to military success. The Real Property and Installations Lifecycle Management CBM will provide the warfighter and other CBMs with continuous access to Installations and Environment (I&E) information.
Financial Visibility (FV) provides immediate access to accurate and reliable financial information (planning, programming, budgeting, accounting, and cost information) in support of financial accountability and efficient and effective decision making throughout the Department in support of the missions of the warfighter.

7. What is the scope of the BEA? Will priorities change in each version?

The scope of the BEA is any function, process, rules, data or technology that is required to be used in a standard manner to support or describe the DoD business enterprise. This scope is further defined within the six Business Enterprise Priorities (BEPs).
Priorities will change as articulated or directed by senior leadership to meet mission and strategic objectives.

8. Does the BEA 6.1 address gaps from previous versions? What other revisions were made?

Each BEA release addresses selected architecture gaps identified in the previous release's AV-1, Overview and Summary, the Findings and Recommendations and the Enterprise Transition Plan. In addition to new content, the current release includes architecture maintenance work to clarify existing content and improve the usability, production, and functionality of the architecture.

9. Has the scope in the BEA 6.1 changed from the initial scope in the BEA 3.0?

The scope of the architecture continues to be defined by the six BEPs, which permits the BEA to evolve in a controlled and consistent fashion.

10. Does the BEA provide solutions?

No. The BEA provides the architectural framework for an information infrastructure for the DoD, including business rules, requirements, data standards, system interface requirements, and the depiction of policies and procedures. This framework is provided through a set of DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) products, including Operational, Systems and Services, Technical Standards and All View products. The BEA is an enterprise-level transformation architecture. Under the tiered accountability paradigm, specific solutions will be developed at the Component and Program level, based upon BEA requirements.

11. Does the BEA use the DoD Architecture Framework? If so, what products are included?

Yes. As with prior releases of BEA, this release included the following set of DoD Architecture Framework products.

Name	Title	Translation
AV-1	Overview and Summary	Executive overview
AV-2	Integrated Dictionary	Encyclopedia
OV-2	Operational Node Connectivity Description	Who does what?
OV-3	Operational Information Exchange Matrix	Who says what to whom?
OV-5	Activity Model	What gets done?
OV-6a	Operational Rules Model	What are the business rules?
OV-6c	Business Process Model	How do things get done?
OV-7	Logical Data Model	What information is needed?
SV-1	Systems Interface Description	What IT systems will support what gets done?
SV-5	Operational Activity to Systems Function Traceability Matrix	What can be supported through IT systems?
SV-6	Systems Data Exchange Matrix	What information is exchanged between systems?
TV-1	Technical Standards Profile	What are the Standards?

12. What is the focus of the BEA 6.1?

BEA 6.1 represents two primary areas of improvement: eight new end-to-end business flows, which are representative of an Agency fiscal year 2009 focus area, and a narrated BEA website visualization and navigation mechanism. To get more information about BEA 6.1, refer to the What's New for BEA 6.1.

13. What are the next steps for the BEA?

During the BEA 6.0 development process, the following factors emerged as drivers for the BEA 7.0 release and future releases:

14. When is the next scheduled release of the BEA?

The BTA annually releases the enterprise architecture for the DoD Business Mission Area (BMA) to help defense business system owners and program managers make informed decisions in support of the Department. Annual releases are concurrent with the release of the Congressional Report. The informational releases are delivered on a quarterly basis that will serve as a “snapshot” of ongoing development efforts. It reflects informational content updates to the latest official annual release of the BEA, which is presently BEA 6.0, delivered on March 13, 2009.

15. Who is responsible for developing the BEA? How is it developed?

The BEA content is developed by the stakeholders from the Core Business Missions (CBM) in conjunction with DoD Components and Agencies. The BTA Architecture and Information Management team coordinates requirements gathering, BEA development, integration and technical DoDAF solutions.
Refer to the BEA Development Methodology (BDM) as a guide to the overall development approach and to the Architecture Product Guide (APG) for specific guidance on development of each product in the BEA.