[geo-forum] EA aspects of OMB Exhibit 300s + removal of geospatial data

["Tucker,Richard W" <RWTUCKER@xxxxxxxxx>]

OMB Circular A-11 provides direction to all federal departments/agencies and their bureaus/divisions/etc. for preparing their budgets for submission.

 

Exhibit 300 is specifically for the business case and justification for an investment initiative.  It is NOT a budget request.  Information on E300s is available at:

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a11/current_year/s300.pdf

 

As stated in A-11, Section 300:

• Section II.C is where PRM responses are required.  "There should be at least one Measurement Indicator in each of the four Measurement Areas."
  
• Section II.1.A.E is where BRM mappings are required.  The wording here is quirky, but the bottom line is that each investment should have one primary line of business and up to 3 non-primary.  Here is the actual wording:  "Please list up to three non-primary Business Reference Model (BRM) mappings to describe the functions that this IT investment supports. A BRM mapping consists of a mapping to a Line of Business and an associated Sub-function from the FEA BRM. The primary BRM mapping for this initiative should have been identified with the last six digits of the unique project (investment) identifier in section 300 Part 1 and in section 53.8, and it should not be reentered here."
  
  Note that line-of-business is the top-level set of categories, e.g. "Disaster Management" (DM).  One step below that are sub-functions, e.g. "Emergency Response" (ER).  The E300 wants one primary pair of these, and up to three non-primary pairs.
  
  As we discussed at a recent meeting, we may suggest that investments with a substantial element of geospatial data and services that support a primary line-of-business (like DM/ER) include a non-primary that, in conjunction with additional E300 questions (e.g. SRM and others) may help better categorize geospatial initiative investments.  I believe the one we selected was "Information and Technology Managment"--"Information Management".
  
• Section II.A.3.A is where SRM mappings are required.  This is where we should suggest revisions/extensions to the existing SRM (which lumps everything into "Mapping / Geospatial / Elevation / GPS" under Visualization.  There is no limit to the # SRM mappings here.  However, the E300 is unclear regarding whether the investment include funds for developing/buying these services, or relies on another or existing investment to provide them.
  
  "To demonstrate how this major IT investment aligns with the FEA Service Component Reference Model (SRM), list the Service Domains, Types, and Components supporting this IT investment. Also include the component description and indicate whether this is a new component (i.e., currently not identified in the SRM). If this is a new Service Component, agencies also should leave the "Component" field blank and provide a name and description in the "Relation to SRM" field."
  
  It doesn't say in the E300 instructions, but the misnamed field in the SRM table called "Relation to SRM" is (based on prior year experiences and other info) is supposed to be more than a mapping to the SRM, but is supposed to explain more precisely (though very tersely) what the service is in terms of what the investment actually needs.  So for example, this could be a geocoder; this could be a plume analysis tool, etc.  This is where geospatial service taxonomies, akin to OGC services, might fill in a level below the SRM's lumped field currently called "Mapping / Geospatial / Elevation / GPS" that we want to rename.
  
• Section II.A.3. C is where the TRM mappings are required.  "To demonstrate how this major IT investment aligns with the FEA Technical Reference Model (TRM), please list the Service Areas, Categories, and Standards supporting this IT investment. Also, the "Relation to TRM" field should be the "Relation to SRM" field, and agencies should indicate the SRM Service Component to which the TRM service standard is linked. In addition, because the "Service Specification" layer was removed from the TRM, agencies should not provide a Service Specification mapping. Instead, agencies should provide information on the vendor and product mapped to the Service Standard in the "Service Specification" field only for those products that have already been acquired."

I just noticed that this year's guidance (for FY 2007 budget submissions) entirely omits the data section that was in the directions for at least the past two years.  I am including this NOW UNUSED direction below for your reference, since it does mention spatial data and FGDC and other issues that we should still address in the GeoProfile:

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II.A.2 Data

A. What types of data will be used in this investment? Examples of data types are health data, geospatial data, natural resource data, etc.

B. Does the data needed for this investment already exist at the Federal, State, or local level? If so, what are your plans to gain access to that data?

C. Are there legal reasons why this data cannot be transferred? If so, what are they and did you address them in the barriers and risk sections above?

D. If this initiative processes spatial data, identify planned investments for spatial data and demonstrate how the agency ensures compliance with the Federal Geographic Data Committee standards required by OMB Circular A-16.

E. If this activity involves the acquisition, handling or storage of information that will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, explain how it will comply with your agency’s Information Quality guidelines (section 51.5 requirements)?

F. Managing business information means maintaining its authenticity, reliability, integrity, and usability and providing for its appropriate disposition. Address how the system will manage the business information (records) that it will contain throughout the information life cycle.

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 - Rick

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