FACIN: The Brazilian Government Enterprise Architecture

Framework

Vanessa T. Nunes

, Claudia Cappelli

and Marcus Vinicius Costa

Departamento de Ciência da Computação, UnB, Brasília, DF, Brazil

Departamento de Informática Aplicada, UNIRIO, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Coordenação de Integração e Interoperabilidade, SERPRO, Brasília, DF, Brasil

Keywords: Governmental Enterprise Architecture, EA Framework.

Abstract: The United Nations point that to raise the efficiency and quality of public services is not just a matter of

cutting-edge technologies, but also adopting practices to connect and interoperate governments, which

requires a holistic approach. An Enterprise Architecture (EA) initiative is a consistent feature of strategic

planning, which assists organizations in understanding how processes/services are automated, as well as

helping to reduce organizational complexity and to improve communication, driving organizational change.

We describe FACIN, the Brazilian Government EA Framework to support interoperability and digital

governance among governmental organizations. FACIN aims to foster intra and inter organizational

alignment, and also to provide a basis for the development of methods and best practices to improve the

efficiency of public administration and services. In this paper we present the first results and perceptions.

1 INTRODUCTION

Public Organizations are increasingly seeking ways

to automate their processes and services to society

(citizens, governments, organizations and

companies), which is known by e-government (e-

gov) (UNPACS, 2016). The need for integrating

technology into public services also evidence the

need to better integrate the work system (processes,

data, technology and people), by improving

understanding, communication, reuse and sharing

which is one of the aims of the Brazilian Strategy of

Digital Governance (EGD, 2016).

Accordingly to ePING - Interoperability

Standards for Electronic Government initiative

(EPING, 2016), interoperability can be understood

as the ability of different systems and organizations

to work together and interact to exchange

information in an effective and efficient manner.

Industry (and government) has responded to

these challenges through collaboration and

integration mechanisms (Panetto et al., 2016), it is

not sustainable in a long term. The main reasons

reside on: rapid growth in the variety of system

architecture and the number of e-gov; the enormous

amount of interrelated data; the need to increase

information sharing; and the open data demand. So,

governmental organizations have to decide where to

focus their efforts and finite budget to attend

societies` priorities in an agile and dynamic way.

Such demands require not only knowledge about

how data is to be shared, exchanged and reused but

also what are the concepts related to them, how they

interrelate and what is their context considering the

three pillars that constitute a socio-technical

perspective of computing: people, technology and

organizational processes. It requires a discipline that

unites the diverse government views in different

levels.

Therefore, the EA paradigm has been employed

to integrate organizations through the alignment

between business and technology (Banaeianjahromi

and Smolander, 2016) in a goal oriented approach.

Brazilian Government, with the participation of

expert citizens, academia, organizations and private

companies, is developing FACIN, the Brazilian

Government Enterprise Architecture Framework to

support Governance and Interoperability. FACIN

aims to support the EGD, increasing collaboration

among governmental organizations and improving

the efficiency and transparency of e-gov services

and investments to society. This paper aims to

present FACIN foundation and structural proposal,

the Content Framework, which represents the first

FACIN product under development, and first results

and perceptions.

Nunes, V., Cappelli, C. and Costa, M.

FACIN: The Brazilian Government Enterprise Architecture Framework.

DOI: 10.5220/0006331904330439

In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2017) - Volume 3, pages 433-439

ISBN: 978-989-758-249-3

433

2 HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Brazilian Government is composed of

organizations that operate independently. However,

a lot of services transcend the frontiers of each

organization demanding collaboration. Therefore,

the use of a common architectural framework was

justified in order to leverage reuse, interoperability

and unified management of common elements. The

main drivers involves public organizations, experts

from civil society, academy and the following

disciplinary entities are: the Brazilian Association of

Technical Standards, the Brazilian Institute of

Corporate Governance, the Brazilian Institute of

Public Governance, Data Management Association

Brazil, Association of Business Process

Management Professionals, the Open Group, the

International Institute of Business Analysis and the

Court of Auditors of the Union.

FACIN dynamics guard similarities with other

initiatives, where we highlight the Singapore

Government EA (eWave, 2016), the Australian

Government Architecture Framework (AGA, 2016),

the Government EA for New Zealand (GEA-NZ,

2016) and the US Federal EA Framework (FEA,

2016). Those countries were chosen, when this

project began, due to their level of success according

to the 2014 UN Survey (UNPACS, 2014).

We identified common standards adoption such

as: an integrated and shared e-gov strategy among

organizations; the adoption of common architectural

structures to improve efficiency in offering e-gov;

and the intensive use of interoperability and

integration standards strongly supported in the

respective EA models. We believe that we have the

opportunity to learn from those experiences.

Regarding the market practice, existing EA

Frameworks were analyzed due to their extensive

use and continuous evolution. We considered two of

the most well used and discussed frameworks:

TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework

(TOGAF, 2016) and Zachman Framework

(Zachman, 2016). TOGAF ia an open standard

collaborative EA methodology and framework used

around the world to improve business efficiency.

The Zachman Framework, a proprietary standard,

establishes a total set of descriptive representations

relevant for describing an organization, from

strategic to infrastructure.

The development of FACIN used as a

foundational base these two frameworks (which are

also used by other Governments such as AGA), as

well as successful experiences and recommended

actions by the previously cited countries, taking into

consideration Brazilian administrative, technical and

political organization and goals.

3 FACIN

The main goals of FACIN are: (a) to be the

reference model to be adopted at the federal, state or

municipal level; (b) define the structural blocks to

enable a holistic view; (c) promote interoperability,

management and governance standards; (d) enable

the development of innovative and integrated e-gov;

(e) raise the sharing and reuse of services and assets;

(f) facilitate integration of organizations through

unified models from strategic to infrastructure; and

(g) contribute to the implementation of the EGD.

Some of the principles organizations are to be

adherent when adopting FACIN are: (a) be focused

on society's needs and expectations; (b) common

infrastructure and interoperability to encourage and

enable information sharing; (c) integrated design of

public services; and (d) transparency and open

government.

FACIN consists of four interrelated parts, as

shown in Figure 1: (i) FACIN Architecture

Governance: Describes mechanisms of control and

monitoring of the design and development of

organization’s EA ensuring its efficient and effective

evolution. It also aims to structure resources and

skills; (ii) FACIN Architecture Development

Method: Describes a guide for organizations to

develop and implement models. It aims to propose

directions and guidelines for the development,

implementation and maintenance of organizations’

EA; (iii) FACIN Content Framework: Describes

the structure of concepts that represents the different

organizations’ point of views and the relationship

among them. It also organizes and classifies the

common concepts to unify common knowledge; and

(iv) Standards and Reference Models: Describes

technical and managerial standards, guidelines and

best practices – from the government and the market

– for the development and management of

organizations’ EA.

Figure 1: FACIN Structure.

The development of FACIN is been undertaken

in the following phases: (1) We began developing

the Content Framework, to establish what are the

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434

most relevant EA concepts for the government. We

have been discussing it inside internal forums. By

December 2016 it is going to be released to public

consultation; (2) The Architecture Development

Method is expected to be started in November 2016;

(3) The Architecture Governance is to be developed

in the first semester of 2017; and (4) The standards

and references are being defined accordingly, to

which part of FACIN they are required.

4 THE CONTENT FRAMEWORK

FACIN Content Framework was divided into 9

views as presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2: FACIN Context Framework.

The Content Framework was conceived so as to

provide analysis of investments in technology,

information and process development in relation to

organization’s Strategy and Society’s needs. It was

established three views that govern FACIN: Society

that guides and are also the main focus of Strategy

definition and monitoring and the definition of how

the Governance, Management of Risks and

Management of Compliance of the EA are to be

performed. Thenceforth, Business, Data,

Application, Infrastructure and Security views

outline the major components that governmental

organizations should consider and use in business

transformation initiatives through the realization of

Programs and Projects.

For each view the following items were

proposed: (i) a description of the view with its

purposes and benefits; (ii) the value of the view in

relation to the others; (iii) critical success factors;

(iv) roles and responsibilities; (iv) policies and

guidelines; (v) associated patters and best practices;

and (vi) elements that represent a set of useful

description of the view. These items compose the

Reference Model (RM) of each view of FACIN and

are to be used for all governmental organizations.

The elements comprises: (a) a conceptual

metamodel that defines and relates the main

concepts; (b) a set of common artifacts (documents,

sheets) that are to be maintained by the organization;

and (c) a taxonomy of the common terms.

FACIN Content Framework is composed of 9

Reference Models: Strategic Reference Model

(SRM); Governance, Risk and Compliance

Reference Model (GRM); Business Reference

Model (BRM), Data Reference Model (DRM);

Application Reference Model (ARM); Infrastructure

Reference Model (IRM); Security Reference Model

(SecRM); Programs and Projects Reference Model

(P2RM); and Society Reference Model (SocRM).

Next section we describe SRM as an example.

4.1 Strategic Reference Model (SRM)

SRM aims to reflect the organization’s strategy,

forms of evaluation and corresponding initiatives in

a unified view promoting sharing and reuse of

strategic analysis and experiences.

SRM goals are to: (i) promote strong alignment

between the initiatives and strategies of

governmental organizations in relation to the

processes, data and technology carried out and their

intended results; (ii) support the development of cost

models for ICT services and capabilities; (iii) serve

as a mechanism to evidence the linkage of the

strategy decisions and the impact on services; and

(iv) promote transparency and accountability in

government.

The expected benefits are: (i) to increase

effectiveness and efficiency of investments; (ii) to

increase effectiveness of the results produced by

governmental organizations in relation to desired

goals; (iii) to increase the efficiency and

effectiveness of organizations in the implementation

of actions and delivery of governmental programs;

(iv) to promote interoperability among governmental

organizations; and (v) to increase transparency.

It allows the setting of goals and government

strategies in a uniform view. Each organization must

map their actions, programs, projects, IT and data

assets and measure the alignment to their respective

intended goals and the goals of the Government as a

whole. Governmental organizations can adopt

common capabilities, share services and collaborate

with each other to improve the overall experience of

its customer service, increase the impact of public

policies and reduce costs. When creating a

consolidated view of government transformation, it

is possible to identify new opportunities to improve

and share government services in all governmental

organizations and boost the efficiency, effectiveness

and transformation across them.

SRM promotes values to other views by setting

goals a strategic vision of goals, targets and

indicators: (i) GRM: to guide the governance model,

FACIN: The Brazilian Government Enterprise Architecture Framework

435

performance monitoring, risk and compliance

management; (ii) BRM: to guide the definition,

management and improvement of processes and

services; (iii) DRM: for governance, sharing and

quality assurance of data and information; (iv)

ARM: for governance, investment, sharing and

quality assurance of applications and IT services; (v)

IRM: to guide the governance, investment, sharing

and quality assurance of the IT infrastructure assets;

(vi) SecRM: to guide the actions and investments in

security; (vii) P2RM: to guide investments,

governance and quality assurance of governmental

programs and projects; (viii) SocRM: oriented to the

concerns and interests of society.

4.1.1 Conceptual Model

The main concepts to represent the strategic

architecture of a governmental organization is

presented in Figure 3 (first version), and it was

based on the concepts defined in the 2016-2019

Multi-Year Brazilian Governmental Plan (PPA,

2016) and in the National Program for Public

Management and Debureaucratization (GesPública,

2016), that supports the development of solutions

that enable continuous improvement of management

systems of public organizations. Table 1 presents the

definition of each concept. The concepts’

instantiation is carried out at a Federal level and are

to be deployed and specialized for each

governmental organization, which allows for

uniformity and consistency within the government.

Figure 3: SRM Conceptual Model.

4.1.2 Taxonomy

The standardization by means of a unified taxonomy

provides a baseline for all governmental

organizations to describe their measurement

practices. This strengthens interoperability between

them, as their strategic visions can be easily

understood by all organizations and society.

Table 1: SRM Concepts Definition.

Concept Definition

Strategic Axis

It represents the strategic lines defined by

the government for the 4 year Plan.

Strategic

Guideline

Represents the guidelines that drive the

main agendas for the next 4 years. They

dictate the strategic alignment required for

the preparation of the Thematic Programs.

Ex.: Combating poverty;.

Thematic

Program

The 54 Thematic Programs’ scope

represents the challenges and guides the

management and monitoring of the Plan.

Ex.: Social Security; Agrarian Reform;

Mgmt.,

Maint. and

Serv. Prog.

It represents the actions destined to the

support, management and maintenance of

government actions.

Goal

It guides tactically the actions for what

must be done in relation to the challenges,

demands and opportunities.

Ex.: Promoting Education for transit.

Governmental

Organization

It represents the governmental

organizations responsible for a goal.

Indicator

It represents the set of parameters that

allows the following of different aspects

of the evolution of a goal.

Target

It represents the goal range of

measurement.

Initiative

It represents the means that enable the

goals and its targets, explaining the "how

to" performed by organizations.

Following the concepts previous defined, we

proposed the taxonomic decomposition presented in

Figure 4.

Figure 4: SRM Taxonomy.

Each one of the four Strategic Axis unfolds into

one or more Strategic Guidelines and vice-versa.

Each Strategic Guideline unfolds into one or more

Thematic Programs and vice-versa. Each Thematic

Program can be measured by or more indicators.

PPA 2016-2019 detailed and unfolded all the

concepts but the indicators.

4.1.3 Artifacts

Table 2 describes the set of common artifacts that

are to be generated, maintained and publicized by

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the organizations in order to promote collaboration

and sharing between them and with society.

Table 2: SRM Artifacts.

Artifact Definition

Multi-Year

Plan (PPA)

It describes the strategic planning at the

Federal level for the period of 4 years.

Organizationa

l Strategic

Planning

It describes the governmental

organization’s strategic planning in a

short, medium and long-term.

Taxonomy of

indicators

It describes the structure of the reference

taxonomy of indicators.

Organization´

s goals and

targets model

It describes the organization´s goals

hierarchy and respective target.

Organization´

s Initiative

Portfolio

It describes programs, projects and

organizational actions to be undertaken.

Business

Model

It describes how the organization operates

resenting the services and how they

interrelate to meet organizational goals.

5 DISCUSSIONS

During FACIN development, its main purposes and

relation with EGD challenges were presented and

publicized as well as FACIN’s structure (Figure 1).

A public consultation was performed from January

to June of 2016 (http://www.participa.br). All

opinions were in favour of the initiative. Some

suggestions have been taken in consideration in the

development of the Content Framework and others

will be used for the next pieces of FACIN.

Meanwhile, on November 2015, a first EA

training course was realized by the Federal Data

Processing Service and cosponsored by The Open

Group. We discussed EA concepts under FACIN

and the TOGAF Framework in the Brazilian context.

Participants discussed their specific problems and

developed an architecture proposition for their

solution. A Forum to present and discuss the Content

Framework with Society was performed on October

20th 2016 been freely broadcasted. Adjustments

were taken and the Content Framework was under

public consultation until 31th December of 2016.

Thereon we conducted a series of visits into

participants’ organizations that will be used as pilots

for the first version of the Content Framework.

5.1 Related Work

The use of implemented EA practices can avoid

efforts to reinvent concepts, without limiting the

possibilities of innovation. Therefore, regarding the

Content Framework we analysed the following

approaches.

The Zachman Framework is one of the oldest

and worldwide used by companies and governments

around the world since the mid-80s. It was important

for the discussion and definition of the perspective

level and detail FACIN should support.

Among collaborative standards, developed by

practitioners, suppliers, academics and specialists,

TOGAF is the most widely practiced worldwide

both in private and public organizations. TOGAF 9.1

Content Framework was important to discuss how to

group organizational elements into specific

organizational viewpoints. The Open Group

Archimate 3.0 Standard was also used as a

foundational to discuss the relevant information at

enterprise architectural level.

From among the Governmental EA Frameworks

we identified that they have a lot in common when it

comes to adapt ideas from EA standards and in

relation to the high flexibility they propose. They are

also very similar. FEA is one of the first EA

Frameworks first published in 1999. It was

conceived to be implemented in any Agency and to

offer transversal services among Agencies and other

organizations (public and private). Its structure is

used as the basis for several other Government EA

Frameworks. AGA, from Australia, has a strong

influence from FEA but more focused on e-

participation. In its 3

edition a reference model for

each organizational viewpoint is detailed proposing

a taxonomy, common artefacts, and a conceptual

metamodel (for some viewpoints). The aim is to

provide a common language among agencies. GEA-

NZ, from New Zealand, has a strong influence from

both FEA and AGA but it leverages the two by

defining more clearly concepts and artifacts oriented

to the government as a whole and to the agency

level. eWave, from Singapore, was first published in

2002 focused on technology and since 2007 it has

encompassed a business viewpoint. A central

repository was created to serve as a single EA

repository for the entire government, allowing

business and ICT information to be captured in a

consistent manner using established standards.

FACIN Content Framework proposes to leverage

from those approaches mainly in three items: GRC,

Security and Transparency. It proposes a viewpoint

to represent GRC aspects through specific concepts,

a global taxonomy and artefacts to unify the

communication about GRC over each organization.

The SecRM is to be more focused on reliability

rather than traditional aspects such as secrecy or

confidentiality. It goes in line with transparency

FACIN: The Brazilian Government Enterprise Architecture Framework

437

initiatives, which is cited by all four government

frameworks presented, but not in a systematic way.

FACIN intends to present information and actions to

support de development and management of

transparency actions as an integral part of the EA

(Nunes et al, 2016).

5.2 Next Steps

Currently all 9 views are available (https://www.

governoeletronico.gov.br/eixos-de-atuacao/governo/

interoperabilidade/governanca-e-interoperabilidade).

So far, its main ideas have been accepted and public

organizations recognize its value. During 2017 each

Reference Model will be under a detailed

development and evaluation congregating a larger

group of participants and considering ideas from the

Public Consultation and the Forum. Afterwards,

pilots aiming at evaluating FACIN’s Content

Framework will be performed. The aim is to identify

how it can help answering or supporting

visualization of current and urgent questions internal

to organizations and among them.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The management and effective use of information

through the use of ICT is the key to the success of

public organizations in offering better services to

society. FACIN aims to meet this need by providing

a strategic point of view for the development of ICT.

Its establishment is a key element to leverage the

Brazilian e-gov program based on best practices to

promote the integration of processes, systems and

information, with maximum stability and flexibility.

In addition, it serves as a conceptual framework for

defining interoperability standards in technical,

semantic and organizational dimensions, to support

organizations in collaborating with each other.

Governments around the world are currently

investing efforts and resources in this regard,

seeking in the digital governance the needed

discipline to make this synergy and in the EA the

foundation to achieve it, i.e., a pattern that can be

implemented as common sense, responsible for

effective interoperability in scale, as it provides

transparency about the responsibilities, operations,

resources and results obtained. As a reference

model, FACIN aims to integrate architectures from

the various organizations, enabling interoperability

across the government. From its adoption, we intend

that the interested parties will refer their

architectural models to the views of the framework,

promoting alignment and ensuring the progress of

their initiatives based on this new discipline.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our thanks to the Ministry of Planning,

Development and Management (MP), to the Federal

Data Processing Service (SERPRO) and to The

Open Group for sponsoring this initiative.

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