**GAO-04-40**                      Published: Nov 17, 2003. Publicly Released: Dec 18, 2003.                  

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## Highlights

A well-defined enterprise architecture (EA) is a blueprint for institutional modernization and evolution that consists of models describing how an entity operates today and how it intends to operate in the future, along with a plan for how it intends to transition to this future state. Such architectures are essential tools whose effective development and use are recognized hallmarks of successful organizations. Because of the importance of these architectures, GAO was asked to determine (1) what progress federal agencies have made in effectively developing, implementing, and maintaining their EAs and (2) the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) actions to advance the state of EA development and use across the federal government.

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Government Operations

Agency missionsComparative analysisEnterprise architectureFederal agenciesInformation technologyPerformance measuresSurveysIndependent agenciesIT investmentsSystems modernization