The United States Office of
 

Personnel Management
 

Human Resources Line of Business 

Modernization Roadmap 

VERSION 1.0
 

December 8, 2011 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Human Resources Line of Business
 

Modernization Roadmap
 

Table of Contents 

HR LOB MODERNIZATION ROADMAP EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................ 1
 

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 3
 

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE HR LOB MODERNIZATION ROADMAP ....................................................................... 3 

1.2 HR LOB OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 3 

1.3 HR LOB VISION, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................... 4 

1.4 HR LOB MODERNIZATION ROADMAP METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 5 

1.5 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................................... 5 

2 CONTEXT FOR THE HR LOB MODERNIZATION ROADMAP..................................................... 6
 

2.1 HR LOB CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS...................................................................................................... 7 

2.2 HR LOB ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE.................................................................................................. 8 

2.3 IMPLEMENTATION AND DELIVERY OF CURRENT HRIT ......................................................................... 9 

2.4 GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF CURRENT HRIT ...................................................................... 10
 

2.5 THE CURRENT FEDERAL HRIT LANDSCAPE ....................................................................................... 12
 

2.6 POTENTIAL BUSINESS BENEFITS ......................................................................................................... 15
 

3 TARGET CONCEPTUAL SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE .............................................................. 17
 

3.1 BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE TARGET CONCEPTUAL SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE ................................... 17 

3.2 IMPLEMENTATION AND DELIVERY OF THE TARGET SOLUTION ........................................................... 23 

3.3 GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE TARGET SOLUTION .......................................................... 29
 

4 MODERNIZATION ROADMAP .......................................................................................................... 34
 

4.1 TRANSITION PATTERNS....................................................................................................................... 34
 

4.2 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................................ 37
 

5 FUNDING STRATEGY .......................................................................................................................... 38
 

5.1 CURRENT STATE OF HRIT FUNDING................................................................................................... 38
 

5.2 FUNDING RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................... 39
 

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................. 42
 

APPENDIX A: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................... 43
 

APPENDIX B: LIST OF FEDERAL STANDARDS, MANDATES, GUIDELINES, AND DIRECTIVES ..................... 47 

APPENDIX C: GLOSSARY.......................................................................................................................... 48
 

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HR LOB Modernization Roadmap Executive Summary 

The Administration’s focus on the management of human resources has been 

unprecedented. Fully recognizing the critical importance of a motivated, competent, 

efficient, and effective workforce supported by modern, well-managed information 

technology, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – in partnership with the Office 

of Management and Budget (OMB) – has been developing and promulgating policy and 

regulatory guidance to agencies on improving the management of Federal HR. This 

transformation effort is being implemented in sync with the overarching governmentwide 

IT Reform initiative mandated by the United States Chief Information Officer at OMB. 

The key principles and recommendations contained in OMB’s 25 Point Implementation 

Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management are included in this 

Modernization Roadmap and will be followed as the Roadmap strategies are being 

implemented. 

The Modernization Roadmap outlines the current state of Federal Human Resources 

Information Technology (HRIT), the desired future conceptual architecture of Federal 

HRIT, the high level roadmap to reach the future conceptual architecture, and funding 

strategies to support achievement of the roadmap. 

Federal agencies currently approach HRIT in various ways. Some agencies manage their 

HRIT application portfolios at the enterprise level and are realizing the benefits – cost 

savings and efficient information sharing – that enterprise-wide HRIT affords. Other 

agencies allow duplicative systems, operating and maintaining multiple systems to 

support various business functions. Many of these agencies have not standardized their 

business processes and are delaying their migration to a Shared Service Center until after 

their agency-level standardization has been completed. Migration to an SSC could 

accelerate their consolidation and standardization. 

Current Federal HR applications vary widely in terms of size, scope, complexity, and 

implementation technology. Some HR applications provide best of breed HRIT 

functionality to their customer constituencies. Others are quite old and outdated 

requiring multiple work-around business processes to compensate for system and 

interface deficiencies. Some applications were built to accommodate multiple agencies’ 

requirements. Many however are proprietary systems that were originally developed for 

the narrowly defined needs of a single agency or bureau. While some system owners 

have begun efforts to integrate their systems and are employing standardized data 

exchange formats and processes, most of these applications were not created with 

integration in mind. They were developed when simple point-to-point interfacing was 

the only available means for data exchange, integration concepts were unproven, and 

there was no expectation that application systems should be interoperable. 

The future conceptual architecture reflects a future state in which HR information 

technology operates seamlessly and efficiently to address individual agency and 

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governmentwide needs and requirements in a modern, standardized, cost-effective 

manner. In this environment, HR technology solutions interact via an 

interoperability/integration facility that provides for a strong degree of information 

sharing and minimal data and logic redundancy across applications. The future 

architecture promotes HRIT resource sharing and encourages solution providers to 

virtualize their offerings on the cloud to the extent possible. 

The HR LOB Modernization Roadmap provides several key recommendations designed 

to modernize HR information technology: 

1. Modernize HRIT systems to ensure they meet the expectations of an expanding 

customer base and adhere to modern technology standards. 

2. Encourage customer agencies to move away from localized resources and move 

toward shared and virtual solutions while preserving options for and access to 

modern, innovative solutions. 

3. Develop governmentwide HR data standards that provide a blueprint for the data 

exchange that is an essential element of interoperability. 

4. Acquire and implement an interoperability and integration capability that will be 

used by system owners and service providers to achieve interoperability across 

systems and services. 

5. Establish the HRIT Innovation Center to share insight around innovative HRIT 

and make recommendations on how innovation can be applied to HRIT solutions 

and solution delivery. 

6. Work with OMB on flexible budget approaches and help guide HRIT project 

sponsors in leveraging these flexible budget approaches to fund HRIT 

modernization and improvement projects. 

The HR LOB Modernization Roadmap is a strategic document intended to help drive the 

future direction of human resources information technology by presenting sound ideas for 

effective and efficient management of Federal HRIT. The modernization strategy 

inherent in this Roadmap will provide flexibility for solution providers to build and 

deliver the applications that the marketplace needs while remaining consistent with the 

principles of modularity, openness, flexibility, security, and effective management of 

information as a strategic asset. 

The Roadmap has been developed by the HR LOB program office at the Office of 

Personnel Management as the managing partner for this governmentwide initiative. With 

the help of HR LOB stakeholders, the Modernization Roadmap will continue to evolve 

and will be revised over time. It will be updated to accommodate technology innovations 

and the changing Federal HRIT landscape. Stakeholder input will be critical to this 

evolution to ensure the Modernization Roadmap remains broadly applicable, relevant, 

and executable. 

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1 Introduction 

1.1 Purpose of the HR LOB Modernization Roadmap 

The purpose of the HR LOB Modernization Roadmap is to provide a plan for governmentwide 

HRIT modernization that helps achieve the vision of the HR LOB. The HR LOB does not own or 

have operational responsibility for any systems or applications. It provides guidance to SSCs and 

agencies regarding HRIT modernization and delivery. This document is intended to provide such 

guidance. It focuses on describing modernization at a conceptual level of detail and it 

offers broad steps for achieving the interoperability and integration of HR information 

technology. This will be key to ensuring alignment and interoperability across HRIT systems 

governmentwide. 

The intended audience of this document is: 

• The HRIT stakeholder community as the consumers and providers of HRIT 

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the approval body and regulator for Federal IT 

Over time, agencies will be expected to deliver their own plans that are consistent with this 

Roadmap. According to OMB’s passback requirements for FY2011, beginning in FY 2010 all 

development, modernization or enhancement (DME) and/or operations and maintenance (O&M) 

technology refreshment activities must implement agency Chief Information Officer-approved 

modernization roadmaps. 

1.2 HR LOB Overview 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) launched the HR LOB initiative in 2004. The HR 

LOB is intended to help the Federal government realize the potential of electronic government 

by significantly enhancing human resources service delivery within the Executive Branch. The 

HR LOB Concept of Operations (CONOPS) describes a service delivery model in which 

designated core HR services relative to human resources information systems (HRIS) and payroll 

operations move from agencies to shared service centers (SSCs). 

Under the HR LOB CONOPS, agencies must obtain HRIT services for the core functions of 

Personnel Action Processing, Benefits Management, and Compensation Management (payroll 

operations) from an SSC. At a minimum, SSCs must provide HRIT services for the core 

functions of Personnel Action Processing and Benefits Management. Additionally, SSCs may 

also offer core Compensation Management (payroll operations). Other non-core functions as 

defined by the HR LOB Target Requirements for SSCs are not mandated. If the SSC chooses to 

offer services for any of the non-core sub-functions, they must meet the applicable mandatory 

requirements at the time such services are provided to the customer. Customer agencies may 

seek non-core functions from an SSC, but are not mandated to do so. 

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This approach allows agencies at their discretion to select services as needed to increase their 

focus on agency mission activities and the strategic management of human capital. 

1.3 HR LOB Vision, Goals, and Objectives 

The vision of the HR LOB is to provide “Governmentwide, modern, cost effective, standardized 

and interoperable Human Resource solutions providing common core functionality to support the 

strategic management of Human Capital and addressing duplicative and redundant HR systems 

and processes across the Federal government.” 

To realize this vision, the HR LOB seeks to achieve the following goals and objectives: 

GOALS OBJECTIVES 

Improved Management 

Improve the governmentwide strategic 

management of human capital 

• Faster decision making 

• More informed policy making 

• More effective workforce management 

• Improved resource alignment with agency 

missions 

Operational Efficiencies Achieve 

or increase operational efficiencies 

in the acquisition, development, 

implementation, and operation of 

human resources 

management systems 

• Improved servicing ratio/response times 

• Reduced cycle times 

• Improved automated reporting 

Cost Savings / Avoidance Achieve 

or increase cost savings/avoidance 

from HR solution activities 

• Reduced duplicative software 

/hardware/operations/labor resources 

• Increased competitive environment 

Improved Customer Service 

Improve customer service 

• Increased accessibility to client and value 

• Improved communication and 

responsiveness 

• Enhanced quality 

• Enhanced timeliness 

• Enhanced accuracy 

• Enhanced consistency 

Table 1 – HR LOB Goals and Objectives 

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1.4 HR LOB Modernization Roadmap Methodology 

The HR LOB segment architecture and Modernization Roadmap are based on the Federal 

Segment Architecture Methodology (FSAM) published by the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB). The FSAM aims to achieve the following: 

•	 Help architects identify and validate the business need and scope of the architecture 

•	 Define the performance improvement opportunities within the segment 

•	 Define the target business, data, services, and technology architecture layers required to 

achieve the performance improvement opportunities 

The FSAM process steps conclude with the creation of a modernization blueprint document that 

includes a transition sequencing plan for using and implementing the segment architecture. 

The HR LOB developed a draft Modernization Roadmap that drew from the FSAM to identify 

the current state of HRIT, document the target conceptual solution architecture, and provide a 

transition plan for reaching the target conceptual solution. This draft was released to HR LOB 

stakeholders for review and comment in January 2011. The HR LOB received and recorded 321 

comments from 15 agencies over the course of the three-month review period. The HR LOB 

also met with stakeholders to discuss their comments and feedback. These stakeholders include 

business subject matter experts, technical subject matter experts, the HR LOB Multi-Agency 

Strategy Committee (MAESC) the HR LOB Customer Council (CC), the HR LOB Shared 

Services Advisory Council SSCAC), and OPM system owners. Their feedback was incorporated 

into this version of the report. 

1.5 Document Structure 

The four remaining sections provide an overall strategy and roadmap for modernizing HRIT. 

Section 2, Context for the HR LOB Modernization Roadmap, describes the overall context in 

which this Roadmap is being proposed including the HR LOB CONOPS and Enterprise 

Architecture, current service delivery and governance models, current technology, and the 

potential dollar benefits of achieving this vision. Section 3, Target Conceptual Solution 

Architecture, proposes a high level conceptual view of future HRIT, discusses how it will be 

delivered over time, and describes future governance. Section 4, Modernization Roadmap, 

provides a depiction of the overall steps that can be undertaken to realize this vision. And 

section 5, Funding Strategy, proposes activities that will leverage OMB’s alternative funding 

approaches, as described in the U.S. CIO’s 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Information 

Technology Management. 

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2 Context for the HR LOB Modernization Roadmap 

There are a number of business drivers that provide important context for this Roadmap and 

compel its recommendations. The primary business driver is the goal of achieving the vision of 

the Human Resources Line of Business – governmentwide, modern, cost-effective, standardized, 

and interoperable HR solutions providing common, core functionality to support the strategic 

management of human capital. Other business drivers include: 

•	 Capitalizing on existing innovation to supply new, innovative non-core solutions. 

Innovation already exists throughout the government; agencies are developing and deploying 

innovative HRIT to support non-core processes and practices. Existing innovative solutions 

can be scaled up for governmentwide use, providing agencies with a wider range of 

alternative solutions at relatively low cost. 

•	 A move toward shared services and consolidation of IT in the Federal government. A 

key aim of the current administration is to reduce duplication, overlap, and fragmentation 

across the government. In its 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information 

Technology Management, OMB advocates for shared solutions through shared services, 

cloud services, commoditization of services, and data center consolidation.1 

•	 A fundamental shift in how the Government provides and consumes IT services. The 

current economic environment will not support a continually growing investment in a 

localized IT delivery model. Dramatic budget cuts are prompting agency officials to move 

away from localized resources and consider shared resources. 

•	 The need to shore up and strengthen Federal shared services capability. The age of 

current Federal SSC technology and supporting environments must be addressed to mitigate 

the risk that these infrastructure issues pose to HR and Payroll capability across the Federal 

government. Agencies are interested in SSCs’ non-core capabilities and SSCs must work 

with agencies to build this capability. Further, SSCs and OPM must focus on 

interoperability/integration and minimize the administrative burden on supervisors and 

employees by implementing simplified logon across Federal SSC and OPM solutions. 

•	 Issues and challenges with the current implementation of Federal HR applications. IT 

supporting the HR function is currently implemented and managed in multiple organizations 

without an overall HRIT strategy or roadmap that lays out a common strategic direction and 

identifies resource sharing and integration opportunities. This Modernization Roadmap has 

been developed to begin to formulate this governmentwide guidance. 

• Federal legislation, policy, and guidance. Over the years, Government mandates have been 

issued that provide a basis for this Roadmap. They include: the Information Technology 

1 U.S. Chief Information Officer. “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology 

Information Management”. 

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Management Reform Act of 1996 (Clinger-Cohen); the E-Government Act of 2002, the 

Government Performance Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); and guidance from the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) including Circulars A-11, A-127, and A-130. OMB’s 

budget passback guidance for Fiscal Year 2011 requires lines of business and agencies to 

develop and implement modernization roadmaps. It also requires agencies to document how 

they may use cloud computing platforms for major technology projects and to evaluate the 

adoption and use of the National Information Exchange Model as the basis for specifying 

cross-boundary information exchanges. (Appendix B provides a detailed list of these 

requirements.) 

2.1 HR LOB Concept of Operations 

A key governance document, the HR LOB Common Solution(s) White Paper and Concept of 

Operations (CONOPS), was published to define the HR LOB initiative when the initiative was 

launched in 2004. It discusses two dimensions that are fundamental to this line of business – 

common solutions and standardization. 

The concept of common solutions is based on a model that according to the CONOPS “provides a 

business-driven approach to deliver solutions that are scaleable, modular, interoperable, and portable 

across a broad spectrum of users and uses”. The CONOPS also proposes that the common core 

functionality will be implemented by “utilizing shared service centers to support agencies and 

provide modern, cost-effective HR solutions and cross-functional capabilities while centralizing back 

office operations.” Standardization defines common and repeatable processes that make common 

solutions possible. These concepts became central to the HR LOB vision statement: 

“Governmentwide, modern, cost effective, standardized and interoperable Human Resource 

solutions providing common core functionality to support the strategic management of Human 

Capital and addressing duplicative and redundant HR systems and processes across the Federal 

government.” 

More recently, the U.S. Chief Information Officer published a 25 Point Implementation Plan to 

Reform Federal Information Technology Management that has some striking similarities to the 

HR LOB CONOPS. That report’s action plan provides directives for shared services, 

commoditization of basic software services, cloud computing, and data center consolidation. 

Advocating for shared services, it states, “Within the next 12 months, the Federal CIO will 

develop a strategy for shared services. That strategy will build on earlier Federal Government 

successes in shared services”2 It will drive consolidation of services across the government to 

create substantial cost savings and allow agencies to optimize spending and to reinvest in their 

most critical mission needs. 

The following diagram shows the HR LOB Concept of Operations and Service Delivery Model. 

2 U.S. Chief Information Officer. “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology 

Information Management”. 

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Figure 1 – HR LOB Concept of Operations / Service Delivery Model 

The depiction shows that SSCs deliver services supporting personnel action processing, benefits 

management, and payroll. Federal agencies continue to be responsible for non-core functions but 

may use SSC services to support these functions. Requirements for these services are defined via 

the HR LOB Enterprise Architecture and the HR LOB Target Requirements for Shared Service 

Centers. 

2.2 HR LOB Enterprise Architecture 

The HR LOB Enterprise Architecture (EA) provides a single common view of the Federal 

human resources enterprise along with a vocabulary for discussing it. The HR LOB worked with 

over 200 Federal HR subject matter experts over a four-year period to construct the architecture. 

This investment was made to enable governmentwide dialog, debate, and collaboration around 

standardization, common solutions, and the shared services-based HR delivery model. 

The Enterprise Architecture covers four different areas – business, information and data, 

services, and technical infrastructure: 

•	 Business sub-functions, processes, and activities depicted and described in the HR LOB 

Business Reference Model 

•	 Data and metadata described in HR LOB Data Model 

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•	 Human resource services, human capital management services, and cross-cutting services 

described in the HR LOB Service Component Model 

•	 Technical services and profiles described in the HR LOB Technical Model 

The HR LOB EA provides a common language that helps HR LOB stakeholders: 

•	 Identify, discuss, and assess opportunity areas 

•	 Assess the IT impact of the identified opportunities 

•	 Consider the right level of flexibility in the IT infrastructure and in the organization (e.g. 

procurement organization) to readily integrate services 

The HR LOB Enterprise Architecture provides an important foundation for the conceptual 

solution architecture described in this Roadmap report by providing the conceptual building 

blocks that underlie it. The EA also provides a basis for the logical solution architectures that 

will be developed in the future – influencing alignment between future tactical, operational, and 

project decisions and activities with the HR LOB vision and objectives. 

2.3 Implementation and Delivery of Current HRIT 

HRIT in the Federal government is currently delivered via four different delivery channels: 

shared service centers, OPM, individual Federal agencies, and third party providers. 

Shared Service Centers. The HR LOB established six Federal shared service centers (SSCs) 

and selected four private sector vendors to provide agencies with core HRIT services. The 

Federal SSCs are: 

•	 Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center 

•	 Department of Defense 

•	 Department of Health and Human Services 

•	 Department of Interior's National Business Center 

•	 Department of Treasury 

•	 General Services Administration 

The private sector SSCs are: 

•	 Accenture National Security Services 

•	 Allied Technology Group, Inc. 

•	 Carahsoft Technology Corporation 

•	 International Business Machines Corp. 

The Federal SSCs provide core HRIT services and some non-core HR applications to their 

agency customers. The private sector SSCs currently have no Federal customers for core 

services. More information about all of the SSCs offerings is available on OPM’s website: 

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http://www.opm.gov/egov/documents/MPG/service_delivery.asp 

OPM. OPM provides governmentwide HR information technology in a number of areas 

including: 

• Federal job information 

• Hiring and staffing 

• Personnel investigations 

• Benefits and retirement 

• Electronic official personnel folders 

• HR data warehouse 

Individual Federal agencies. Agencies play a very important role in the development and 

enhancement of HRIT products and services used throughout the Federal government. Agencies 

are major drivers of change and modernization in Federal HRIT through the efforts of their 

functional and technical experts working closely with the vendor/provider community. 

Many non-core HR applications, applications supporting more strategic HCM processes, and 

agency-specific HR applications continue to be developed, implemented, and managed by each 

agency. For example, some agencies have developed or obtained modern HRIT solutions 

supporting: 

• Classification 

• On-boarding 

• Workforce planning 

• Competency management 

• Performance and awards 

Third party providers. Some applications that support non-core processes are implemented 

and managed by approved third party providers. They include: 

• Position classification applications 

• Hiring and staffing applications 

• Learning management applications 

• Performance management applications 

2.4 Governance and Management of Current HRIT 

In March 2004, OMB appointed OPM as managing partner to lead the Human Resources Line of 

Business (HR LOB). The HR LOB is advised by a Multi-Agency Executive Strategy Committee 

(MAESC) consisting of members from 24 agencies, including OPM. The MAESC is co-chaired 

by the OPM CIO and the OMB Portfolio Manager. The MAESC operates under a charter that 

was approved by the member agencies and signed by the OPM Director. The Requirements 

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Board, which supports the HR LOB, oversees and approves the policy requirements for shared 

service centers (SSCs). 

The following Web site provides additional details of HR LOB governance: 

http://www.opm.gov/egov/HR_LOB/governance/index.asp 

The MAESC is augmented by a number of advisory groups such as the Shared Service Center 

Advisory Council (SSCAC) and the Customer Council (CC). These groups meet on a regular 

basis to provide their point of view to the MAESC and to program personnel. 

The Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council is outside the formal purview of the HR LOB 

governance structure but has definite influence and impact on creation and delivery of HRIT 

strategy across the Federal government. “The CIO Council was established by Executive Order 

13011, Federal Information Technology, on July 16, 1996 and codified into law by Congress in 

the E-Government Act of 2002. The CIO Council serves as the principal interagency forum for 

improving practices in the design, modernization, use, sharing, and performance of Federal 

Government agency information resources. The Council's role includes developing 

recommendations for information technology management policies, procedures, and standards; 

identifying opportunities to share information resources; and assessing and addressing the needs 

of the Federal Government's IT workforce.” 3 

In August 2011, CIO authorities were expanded by an OMB memorandum that describes the 

“changing the role of Agency Chief Information Officers (CIOs) away from just policymaking 

and infrastructure maintenance, to encompass true portfolio management for all IT.” It advises 

agency CIOs to assume a lead role in commodity IT: “Agency CIOs must focus on eliminating 

duplication and rationalize their agency's IT investments... Agency commodity services are 

often duplicative and sub-scale and include services such as: IT infrastructure, enterprise IT 

systems, and business systems including finance, human resources, and other administrative 

functions. The CIOC charter will be amended to reflect these new responsibilities, which will 

allow more effective development and management of shared services, cross-agency initiatives, 

and governmentwide policy... Just as CIOs are tasked to find and eliminate duplicative systems 

in their agencies, the Council will seek opportunities to reduce duplication, improve collaboration 

and to eliminate waste across agency boundaries.”4 

The Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council also influences HRIT strategy across the 

Federal government. The Chief Human Capital Officers Act of 2002, enacted in November 

2002, required the heads of 24 Executive Departments and agencies to appoint or designate 

Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCOs). Each CHCO serves as his or her agency’s chief policy 

advisor on all human resources management issues and is charged with selecting, developing, 

training, and managing a high-quality, productive workforce. The CHCO Act also established a 

Chief Human Capital Officers Council to advise and coordinate the activities of members’ 

3 www.cio.gov 

4 OMB Memo M-1l-29, Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, August 8, 2011 

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agencies on such matters as the modernization of human resources systems, improved quality of 

human resources information, and legislation affecting human resources operations and 

organizations.5 

In addition to these centralized cross-government governance bodies, distributed HRIT 

governance structures exist throughout the Federal government. Shared service centers and 

agencies have governance structures that direct resources for their own operations and initiatives. 

OPM also has governance structures specific to each of OPM’s governmentwide systems. These 

governance bodies may or may not work in conjunction with the MAESC or with one another. 

Having more coordination among governance structures could help to eliminate stove-piped HRIT 

efforts. 

2.5 The Current Federal HRIT Landscape 

The HR applications delivered by the various delivery channels today – SSCs, third parties, 

agencies, and OPM – all vary widely in terms of size, scope, complexity, and implementation 

technology. Some HR applications provide state-of-the-art HRIT functionality to their customer 

constituencies. Others are quite old and outdated requiring multiple work-around business 

processes to compensate for system and interface deficiencies. Some applications were built to 

accommodate multiple agencies’ requirements. Many however are proprietary systems that were 

originally developed for the narrowly defined needs of a single agency component or specialized 

systems that support a specific and narrow set of business activities. While some system owners 

have begun efforts to integrate their systems and are employing standardized data exchange 

formats and processes, most of these applications were not created with integration in mind. 

They were developed when simple point-to-point interfacing was the only available means for 

data exchange, integration concepts were unproven, and there was no expectation that 

application systems should be interoperable. And while some agencies have consolidated HRIT, 

many agencies continue to operate their own HRIT. 

OPM’s suite of governmentwide systems in many ways reflects the larger HRIT context 

described above. As individual solutions, most OPM systems provide excellent services. 

However, integration and interoperability among OPM systems is lacking. The systems were 

developed by different OPM organizations to support various specific business services. For the 

most part, they were not developed with integration in mind; indeed, they were developed before 

integration concepts were mature enough to be seriously considered. However, some OPM 

organizations are beginning to consider how to interoperate their applications. USAJOBS, for 

example, has established a framework and standards that staffing systems vendors can use to 

interoperate with USAJOBS. OPM has established a Data Governance Board to deploy a 

metadata repository for OPM data that will standardize OPM data definitions and help 

rationalize the multiple data feeds to OPM. And OPM’s Federal Investigative Services is 

developing an authentication solution that could at some point in the future be leveraged across 

OPM to support E-Authentication and single sign-on across multiple OPM systems. This is a 

5 www.chcoc.gov 

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positive trend and OPM system owners should continue to come together to ensure they have a 

single coherent approach to interoperating OPM governmentwide systems. 

Figure 2 below depicts the current HR application landscape. 

Figure 2 – Current HR Application Landscape 

This Federal HR systems landscape has evolved over time without the benefit of a single overall 

business-driven strategy and architecture defining an IT environment in which HR information 

can be seamlessly shared across business processes and systems. Certain environmental 

conditions exist along with – and in some cases because of – this complicated Federal HRIT 

portfolio. These conditions produce challenges that stand in the way of interoperable HRIT: 

•	 Funding constraints. Even when system owners understand the need for and benefits 

associated with governmentwide integration of HR applications, they are often bound by 

limited funding. This is a frustrating paradox for many enlightened executives, enterprise 

architects, and system managers: while the integration of systems could produce 

considerable cost savings, the funding needed to make it happen is not available. The 

U.S. CIO has stated, “The rapid pace of technological change does not match well with 

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the Federal government’s budget formulation and execution processes... Agencies need 

more (IT budget) flexibility to manage IT programs responsibly.”6 The reality is that 

modernization of systems which leads to interoperability and integration is a multi-year 

process that appears expensive in the short term and may never happen in the long term 

because of funding constraints and insufficient IT budget flexibility. 

•	 Complex regulatory environment. Multiple laws and regulations for information 

security and protection have come into effect over the years. And while the need for 

integration is clear, the information sharing that the integration accomplishes can create 

information security issues. 

•	 Diverse provider base. In general, the Federal government supports the notion that 

providing for choice among multiple vendors is more advantageous than relying on a 

single vendor for a given product or service. More choice may result in improved 

product quality. It also encourages open standards-based software over proprietary 

software. There are many “best-of-breed” packaged solutions offering various HR and/or 

HCM functionality with varying levels of automation. However, these applications are not 

necessarily built on the same set of standards or with integration in mind. Although the 

variety allows for choice, it also creates integration issues. 

• Redundant application logic and duplicate data. There are numerous redundant HR 

systems across the government that were put into place to accommodate varying agency 

requirements. Duplicate data resides in multiple systems. In some cases, this data is 

moved from system to system via point-to-point interfaces; in other cases the data is 

manually entered multiple times. Having duplicate data produces a need for expensive 

data reconciliation processes. This reconciliation is time-consuming, expensive, and 

likely to strain the already limited resources of HR operational units. 

•	 Lack of governmentwide technology standards for HRIT. Since HR applications 

were independently developed and were never expected to work in sync with other 

applications or exchange information meaningfully, there was never a need to develop 

and enforce technical standards and data standards that facilitate interoperability and 

integration. 

These challenges limit the ability of the Federal government to remove the barriers between HR 

applications and make HR solutions truly interoperable. Unless these issues are addressed and 

resolved, the government will continue to see the effectiveness and efficiency of the HRIT 

function diminish while the total cost of operating and maintaining HRIT increases. The 

aggregate cost of HRIT is discussed in the following section. 

6 U.S. Chief Information Officer. “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology 

Information Management”. 

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2.6 Potential Business Benefits 

A key component of the shared services concept – and one of four goals of the HR LOB – is to 

achieve significant cost savings and/or cost avoidance related to HRIT. This can be achieved by 

standardizing business processes and consolidating supporting technology along with some 

business services to shared service centers. Significant cost savings may be achieved through the 

consequent reduction in duplicative software, hardware, operations, and labor resources. 

In his 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, 

the U.S. CIO voices a concern about localized IT delivery models: “The Federal Government 

needs to fundamentally shift its mindset... Too often, agencies build large standalone systems 

from scratch, segmented from other systems. These systems often duplicate others already 

within the Federal Government, wasting taxpayer dollars.”7 Indeed, the numbers are quite 

staggering. The 2011 IT dashboard shows 2011 HRIT development, modernization, and 

enhancement (DM&E) spending to be $650 million. Interestingly, HRIT DM&E spending for 

2012 is projected to increase by 15% – to $750 million. 

In December 2009, the HR LOB produced a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), updating and 

expanding the original CBA that was published in 2004. The HR LOB used a comprehensive 

methodology to collect and analyze agency budget data to calculate the cost savings realized by 

agencies migrating core HR systems to shared service centers along with the cost avoidance of 

not developing and deploying new HR systems. Based on data collected, the current net present 

value of total cost savings and cost avoidance is over $1.3 billion. Table 2 summarizes the 

results of the revised CBA. (A newly revised CBA will be published in the Fall of 2011.) 

Revised CBA 

Overall Planning Costs $ (59,038,853) 

Other Costs $ (377,429,568) 

Overall Cost Savings $ 1,183,409,104 

Overall Cost Avoided $ 626,290,891 

Total Savings & Avoidance $ 1,373,231,574 

Table 2 – HR LOB Cost Benefit Analysis 

The following graph uses data from the 2009 CBA to compare average HRIT development, 

modernization, and enhancement (DM&E) spending per employee serviced. DM&E spend per 

employee serviced for those agencies that have not migrated to SSC HRIT averages slightly over 

$133. DM&E spend per employee serviced at the SSC on the other hand is $28. Agency 

DM&E spend per FTE is higher than SSC DM&E spend per FTE because SSCs serve a 

significantly larger number of employees; the per-employee cost is less because the population 

7 U.S. Chief Information Officer. “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology 

Information Management”. 

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serviced is larger. If an agency were to migrate to shared applications for all of its HRIT needs, 

cost savings would be considerable. 

Figure 3 – DM&E Spend for Agencies versus SSCs 

Cost savings is only one proposed benefit of the HR LOB vision of interoperable shared resources.
 

Clearly, cost savings cannot completely supersede other benefits – operational efficiency, 

customer service, and improved ability to manage the HCM/HR function. Indeed, the 

2009 CBA did report agencies’ anecdotal claims that moving to SSCs does improve operational 

efficiencies, improve customer service, and improve the management of the HCM/HR function. 

In this era of unprecedented Federal fiscal concern, in which agency core mission budgets are 

being significantly cut, agency executives must carefully scrutinize any investment of scarce 

dollars on duplicative HRIT systems and back-office functions.
 

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3 Target Conceptual Solution Architecture
 

This section describes the future state – the Target Conceptual Solution Architecture – in which 

multiple HR application suites function in an interoperable/integrated environment. The HR 

LOB target conceptual solution architecture is a service component based approach that 

facilitates “plug-and-play” and “mix-and-match” solutions using a Service Oriented Integration 

(SOI) paradigm. In concept, service components are service provider neutral, allowing for the 

selection of any combination of service components from any provider to meet the agency HR 

mission needs. Open standards make possible these adaptive, dynamic, and responsive HR 

services. 

3.1 Building Blocks of the Target Conceptual Solution Architecture 

Currently, HRIT implementations use multiple vendor applications. They support multiple user 

interfaces and they have different methods of storing data. Some of these applications use a 

Web-based interface, whereas some use application level interfaces. Supporting these different 

interfaces is a serious challenge for SSCs and agencies. 

The HR LOB target conceptual solution architecture described in this section defines an 

integrated solution for the future where these multiple applications function in an 

interoperable/integrated environment and deliver productivity improvements, increase reuse, and 

share information across implementations. The following diagram shows a high level (conceptual 

level) service oriented integration view of the target solution. Consistent with the above 

definition of SOI, the integration that is achieved in this target solution is achieved using only 

service interactions – accomplished by a facility known as the Interoperability and Integration 

(I&I) facilitation solution. It should be noted that while this conceptual view shows only one 

instance of the I&I solution, it is likely that more than one instance will be implemented. However, 

the number of implemented instances must be controlled and all instances should be in compliance 

with a single set of governmentwide standards. Additionally, some Federal agencies are already 

pioneering these concepts. Implementation of the target architecture should leverage to the extent 

possible existing technologies, practices, and expertise. 

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Figure 4 – Target Conceptual Solution Architecture 

In this solution context, services and service components communicate based upon the desired 

objectives and results, regardless of implementation technology. The I&I facilitation solution 

routes this communication via the appropriate transport to the target service. Because servicecentric solution is transport-agnostic, it can reuse existing enterprise messaging infrastructure for 

communication if necessary. This protects existing investments and eliminates the need for 

duplication of infrastructure. 

There are four major components of this conceptual solution architecture: 

1. User access capability 

2. Interoperability and integration connectors 

3. Standard information exchange packages 

4. Interoperability and integration facilitation solution 

All these components will be implemented on platform and infrastructure. Platform includes 

operating systems, database management systems, directories, security services, and workflow 

middleware. Infrastructure includes servers, networks, communication links, and data storage. 

Although these platform and infrastructure resources are critical to this conceptual architecture, 

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they are not described in detail in this section. More information about platform and 

infrastructure resources can be found in the HR LOB Technical Model (one of five artifacts of 

the HR LOB Enterprise Architecture). 

User Access Capability 

User access capability has two components, standardized user interfaces and the user interface 

processor. This capability provides standardized and uniform access channels and delivery 

channels that satisfy business requirements (e.g., legislative compliance). Although the user 

access capability will be defined and managed at the agency level, it will be consistent and 

compliant with the single governmentwide set of standards that have been set for user access 

capability. 

Portals are commonly used for user access capability in the Web environment. There can be 

many types of portals such as information portals, collaboration portals, and expertise and 

knowledge portals. A portal provides a base set of functionality such as role-based security, a 

unified view of information, a standards-based platform, and scalable architecture. 

Standardized user interfaces. The main focus of standardized user interfaces is providing 

intuitive, user-friendly, ergonomic, and functionally organized presentations or portals that guide 

user interactions. Standardized user interfaces will be clear, concise, responsive, consistent, 

efficient, and forgiving. Standardized user interfaces are established to accommodate a broad 

spectrum of users with a range of expertise and needs – from novice users to power users to 

administrators. 

All user interface (UI) elements and relevant information in an application shall be available to 

and usable by users with disabilities, including users who employ assistive technologies. The 

standardized user interfaces are mainly based on Web Content Accessibility (WCA) standards 

such as W3C Standards (Document Object Model (DOM), HTML, HTTP, CSS, XML, and 

URI/URL); ISO Web Usability Standards ISO/AWI 23973; and Section 508 guidelines. The HR 

LOB TM defines the user portal standards profile view. This profile view defines 

presentation/interface standards, Web browser standards, and desktop standards. 

User interface processor. The major role of the user interface processor is to handle the initial 

routing of incoming user events. It also dispatches to the appropriate target objects action 

messages forwarded to it by control objects. In addition, the user interface processor maintains a 

list of all the windows currently open in the application. 

The user interface processor performs following functions: 

•	 Navigation and workflow control – managing the flow of information through the user 

interface components 

•	 Managing the transitions between stages of a user tasks and modifying user process flow 

in response to exceptions 

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•	 State management – passing state and maintaining consistency of state between views for 

Windows-based applications and Web applications 

•	 Maintaining internal business-related state, usually by holding on to one or more business 

entities that are affected by the user interaction 

•	 Data presentation management and display formatting 

•	 Parameterization and editing 

The user interface processor also contains navigation methods that are called by the standard user 

interfaces that determine the views that will be shown to the user; functional methods that are 

called by the standard user interfaces; and state methods that store information in the persistent 

storage device. 

Interoperability and Integration Connectors 

Interoperability and integration (I&I) connectors are a set of solutions consisting of technology, 

services, and software that are developed as extensions to existing application systems. Each I&I 

connector enables the sharing of resources and handles the communication between its 

application system and the I&I facilitation solution. These plug-ins provide for “loose coupling” 

between the applications and the integration capability. 

Many commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) packages have this type of facility that can be configured 

to the needs of the environment into which it is being implemented. The HR LOB Technical 

Model defines an interoperability standards profile that can be used for designing and developing 

an I&I connector module for legacy applications. Web services, Java beans, Java business 

integration, and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) are examples of the technologies that can be used 

to develop the I&I connector. The connector module can be a portal, application programming 

interface (API), message-oriented middleware (MOM), or transaction-based middleware – 

depending upon the type of application system and interoperability needs. 

Standard Information Exchange Packages (IEPs) 

The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM, see Appendix A) defines IEP as: 

•	 An eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema representing a set of data that is
 

transmitted for a specific business purpose
 

•	 The actual XML instance that delivers the payload or information 

The standard information exchange packages in this depiction are developed from the 

governmentwide HR data model and represent the data that will be exchanged between pairs of 

service components. They consist of both XML schema specifying the data to be transmitted 

and the actual XML instances that move the data to and from the various applications. This data 

movement is accomplished by the I&I facilitation solution interacting with the application’s 

integration-enabling capability – its I&I connector. 

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Interoperability and Integration Facilitation Solution 

The interoperability/integration among Federal HR application systems will be achieved using an 

interoperability and integration (I&I) facilitation solution (for example, an extended functionality 

enterprise service bus). The I&I facilitation solution will allow application systems to be 

interoperable/integrated by facilitating seamless data sharing and minimizing the redundant data 

and application logic. 

The interoperability and integration facilitation solution consists of five components: I&I frontend module, I&I logic module, and three access layers: channel access and service delivery 

layer, services access and management layer, and data access layer. These layers will provide 

the coupling between various architectural model components of the solution. 

I&I front end. The I&I front end contains the logic and services that will enable connection of 

the I&I facilitation solution to the I&I connector module of the application system. 

I&I logic module. The I&I logic module contains the services that perform routine integration 

activities. These services are stateless and context-free, so they can be called in any sequence and 

be reused. These integration services are dynamically configurable (at the run-time) and use 

declarative programming techniques. This module also contains business rules for interoperability 

and integration. Quality of Service (QOS) requirements may also be implemented as services in 

the I&I facilitation system. 

Channel access and service delivery layer. The channel access and service delivery layer 

provides portal/user interface and an application programming interface (API) capability and 

services. The portal interface serves as the single window login interface for the system and uses 

LDAP (Local Directory Access Protocol) protocol to validate the users. Once the users are 

authorized, they are given access to all the services available in the system for which they have 

been authorized. The portal interface provides the users the ability to invoke the available 

services and select the operations that are built over these services, which can also be invoked 

directly by an API. 

Service access and management layer. The service access and management layer is the 

backbone of the service oriented integration. It consists of four sub-layers: 

1. Mediation and transformation layer 

2. Routing and distribution layer 

3. Mapping, correlation, and enrichment layer 

4. Orchestration layer 

The mediation and transformation sub-layer consists of services that remove the application 

specific characteristics from the messages before passing them to the next layer which executes 

the integration choreography. This is a style which is particularly suitable in those instances 

where integration services will be called from different requesting applications over different 

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transports and with different data formats. An application specific mediation service processes 

messages from each application but the central integration service is provided once and accessed 

via multiple mediation services. 

The routing and distribution sub-layer provides functionality for sending messages to the proper 

receiver. Routing services select service providers based on content and context. Distribution 

services distribute the message to a set of interested parties. 

The mapping, correlation, and enrichment sub-layer consists of services that act on the content 

of the message by providing additional information that facilitates interoperability/integration. 

And the service orchestration sub-layer provides services that track, monitor, and propagate 

service access events. 

Data access layer. The data access layer is the central component in mediating and coordinating 

a data access request. This layer provides data discovery services, data mapping and 

transformation services, data reformatting services, schema matching, and integrity checking 

services. In addition, the data access layer provides a generic interface for database operations 

and services to access/update the data stores. The data access layer will support service data 

objects (SDO) that facilitate a single and uniform way to access and manipulate data from 

heterogeneous data sources including relational databases, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) 

data sources, Web services, and enterprise information systems (EIS). In an ideal service 

oriented integrated environment, the data access layer can also provide following data services: 

•	 Automated query planning and processing from high-level queries 

•	 Distributed query execution 

•	 Data integration result consolidation 

•	 Data transport methods and protocols 

•	 Integrity checking of integrated data 

•	 Data source security 

Security, identity, authentication, and access control services define components that support the 

protection of an organization's hardware/software and PII assets as described below: 

•	 Identification and authentication defines the service component that provides capabilities 

that support obtaining information about those parties attempting to log on to a system or 

application, for security purposes, and the validation of those users 

•	 Access control defines the service component that provides capabilities that support the 

management of permissions for logging onto a computer or network 

•	 Intrusion detection defines the service component that provides capabilities that support 

the detection of illegal entrance into a computer system 

•	 User management defines the service component that provides capabilities that support 

the administration of computer, application and network accounts 

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•	 Role/privilege management defines the service component that provides capabilities that 

support the granting of abilities to users or groups of users of a computer, application or 

network 

These services are based upon FICAM guidelines and HR LOB Identity and Authentication 

Reference Model and are appropriately embedded in the conceptual solution architecture 

components. Information about FICAM guidance can be found in Appendix A. 

3.2 Implementation and Delivery of the Target Solution 

This section proposes a future delivery model for the target solution, describing the manner in 

which the target solution will be delivered to the consumers of the services. Generally speaking, 

the operational success of Federal HRIT will depend upon optimizing business operations by 

enabling them with information technology. This will be accomplished in part via a service 

oriented culture – where business needs are met through delivering a defined collection of ITenabled services. More information about services concepts can be found in Appendix A. 

The target solution proposes just this sort of service orientation. The goal is to create and deploy 

multiple services delivered by multiple providers who coordinate, re-assemble, and reuse assets to 

provide the best value for the Federal enterprise. This approach will thus promote the integrated, 

interoperable “plug and play” capability that is described in the HR LOB CONOPS. 

The HR LOB Service Component Model, one of the five formal HR LOB Enterprise 

Architecture artifacts, identifies and defines these business services. It defines 33 HR / HCM 

service components: eight service components support core HR processes, nine service 

components support non-core HR processes, and sixteen service components support HCM 

processes. The HR LOB SCM is on the HR LOB website at: 

http://www.opm.gov/egov/documents/architecture/HRLOBSCMv2.pdf 

These services are listed below. 

Core Human Resources Service Components: 

•	 Benefits Processing 

•	 Benefits Reporting 

•	 Employee Self-service 

•	 Manager Self-service 

•	 Payroll Processing 

•	 Payroll Reporting 

•	 Personnel Action Processing 

•	 Time and Attendance 

Non-core Human Resources Service Components: 

•	 Application Management 

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• Benefits Counseling 

• Health and Fitness 

• Learning Administration 

• Pay Administration 

• Position Classification 

• Recruiting 

• Unemployment Compensation 

• Workers Compensation 

Human Capital Management Service Components: 

• Competency Management 

• Succession Planning 

• Workforce Planning 

• Workforce Reshaping 

• Organization Design 

• Position Management 

• Assessment Model 

• Staffing 

• Career Development Planning 

• HRD Needs Assessment 

• HRD Program Development 

• Education / Training Delivery 

• Human Capital Program Review and Assessment 

• Performance Management 

• Employee Relations 

• Labor Relations 

Additionally, there are 30 “cross-cutting” service components – services that are outside the HR / 

HCM domain but directly support HR and / or HCM processes. They are listed below, organized 

by service type. 

• Data Management 

• Data Exchange 

• Financial Management 

• Labor Cost Allocation 

• Customer Relationship Management 

• Customer Support 

• Call Center Management 

• Customer Feedback 

• Partner Relationship Management 

• Marketing 

• Customer Initiated Assistance 

• Employee Assistance Program 

• Business Intelligence 

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• Decision Support and Planning 

• Reporting 

• Data Mining 

• Strategic Planning and Management 

• Activity-Based Management 

• Presentation 

• Multimedia 

• Analysis and Statistics 

• Modeling and Simulation 

• Predictive Analysis 

• Mathematical Methods 

• Information Services 

• Knowledge Management 

• Content Management 

• Records Management 

• Management of Process 

• Project Management 

• Consultative Services 

• Program Management 

• Requirements Management 

• Quality Management 

• Risk Management 

• Change Management 

• Configuration Management 

• Tracking and Workflow 

• Process Tracking 

• Case / Issue Management 

The plug and play aspect of the target solution architecture requires the ability to “thread” 

multiple service components together to satisfy customer needs. The envisioned architecture is 

based on open standards that facilitate an adaptive, dynamic, and responsive HR enterprise. It 

provides for service provider neutrality – allowing the selection of any combination of providers’ 

service components needed to meet customer agency needs. 

Because of the size and complexity of the US Federal government and the breadth of services 

required to support the HR/HCM business function no single service delivery method can be 

expected to satisfy customers’ needs; multiple methods will be used over the course of the 

planning horizon of this Roadmap. The proposed end state will thus be a blended delivery model 

where multiple modes of delivery coexist with multiple provider roles to form a “coexistent” 

model of implementation and delivery. The following diagram depicts this coexistent model. 

25
 
n rastructure 

prov der

p at orm 

prov der

app cat on 

prov der

serv ce 

so ut on 

prov der

Serv ce so ut on prov ders o er 

non standard zed HR HCM 

and/or cross cutt ng so ut ons 

that are un que to each 

customer s requ rements 

Serv ce so ut on prov ders o er 

a port o o o common HR 

HCM and/or cross cutt ng 

serv ces 

Loca zed or agency s own 

use or ava ab e to a s ng e 

customer 

Shared – used or shared by 

mu t p e agenc es or ava ab e to 

mu t p e customers 

App cat ons are owned by 

everyone prov ders and 

nd v dua Federa agenc es 

HR HCM and/or cross cutt ng 

app cat ons are made ava ab e 

by the app cat on prov der or 

nc us on n the serv ce so ut on 

prov der s port o o 

P at orm resources are owned 

and operated by everyone 

prov ders and nd v dua 

Federa agenc es

P at orm resources are owned 

by the p at orm prov der and 

made ava ab e reso d to 

n rastructure prov ders and/or

serv ce so ut on prov ders

n rastructure resources are 

owned and operated by 

everyone prov ders and 

nd v dua Federa agenc es

n rastructure resources are 

owned by a prov der and are 

made ava ab e or use by other 

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Localized – for agency's own 

use or available to a single 

customer 

service 

solution 

provider 

Service solution providers offer 

non-standardized HR, HCM, 

and/or cross-cutting solutions 

that are unique to each 

customer’s requirements 

application 

provider 

Applications are owned by 

everyone – providers and 

individual Federal agencies 

platform 

provider 

Platform resources are owned 

and operated by everyone – 

providers and individual 

Federal agencies 

infrastructure 

provider 

Infrastructure resources are 

owned and operated by 

everyone –– providers and 

individual Federal agencies 

Shared – used or shared by 

multiple agencies or available to 

multiple customers 

Service solution providers offer 

a portfolio of common HR, 

HCM, and/or cross-cutting 

services 

Virtual – commoditized and 

available to multiple 

customers in the cloud 

computing environment 

An HR, HCM, and cross-cutting 

services portfolio is 

provisioned by the service 

solution provider in a cloud 

computing environment 

HR, HCM and/or cross-cutting 

applications are made available 

by the application provider for 

inclusion in the service solution 

provider’s portfolio 

HR/HCM and cross-cutting 

applications are made 

available by the application 

provider to the service solution 

provider who provisions them 

in the cloud 

Platform resources are owned 

by the platform provider and 

made available (resold to) 

infrastructure providers and/or 

service solution providers 

Platform resources are 

provisioned by the platform 

provider from the cloud for 

use by infrastructure providers 

and/or service solution 

providers 

Infrastructure resources are 

owned by a provider and are 

made available for use by other 

providers 

Infrastructure resources are 

consolidated to a virtual cloud 

environment and provisioned 

by the infrastructure provider 

Figure 5 – The Coexistent Model of Service Delivery 

In the proposed delivery framework, there are four provider roles that deliver these services and 

the technology that enables these services. These provider roles are described below. 

The infrastructure provider is a supplier of highly scalable computing resources including 

mainframes, servers, storage devices, and networks. Federal agencies that offer data center 

computing resources to other agencies – such as the General Services Administration and 

Department of the Interior’s National Business Center – are infrastructure providers. Federallyapproved private sector companies that offer data center computing resources to Federal agencies 

– such as Google, Microsoft – may also perform this infrastructure provider role. 

The platform provider is a supplier of IT resources that make applications operable on a given 

infrastructure. Examples of these IT resources include database management systems, 

authentication/authorization/ single sign-on capabilities, workflow automation services, 

virtualization software, application development accelerators, testing and QA tools, scheduling 

services, security services, and directory services. One example of a Federal agency that offers 

platform services to other agencies is the General Services Administration (E-Authentication 

Initiative). And in the future, private sector companies (e.g., Amazon [computing instances], 

Oracle [database management resources], Cisco [network management resources]) may be 

approved to offer these platform resources to Federal agencies. 

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The application provider is a supplier of application software that support or enable HR and 

HCM processes. Vendors of large-scale ERP software (e.g., Oracle [E-Business Suite, 

PeopleSoft Enterprise applications], Kronos [webTA] are application providers. HR LOB Shared 

Service Centers also build and operate application software and are thus also application 

providers. OPM is an application provider by virtue of the fact that it offers governmentwide 

application software services (e.g., USAJOBS, USA Staffing, EHRI, e-QIP, etc.) to Federal 

agencies. And some Federal agencies are doing a very good job of providing HR applications to 

their agency customers. 

The service solution provider is a supplier of interoperable services. The service solution 

provider serves as the “integrator” – the consolidation point for all services and applications. 

The service solution provider assembles capability as needed – infrastructure, platform, 

applications, back office services – to create a portfolio of services that have value to the Federal 

customer agency. The HR LOB-approved Federal and private sector Shared Service Centers are 

all HR LOB service solution providers. 

Each of these provider roles can deliver their services via three possible delivery modes: 

localized, shared, and virtual. 

In the localized delivery mode, resources are organization-specific – owned and operated by an 

agency for its own use or made available by a provider for use by a single customer. 

Applications, platform resources, and infrastructure resources are owned by everyone – service 

providers and individual Federal agencies. 

In the shared delivery mode, resources are used by multiple entities. Providers make resources 

available to multiple customers and providers partner with other providers to jointly offer 

services – through joint operations, reseller arrangements, joint licensing agreements, etc. At the 

application level, application providers and vendors continue to own HR/HCM and cross-cutting 

applications but the applications are also made available to other providers for resale to their 

customers. At the platform level, platform resources continue to be owned by a provider and are 

made available (resold to) infrastructure providers and/or service solution providers. And at the 

infrastructure level, infrastructure resources are also owned by a provider and are made available 

for use by other providers. The shared mode encourages partnering among providers and sharing 

of hardware, software, and middleware resources wherever possible. 

In the virtual mode, resources are commoditized and made available in the cloud computing 

environment. HR/HCM and cross-cutting applications are provisioned in the cloud by the 

application provider for resale by the service solution provider. Platform resources are 

provisioned by the platform provider from the cloud for use by (resale to) infrastructure 

providers and/or service solution providers. And infrastructure resources are consolidated to a 

virtual environment “cloud” environment and provisioned by the infrastructure provider. More 

information about Cloud computing can be found in Appendix A. 

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A limited version of the coexistent model of service delivery is in practice today, where some 

services are being shared and some providers are considering virtual systems. However, many IT 

resources continue to be localized. Federal agencies own and operate their own HR applications 

and supporting platform resources and infrastructures. And some providers operate localized HR 

applications – accommodating their multiple customers’ disparate business processes and/or 

maintaining separate instances of their applications for their customers. 

The overall objective proposed by this Roadmap is that providers work with customer agencies 

to shift implementation and delivery from left to right on this framework – from localized 

resources to shared and/or virtual resources. The Roadmap does not propose a wholesale shift 

from localized to virtual. Some technology should remain at the localized level because it must 

support agency-specific needs and standardizing to shared services is not a viable option. 

Similarly, it may not be practical or technically feasible to virtualize or commoditize some 

services. Sample criteria for determining “cloud-appropriateness” include: 

1. Business process is ready; it is stable and can adapt with minimum changes to a cloud 

delivery infrastructure 

2. Application is ready; it is already web-based and scaleable 

3. Transaction data volumes are not very high 

4. Web is the desired service delivery platform 

5. Data ownership, stewardship, security, and access rules are clearly defined 

6. Points of integration are well defined; applications running in the cloud will require 

integration with applications running on-premise and other applications in the cloud; a 

robust I& I facility is a prerequisite for the cloud computing environment 

7. Application does not require specialized interfaces 

8. Regulatory compliance; cloud computing services for data and applications must closely 

adhere to compliance regulations and demonstrate a high degree of transparency 

9. Potential for reducing overall costs; overall costs can be decreased by moving the service 

to the cloud (migration and overhead costs vary widely based on the target cloud platform 

and will thus skew the estimated cost savings) 

Based upon the above criteria, some HR/HCM service components are better candidates for 

virtualization than others. A thorough analysis must be done for all HRIT applications to 

determine their suitability for virtualization and cloud readiness. 

It should be noted that virtualization is already happening in the infrastructure areas such as local 

area networks (LAN), virtual private networks (VPN), servers, and desktops. Virtualizing 

software and applications is relatively more complex and difficult; not all HRIT software and 

applications are suitable for virtualization. Migrating legacy applications based on old 

programming languages and technologies to a cloud-based infrastructure will not bring the 

benefits that would justify the investment required to move to the cloud. A more traditional 

managed hosting solution would be a more desirable alternative. Therefore, key HRIT 

applications must be evaluated for suitability of virtualization and for cloud-readiness. 

Applications running in the cloud will require integration with applications running on-premise 

and other applications in the cloud. A robust integration platform needs to be available to 

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facilitate this. Other factors that influence application virtualization and migration to the cloud 

environment include data ownership, security, regulatory compliance, and cost. 

3.3 Governance and Management of the Target Solution 

Governance ensures that roles, processes, and guidance are in place to set clear expectations, 

provide leadership toward meeting expectations, and verify expectations are being met. Good 

governance is participatory, transparent and accountable. When the HR LOB program was 

launched in 2004, a multi-tiered governance approach was put into place which has successfully 

encouraged participation across its multi-agency community of stakeholders, promoted 

transparency and openness, and ensured accountability for delivering results that meet 

expectations. The HR LOB will capitalize on the success of its governance and continue to 

leverage its governance structures and processes for the design, development, and deployment of 

the target solution and the shift to shared and virtual delivery models. 

Governance Structure 

The HR LOB governance structure has three tiers, 1. Strategy/Policy, Planning and Oversight; 2. 

User Requirements; and 3. Operations and Delivery. It is depicted in future 4 below. 

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Figure 6 – HR LOB Governance Structure 

•	 Strategy/Policy, Planning and Oversight. The Multi-Agency Executive Strategy 

Committee (MAESC) is the permanent chartered governance body of 24 participating 

agencies that serves as the primary decision body that sets direction for the HR LOB. It meets 

regularly to take decisions on planning and strategy formulation, performance management, 

SSC support and management, HRIT transformation, and provider oversight. The Chief 

Information Officer at OPM and the E-Gov analyst at OMB share the MAESC co- chair role. 

The MAESC’s role in HRIT modernization is to formally approve the target solution and 

delivery vision, work with the Innovation Center to identify and support initiatives to 

accomplish modernization, address resource and funding issues, and monitor modernization 

progress. 

•	 User Requirements. The user requirements tier of the governance structure is comprised of 

workgroups and sub-committees that come together to develop work products that 

appropriately reflect stakeholder perspectives and needs. This tier leverages the considerable 

agency subject matter expertise in HR functions and the HRIT that supports these functions. 

It also encourages communication among stakeholder groups and includes the HR LOB 

Customer Council – providing the “voice of the customer”. 

The role of the user requirements tier in HRIT modernization is to provide subject matter 

expertise to help ensure the target solution and delivery models meet customer needs. It will 

also help ensure customer agencies are moving in the direction proposed by the Roadmap. 

• Operations and Delivery. This tier of the HR LOB governance provides the “voice of the 

provider” and is comprised of operationally-focused members of the Federal HR SSC 

community. Its formal governance body, the Shared Service Center Advisory Council 

(SSCAC), meets on a regular basis to discuss the operational challenges of delivering the HR 

and payroll services and other issues related to meeting the target requirements established 

by the HR LOB. 

The role of this tier in HRIT modernization is to provide subject matter expertise and a 

provider point of view to help ensure the target solution and delivery models are credible and 

achievable from a provider standpoint. It will also help ensure providers are moving in the 

direction proposed by the Roadmap. 

HRIT Innovation Center 

A new entity will be inserted into this governance structure – the HRIT Innovation Center – to 

make recommendations to the MAESC on how innovation can be applied to HRIT solutions and 

solution delivery. The center will bring together people with a variety of backgrounds, 

viewpoints, and skills to offer fresh new ideas. It will report to the MAESC and be comprised of 

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technology subject matter experts from across the government (HRIT experts, agency HR SMEs, 

SSC staff, and OPM policy experts) who will: 

•	 Promote and monitor HRIT modernization and integration efforts in agencies across the 

Federal government. 

•	 Promote sharing and virtualization of services; help identify opportunities for 

partnerships. 

•	 Serve as an information clearinghouse for information about shared and virtual resources 

and about OMB-sanctioned flexible budget approaches. 

•	 Be a technology incubator, supporting the identification, development, and deployment 

of innovative solutions and solution delivery; provide a technology sandbox, allowing for 

the creation and iteration of technology prototypes. 

•	 Build an innovation community to facilitate the cross-pollination of good ideas and 

provide a clearinghouse for agencies to share ideas and innovations that could have crossagency applicability and impact. 

•	 Identify innovative HR applications that agencies are currently offering to their user base 

and/or identify particularly effective methods of delivering services or applications; 

demonstrate the solution and/or delivery approach in a wider context. 

•	 Establish and promote innovative points of view by performing ongoing research, 

publishing white papers, and sharing analysis results. 

•	 Promote and share best practices for technology sustainment strategies 

•	 Be the hub for governmentwide HRIT standards development; work with the HRIT 

Requirements Board and leverage the subject matter expertise that exists in the 

government – particularly at Federal agencies – to develop governmentwide requirements 

for certain capabilities. 

•	 Manage the certification of all HR LOB applications provided for Federal use by COTS 

vendors to support core and non-core functions. 

•	 Spearhead the deployment of the cross-government interoperability and integration 

facilitation solution. 

Processes, Standards, and Guidance 

An interoperable HRIT environment requires that the interoperable components are built using 

identical – or at least compatible – standards. An interoperable target solution will require 

certain common processes and standards to be put into place to facilitate interoperability. Shared 

and virtual delivery models will also require common processes and standards that govern the 

delivery of services to multiple customers across multiple environments. 

One of strengths of the proposed conceptual solution architecture is the flexibility that results 

from having multiple service providers. To create this increased flexibility, the solution brings 

together and orchestrates many services. Processes and standards help to minimize 

complications that potentially result from extraction and integration of services into a 

comprehensive service delivery approach. They also help set the clear terminology and 

communication convention, where the solution components cross traditional enterprise 

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boundaries and operational contexts, and where increased connection among business processes, 

functional capabilities, organizational entities, end users, applications, and data is desired. 

Standards fall into four overall categories: data standards, interoperability standards, cloud 

standards, and architectural standards. 

•	 Data Standards. The HR LOB will lead the development of a governmentwide HR data 

model. This will be the foundational standard for government-wide HR data – compliant 

with NIEM and XML standards. NIEM has been adopted as government standard for 

data exchange. The HR-XML Consortium is the only independent, non-profit, volunteerled organization dedicated to the development and promotion of a standard suite of XML 

specifications to enable e-business and the automation of human resources-related data 

exchanges. HR-XML standards are principally concerned with defining messages 

communicated between and among software components. 

• Interoperability Standards. The HR LOB Technical Model Version 2, Section 3 

describes interoperability as applicable to HR LOB. This section describes 

interoperability dimensions in relationship with HR LOB EA models. Application, data, 

and infrastructure interoperability standards are also defined in this section. 

•	 Cloud Standards. Cloud computing is currently in its early formative stages and is 

currently operationalized by an amalgamation of proprietary products and approaches. 

Standards are largely de facto, though progress has been made in some areas. NIST 

created the Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart Adoption of Cloud Computing projects. 

NIST publication SP 800 – 25 defines cloud computing terminology. Standards 

organization IEEE has decided to get involved in cloud computing, starting with two 

development projects related to cloud interoperability. The Cloud Security Alliance was 

formed to promote a series of best practices to provide security assurance in cloud 

computing. The DMTF focuses on IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and providing 

standards that enable IaaS to be a flexible, scalable, high-performance infrastructure. The 

OCC goal is to support the development of standards for cloud computing and 

frameworks for interoperating between clouds. The Open Cloud Consortium has a 

number of different working groups devoted to varying aspects of cloud computing. 

•	 HR LOB Enterprise Architecture. The HR LOB has created an Enterprise 

Architecture (EA) in line with the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) to assist Shared 

Service Centers (SSCs) and their customer agencies standardize their HR processes and 

technology. Each of the HR LOB EA artifacts has been created as part of a multi-agency 

effort. The architecture provide an overall business blueprint for the Human Resources 

business function and thus should be considered as a set of architectural standards for the 

target solution. 

In addition to the above, OMB has published definitive guidance that will have a direct 

impact on HRIT modernization – the adoption of cloud computing and the use of the 

National Information Exchange Model. 

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•	 OMB Cloud Computing Guidance. Effective immediately, agencies are required to 

institute a 'cloud first' implementation approach for all IT investments. If a secure, 

reliable and cost-effective cloud solution exists, agencies are required to implement that 

solution. All agency cloud evaluations must include an assessment of cloud solutions 

approved by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and 

leverage enterprise cloud computing procurements such as IaaS. This language 

supersedes the FY 2011 Passback language for cloud computing. 

•	 OMB Guidance on the National Information Exchange Model. The following is the 

excerpt from Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Passback to Agencies that 

requires each of them to evaluate use of the National Information Exchange Model 

(NIEM) for their cross-boundary information exchanges: “By 5/1/2010, all agencies 

shall evaluate the adoption and use of the National Information Exchange Model as the 

basis for developing reference information exchange package descriptions to support 

specification and implementation of reusable cross-boundary information exchanges. A 

cross-boundary information exchange is one that crosses a bureau or agency boundary, 

including information sharing with international, State, local, tribal, industry, or nongovernmental organization partners. The evaluation should include an alternatives 

analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and gaps or issues, if any, in governance and cost sharing 

based on provided template.” 

Governance helps minimize complications that may result from the integration of these services 

into a comprehensive service delivery approach. Governance helps set the clear terminology and 

standards of communication where solution components cross traditional enterprise boundaries 

and operational contexts. Governance increases the potential for connection among business 

processes, functional capabilities, organizational entities, end users, applications, and data. 

The delivery of shared and virtual services requires that the many providers work together to 

integrate or consolidate business processes, application functions, and data to provide 

interoperable solutions to various sets of customers in a seamless manner. Governance is key to 

making this happen. 

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4 Modernization Roadmap 

4.1 Transition Patterns 

In a coexistent model of service delivery, heterogeneous HRIT – localized resources, shared 

resources, and virtual services – exists throughout the government. The heterogeneity of the 

technology, coupled with the number of HRIT owners and operational environments, suggests 

that transition to a shared or virtual services environment will not be via a single transition 

approach, a single transition event, or a single coordinated transition plan. Delivery of services 

will evolve as service delivery shifts from localized to shared and virtual. 

This transition will be an ongoing process for the foreseeable future as partnerships for sharing 

resources are built and the virtual services delivery environment and virtual computing 

capabilities become mature enough to be adopted on a widespread basis. The benefit of this 

incremental approach is that it encourages deliberately paced movement to shared and virtual 

resources in a manner that maximizes the value to the organization without interrupting the 

business. A macro view of transition that shows the shift from locally owned resources to shared 

and virtual resources is depicted in the diagram below. 

Localized Shared	 Virtual 

service Providers partnerto C deliverservices solution Providers re-architect 

provider cloud-appropriate 

Federal applications to a agencies bundled services 

migrate G paradigm and begin B to SSC to provision them via application HRHITa cloud environment provider Federal agencies
 

makenon-core
 

applications available 

to otheragencies
 E I&I facilitation solution is 

deployed

platform
 

provider
 

PrProvideerrss shshare are Platform and 

platform and infrastructure resources D F infrastruucture	 are consolidated to the infrastructure reresou sourrcceess	 cloud 

provider 

IaaS PaaS SaaS 

Figure 7 – Transition Activities 

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Neither the A-through-G lettering nor the left-to-right placement of the transition patterns in the 

above diagram is meant to imply strict sequencing or dependency. Generally speaking, these 

patterns can occur somewhat simultaneously. There are some important timing considerations, 

however: 

•	 Since Federal cloud strategies are just now being conceived and deployed and cloud 

offerings are consequently currently quite limited, agencies should accelerate the move 

toward shared resources – without waiting for cloud issues to be resolved and cloud 

services to be ubiquitiously available. 

•	 Moving to a shared delivery mode is not a prerequisite to moving to a virtual mode; 

agencies can move directly from localized resources to cloud-based services. 

•	 Since interoperability is a prerequisite to virtual services, deploying the I&I facilitation 

solution (E) is a prerequisite to providing SaaS (G). 

•	 Consolidation of platform and/or infrastructure resources and virtualization of platform 

and infrastructure services (F) can happen concurrently with the development and 

implementation of I&I facilitation solution (E). 

•	 IaaS and PaaS (F) are prerequisites for providing SaaS (G). 

•	 The bulk of the IT transition activity to date has been in the IaaS layer, which makes it 

easy to move existing applications running in general purpose operating systems into 

virtual machines to virtualize them. After the initial transition to IaaS, however, the 

additional advantages of PaaS and SaaS begin to motivate a retargeting of applications to 

those higher layers. 

The seven transition activities are described below. 

A. Federal agencies migrate to SSC HRIT. Federal agencies that have not migrated core 

HRIT to a shared Service Center follow HR LOB migration planning guidance to 

evaluate, select, and migrate to an HR LOB-endorsed SSC for core services. Agencies 

migrate non-core functions to SSCs and, where it makes sense, sunset their legacy noncore HR applications. 

B.	 Federal agencies make non-core applications available to other agencies. Federal 

agencies work with the HR LOB Innovation Center to share information about those 

applications that have potential for meeting other agencies’ needs. SSC(s) and the agency 

application provider identify opportunities to partner in offering an application to the 

SSC’s customers. The SSC and / or the application provider modify the application as 

necessary for scalability and unique business requirements. The SSC integrates, 

interoperates, or interfaces the application to the SSC’s services portfolios. The SSC and 

application provider negotiate management and measurement processes (e.g., memoranda 

of understanding, service level agreements). SSCs market these services as part of their 

services portfolio. The application may be operated, maintained by the SSC, the 

application provider, or cooperation between the two. 

C. Providers partner to deliver services. SSCs work with the HR LOB Innovation Center 

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core HR/HCM applications, back office services, and licensing agreements. The SSC 

partners work together to interoperate or interface the applications. The SSC partners 

negotiate management and measurement processes. SSCs market these services as part 

of their services portfolio. The service may be delivered by one of the SSCs or through 

some cooperative arrangement between the two. 

D. Providers share platform and infrastructure resources. Infrastructure owners and 

platform software owners identify excess capacity and/or potential opportunities for 

sharing resources. Infrastructure owners and platform software owners reach out to SSCs 

and to the HR LOB Innovation Center to seek partnership opportunities. Partners 

negotiate management and measurement agreements. The provider makes platform 

resources available per agreements. 

E.	 I&I facilitation solution is deployed. A limited number of providers (or one provider) 

offer a facility that accomplishes interoperability across multiple disparate applications 

and application environments. The provider builds out this capability based on HR LOB 

standards for interoperability and using the governmentwide HR data model as the 

blueprint for the metadata dictionary that underlies the facility and drives the data 

exchange. The provider enables this capability to shared HR/HCM applications and 

services, to virtual HR/HCM services, and as appropriate to other I&I facilities. 

F.	 Platform and infrastructure resources are consolidated to the cloud. Platform and 

infrastructure providers deploy virtual capability. The provider adopts usage management 

processes and enabling technology for virtual services management. The provider 

markets these services directly to SSCs and via the HR LOB Innovation Center. The 

provider negotiates management and measurement processes with the customer and 

makes resources available per agreements. (Note: current HR applications that depend 

on specific pieces of hardware [meaning they expect to see a certain type of network 

controller or disk] require special consideration; the PaaS provider is not likely to have 

this older hardware in its infrastructure. By utilizing PaaS, virtual machines, storage, and 

the network are pre-configured by the provider. Furthermore, the PaaS providers monitor 

the virtual machines for failures and initiate auto-recovery when needed.) 

G. Providers provision cloud-appropriate services in a cloud environment. Providers rearchitect cloud appropriate applications into bundled services and begin to provision them 

via a private Federal cloud environment. The virtual services provider adopts usage 

management processes and enabling technology for virtual services management. The 

virtual services provider markets these services directly to customers and via the HR 

LOB Innovation Center. The virtual services provider negotiates management and 

measurement processes with the customer. The virtual services provider makes services 

available per agreements. 

To help guide agencies in their movement toward cloud computing, OMB provides a Federal 

Cloud Computing Strategy. Section II of this strategy describes a decision framework to support 

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agencies as they make decisions about their IT services delivery mode. The OMB framework 

describes the following overall approach for moving toward virtual services: 

1. Select. Identify which IT services to move to which mode and when. Identify sources of 

value for migrations: efficiency, agility, innovation, etc. Determine migration readiness. 

2. Provision. Aggregate demand to the agency level where possible. Ensure 

interoperability. Contract effectively to ensure agency needs are met. Realize value by 

repurposing or decommissioning legacy assets and redeploying freed resources. 

3. Manage. Shift IT mindset from assets to services. Build new skill sets as required. 

Actively monitor SLAs to ensure compliance and continuous improvement. Reevaluate 

vendor and service models periodically to maximize benefits and minimize risks. 

4.2 Next Steps 

Because of the investment required to shift to shared and virtual delivery modes and the relative 

immaturity of cloud capability and standards, the shift to shared and virtual resources is a long 

term proposition. However, there are activities that SSCs and agencies can begin to do 

immediately to establish momentum toward HRIT resource sharing. 

1. Promote communication and information-sharing. The HR LOB will work with 

stakeholder agencies – providers and customers – to share information about HRIT 

portfolios and plans, facilitating the kind of information-sharing that will lead to resource 

sharing. 

2. Establish the HR LOB Innovation Center. The Innovation Center will help establish a 

community of HRIT subject matter experts that will serve as the communication hub for 

the information-sharing described above. It will also provide for a sandbox environment 

that allows for demonstrating and accessing the HR applications that may be shared. 

3. Perform an HRIT current state analysis. The HR LOB will leverage the results of the 

HRIT inventory effort that took place during 4QFY2011 to analyze existing portfolios for 

resource sharing opportunities. 

4. Develop a transition plan. The seven activities that appear in Figure 7 form a macro 

view of the transition toward shared and virtual resources. The realization of this 

framework will involve numerous activities – many of which have dependencies and/or 

must be coordinated with other activities – and it will involve effort on the part of many 

people – at the provider level, at the customer level, at the policy level, and at the 

program level. The HR LOB will work with SSCs and agencies to understand their plans 

regarding transition patterns one through seven above and over time develop a coordinated 

plan for realizing the framework. 

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5 Funding Strategy
 

A key component of the shared services concept – and one of four goals of the HR LOB – is 

significant cost savings and/or cost avoidance. This may be achieved by standardizing business 

processes and then consolidating some business services and supporting technology to shared 

service centers – shifting from localized resources to shared and virtual resources. Significant 

cost savings can be achieved through the resulting reduction in locally-owned, duplicative 

software, hardware, operations, and labor resources. Some of those savings, then, can and 

should be reinvested to update and modernize technology – which will lead to process 

efficiencies, improved customer service, and enhanced strategic management of the HR function. 

The level of modernization of HRIT has fallen significantly behind agency business needs and 

expectations. The four payroll systems that calculate and issue paychecks for over 99% of 

today’s Federal workforce range in age from 14 years to 28 years. Having been continually 

modified over the years to support new and revised legislation, policy, and regulations, these 

systems are increasingly difficult to maintain. Numerous business process workarounds exist 

that make working with the systems cumbersome and inefficient. Providers have implemented 

payroll system sustainment strategies and are successfully maintaining their continuity of 

operations with minimal issues that directly impact the personal lives of Federal employees. 

However, the risk of catastrophic payroll system failure only increases over time. 

Sufficient modernization funding, however, is not available. No portion of the savings resulting 

from the consolidation of HR and payroll services is being reinvested in the modernization that 

could produce these benefits and avoid the risks. Additionally, providers for the most part 

operate within legislative constraints that prohibit them from acquiring funding to modernize 

their systems. This section provides some background on current funding approaches and offers 

some recommendations for new funding approaches that could help make these investment 

dollars available. 

5.1 Current State of HRIT Funding 

The HR shared service centers and OPM governmentwide applications are funded through a 

combination of fees collected from their customers, often paid out of working capital funds 

(WCF), and some direct appropriations. For the most part, the transfers of these funds are 

governed through the Economy Act (31 U.S.C. § 1535) which regulates interagency transfer and 

requires that funds paid during a given year are expended during that year. 

The table below shows the funding mechanisms for the HR LOB public SSCs. 

Provider Funding Source 

DOD (CPMS) Direct Appropriation 

DOD (DFAS) Working Capital Fund 

DOI (NBC) Working Capital Fund 

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GSA Working Capital Fund 

HHS Working Capital Fund 

Treasury (BPD) Franchise Fund 

Treasury (HR Connect) Working Capital Fund 

USDA (NFC) Working Capital Fund 

Table 3 – HR LOB Public SSC Funding 

Current funding mechanisms place very real constraints around providers’ ability to collect funds 

for capital investments and to fund modernization initiatives: 

•	 Providers are required to charge only for actual costs incurred (due to the Economy Act). 

•	 Providers cannot charge their customers extra and build up a reserve for upgrades and 

modernization projects. 

•	 Working Capital Funds typically do not allow money to be carried over from one year to 

the next. 

•	 Only a limited number of Federal agencies are granted permission to establish a
 

Franchise Fund to retain a reasonable reserve8. 

•	 Agencies (customers) must have the full amount available in their account to obligate 

funds toward a contract (Anti-deficiency Act9). 

These constraints create serious challenges for the providers. There are no dollars available to 

fund modernization, unless the provider can sufficiently increase customer fees or the parent 

agency can obtain funds from appropriations. Increasing customer fees to fund major capital 

investments and modernization efforts is not feasible because of the magnitude of the increase 

that would be required and the necessity to collect and spend the funds during a single fiscal 

year. And parent agencies are more focused on funding the agencies’ missions than on funding 

back office services, even if those services are shared. Providers are thus forced to perpetually 

defer major technology upgrades or replacements. This model is not sustainable. 

5.2 Funding Recommendations 

The HR LOB must move toward a more sustainable model in which providers are able to acquire 

funding for necessary modernization efforts. The following recommendations are proposed to 

achieve this model. 

1. Work with OMB and Congress to create legislation that will grant HR LOB Shared Service 

Centers the authority to establish no-year Franchise Funds. This will allow providers to retain a 

8 http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/appforum2005/transactions.pdf 

9 “The fiscal principles underlying the Antideficiency Act are really quite simple. Government officials may not 

make payments or commit the United States to make payments at some future time for goods or services unless 

there is enough money in the "bank" to cover the cost in full. The "bank," of course, is the available appropriation.” 

http://www.gao.gov/ada/antideficiency.htm 

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portion of the fees that they collect from customer charges and apply them to development, 

modernization, and enhancements (DM&E). While this will not be sufficient to pay for major 

modernization efforts, it will allow for a reasonable sum to fund version upgrades and small to 

moderate maintenance or enhancement projects. 

2. Reinvest a portion of the savings resulting from shared resources in HRIT modernization that 

will lead to addition savings. Put mechanisms in place to track and report on dollar benefits 

achieved as a result of HR LOB-sponsored consolidation of HRIT and services. Allocate a 

percentage of those savings to providers’ modernization efforts. 

3. Encourage HR LOB SSCs to maximize resource sharing and consolidation of services. 

Identify synergies and opportunities for partnering among providers, including sharing 

infrastructure, platform, and application resources. Explore consolidation of requirements and 

contract vehicles to maximize leverage on vendors, further reducing costs and potentially 

increasing value for the Federal government. 

4. Consider consolidating HR applications and going further to consolidate SSC organizations, 

where it makes sense. IT consolidation will result in fewer systems to modernize, significantly 

reducing the cost of modernization. Organizational consolidation will create larger customer 

bases, resulting in lower per-seat costs that providers charge to customers. 

The above recommendations are wide-reaching and complex, requiring numerous changes to 

legislation, policy, and business practices. The time and effort needed to achieve them will be 

quite significant. There are, however, some actions that can be pursued in the shorter term to 

mitigate funding challenges. OMB’s 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT 

provides a basis for some short-term recommendations. In the document, the U.S. CIO 

acknowledges that “the rapid pace of technological change does not match well with the Federal 

government’s budget formulation and execution processes.” OMB proposes some actions that 

will better align the budget process with the technology cycle. They are summarized below. 

Work with Congress to develop IT budget models that align with modular development. 

Agency CIOs and CFOs will identify pilot programs at several agencies for which added budget 

flexibility could save money and improve outcomes. OMB and agencies will work with 

Congress to develop proposed budget models to complement the modular development 

approach. OMB will work with Congress to analyze existing working capital funds (WCFs) and 

other vehicles for pooling funds and extending availability of funding. This analysis will: 

•	 Address limits on the amount of funding that could flow through such accounts under 

current law across all appropriations and agencies, any limits on the types of activities 

that may be funded, and any other limitations on the use of transfer authorities to feed 

such accounts from contributing accounts. 

•	 Include a comprehensive review of the legislative language for accounts receiving funds 

and the legal limits on use of general transfer authorities. 

•	 Identify examples of the use of the existing funding flexibility vehicles for IT projects, 

develop best practices guidance on applicability and implementation across the 

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government, and identify where skill gaps exist in developing costing models and 

managing funds. 

Develop supporting materials and guidance for flexible IT budget models. To support 

agencies and appropriations staff in leveraging budget flexibility, the Federal CFO Council, in 

collaboration with the Federal CIO Council, will develop a set of best practices and materials 

that explain the need for these types of funding and prescribe a path to achieving more flexible 

models. 

Work with Congress to scale flexible IT budget models more broadly. OMB will engage 

several agencies to work with Congress to launch flexible IT budget models where appropriate. 

As pilot agencies demonstrate success with flexible IT budget models on selected programs, 

OMB will continue to work with Congress to scale flexible budget models across major IT 

programs governmentwide.10 

Given this guidance, HR LOB will work with OMB to: 

1. Understand the results of their funding analysis and its potential for HRIT funding. 

2. Identify HRIT projects that are viable pilot projects for the new budget model(s). Work 

with OMB to understand the pilot proposal process and provide support to pilot project 

sponsors in proposal development and submission. 

3. Serve as a knowledge center, helping to fill knowledge gaps and providing counseling on 

OMB’s prescribed path and practices for achieving more flexible models. 

4. Accumulate lessons learned and make them available to HRIT projects and to OMB for 

more widespread application. 

The above funding-related activities could be part of the role of the HR LOB Innovation Center. 

10 U.S. Chief Information Officer. “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology 

Information Management”. 

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Appendices 

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Appendix A: Additional Information 

Cloud Computing 

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a 

shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, 

and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or 

service provider interaction. 

The cloud computing model promotes availability and is comprised of five essential 

characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. 

Essential Characteristics 

• On-demand self-service 

• Broad network access 

• Resource pooling 

• Rapid elasticity 

• Measured service 

Service Models 

• Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) 

• Cloud Platform as a Service (Paas) 

• Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) 

Deployment Models 

• Private cloud 

• Community cloud 

• Public cloud 

• Hybrid cloud 

NIST Special Publication 800-145 – This NIST definition of cloud computing contains the 

details of essential characteristics, service models, and deployment models of cloud computing. 

Cloud computing is a relatively new way of referring to the use of shared computing resources, 

and it is an alternative to having local servers handle applications. Cloud computing is a way of 

managing large numbers of highly virtualized resources and control the delivery of services on 

these to meet the user consuming model requirements while allowing elastic scaling and cost 

reduction. The key characteristic of a cloud is that the user does not have to own the resources 

required to deliver the service. Services are delivered by the Cloud as a commodity. In a sense it 

is very similar to electricity. The user does not have to know how electricity is produced; it is 

just delivered to the user’s location by the network of an electricity distributor and it is available 

when needed. 

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Cloud computing groups together large numbers of compute servers and other resources and 

typically offers their combined capacity on an on-demand, pay-per-cycle basis. The end users of 

a cloud computing network usually have no idea where the servers are physically located – they 

just spin up their application and start working. Cloud architecture is an architecture built with 

commodity hardware and virtualization. 

Services are segmented in three layers where infrastructure, platforms or software is being 

provisioned. Therefore, components of cloud computing include dynamic delivery of IT services 

in the form of applications (Software as a Service), platform services (Platform as a Service) and 

infrastructure services (Infrastructure as a Service). A key aspect in cloud computing is that 

customers do not buy the software application, platform, and underlying infrastructure. Instead, 

they can lease the cloud computing services temporarily and then return them. The three blocks 

– SaaS, PaaS and IaaS – should not be looked at in isolation: they have mutual 

interrelationships that have to be taken into account in forming business models. 

To support the Federal Cloud Computing Direction and Deployment Approach, the ITI Line of 

Business PMO has been refocused as the Cloud Computing PMO. 

Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Guidance 

The goal of the Identity, Credential, and Access Management Subcommittee (ICAMSC) of the 

CIO Council is to establish a consolidated approach for all government-wide identity, credential 

and access management activities and thus promote alignment, clarity, and interoperability. The 

ICAMSC has developed guidance for Federal agencies to provide agencies with architecture and 

implementation guidance that addresses existing ICAM concerns and issues they face daily. The 

benefits associated with implementation of ICAM are summarized below: 

• Increased security, which correlates directly to reduction in identity theft, data breaches, 

and trust violations. Specifically, ICAM closes security gaps in the areas of user 

identification and authentication, encryption of sensitive data, and logging and auditing. 

•	 Compliance with laws, regulations, and standards as well as resolution of issues
 

highlighted in GAO reports of agency progress. 

• Improved interoperability, specifically between agencies using their PIV credentials 

along with other partners carrying PIV-interoperable2 or third party credentials that meet 

the requirements of the federal trust framework. Additional benefits include minimizing 

the number of credentials requiring lifecycle management. 

•	 Enhanced customer service, both within agencies and with their business partners and 

constituents. Facilitating secure, streamlined, and user-friendly transactions – including 

information sharing – translates directly into improved customer service scores, lower 

help desk costs, and increased consumer confidence in agency services. 

•	 Elimination of redundancy, both through agency consolidation of processes and 

workflow and the provision of government-wide services to support ICAM processes. 

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This results in extensibility of the IT enterprise and reduction in the overall cost of 

security infrastructure. 

• Increase in protection of personally identifiable information (PII) by consolidating 

and securing identity data, which is accomplished by locating identity data, improving 

access controls, proliferating use of encryption, and automating provisioning processes. 

The National Information Exchange Model 

The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is a local, state, tribal, and Federal 

interagency initiative providing a foundation for seamless information exchange. NIEM is a 

framework to: 

•	 Bring stakeholders and communities of interest (COIs) together to identify information 

sharing requirements in day-today operational and emergency situations 

•	 Develop standards, a common lexicon, and an online repository of information exchange 

package documents to support information sharing 

•	 Provide technical tools to support development, discovery, dissemination, and reuse of 

exchange documents 

•	 Provide training, technical assistance, and implementation support services for enterprisewide information exchange 

NIEM is a mechanism to facilitate the standardization of data exchanged between disparate 

systems. It is an object-oriented data model instantiated as XML schema that is composed of 

reusable components and is designed to facilitate disparate government and private entities in 

exchanging information quickly, accurately, and reliably. The NIEM architecture allows 

information to be modeled using components within NIEM and from external standards, with 

both types of components being usable side by side. 

NIEM provides reusable components and Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) 

for exchanges across NIEM domains. An IEPD is a complete definition of an Information 

Exchange Package (IEP). It is generally composed of schemas (for data exchange) and 

documentation (for understanding the business context and usage). 

Service Oriented Integration 

Service-oriented integration (SOI) integrates computing entities using only service interactions in 

a service oriented architecture. Service oriented integration addresses problems with integrating 

legacy and inflexible heterogeneous systems by enabling IT organizations to offer the 

functionality locked in existing applications as reusable services. SOI is the application of 

service oriented architecture principles to build an integration facility. This integration facility 

does not have to be part an SOA, but implementing an SOI style integration layer provides a 

good foundation for implementing an SOA. 

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There are several important aspects of SOI. SOI is an architectural style that requires a service 

provider, a service requester, and a service description. It is also a set of architectural principles, 

patterns, and criteria that address characteristics such as modularity, encapsulation, loose 

coupling, reuse, and compos-ability. 

SOI can be used to integrate both SOA and non-SOA applications. When SOI is used to 

integrate non-SOA applications, business functions are exposed as services using the service 

adapter pattern. Additionally, SOI does not require an enterprise-wide transformation – SOI can 

be implemented in individual projects and will show business benefit. 

After SOI has been adopted, an organization can begin incrementally adopting SOA. Once 

established, SOI lowers the cost to add new interfaces and to modify existing interfaces. New 

interfaces are easier to add because an established SOI implementation has a reusable base of 

integration services. Existing interfaces are easier to modify because SOI separates the areas that 

change from the base of integration services. Because SOI can be implemented over a variety of 

integration middleware products, it probably can start with software that an organization already 

owns. Additionally, SOI can leverage existing infrastructure without requiring an infrastructure 

“rip-and-replace”. 

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Appendix B: List of Federal Standards, Mandates, Guidelines, and 

Directives 

Executive Branch Standards, Directives, and Guidance 

•	 E-Gov directives, 

•	 OMB’s passback requirements for FY 2011 

•	 OMB Circular A-130, Federal Transition Framework (FTF) 

•	 Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Guidance from the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) including Circulars A-11, A-127, and A-130 

•	 Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12): Policy for a Common Identity 

Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors 

•	 OMB Memoranda (M 04-04, M 05-24, M 06-16, and M 07-16) 

Congressional Legislation, Standards and Directives 

•	 Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Clinger-Cohen), 

•	 the E-Government Act of 2002, 

•	 the Government Performance Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), 

•	 EA maturity assessments performed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and 

OMB. 

•	 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 

•	 Privacy Act of 1974 

Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and Implementation 

Guidance 

Enterprise Architecture Segment Report (EASR), Interim Version 1.3, September 2009, OMB 

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 

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Appendix C: Glossary 

Term Definition 

Access Control The service component that allows HR LOB a set of capabilities 

that support the management of permissions for logging onto a 

computer or network. 

Application Program 

Interface (API) 

Set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow 

to communicate with each other. It serves as an interface between 

different software programs and facilitates their interaction, 

similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction 

between humans and computers. 

Business Reference Model 

(BRM) 

An architectural model that describes the HR LOB from a 

functional perspective in terms of functions, sub-functions, and 

business processes. 

Change Management The set of capabilities that control the process for updates or 

modifications to the existing documents, software or business 

processes within HR LOB solution. 

Cloud Computing The computing paradigm in which IT-related capabilities are 

provided “as a service”, allowing users to access technologyenabled services from the Internet ("in the cloud") without 

knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology 

infrastructure that supports them. 

Concept of Operations 

(CONOPS) 

A document describing the characteristics of a proposed system 

from the viewpoint of an individual who will use that system. It 

is used to communicate the quantitative and qualitative system 

characteristics to all stakeholders. 

Conceptual Architecture The abstraction for a domain (Enterprise, or Organization, or Line 

of Business, or Solution) that identifies the architecture 

components such as processes, services, and data and 

interconnections between these components at conceptual level 

without logical and operational details. 

Configuration Management The set of capabilities that control the hardware and software 

environments, as well as documents within HR LOB solution. 

Content Management The service component that creates, revises, and manages content 

regarding policy, business rules, processes etc. for publication 

into the knowledge base. 

Cross-cutting Service 

Components 

Service components that allow the collaborative usage across 

organizations, lines of businesses and domains. 

Data Model (DM) An architectural model that describes how data is represented and 

accessed. It formally defines data objects and relationships among 

data objects for a domain of interest. 

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Distributed Management 

Task Force (DMTF) 

The organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate 

on systems management standards development, validation, 

promotion and adoption. 

Enterprise Information Any kind of computing system that is of "enterprise class". This 

System (EIS) means typically offering high quality of service, dealing with 

large volumes of data and capable of supporting some large 

organization ("an enterprise"). 

Enterprise Service Bus 

(ESB) 

A software architecture model used for designing and 

implementing the interaction and communication between 

mutually interacting software applications in Service Oriented 

Architecture. Its primary use is in Enterprise Application 

Integration of heterogeneous and complex landscapes. 

Federal Enterprise A collection of inter-related “reference models” designed to 

Architecture (FEA) facilitate cross-agency analysis and opportunities for 

collaboration. The FEA reference models can be easily integrated 

along business lines, providing a foundation for ComponentBased Architecture design. 

Federal Identity and Access Set of documents that provide the Federal Government with 

Management (FICAM) standardized controls around identity and access management. 

FICAM Roadmap and Implementation Guidance11 document 

provides agencies with architecture and implementation guidance 

that addresses existing ICAM concerns. This document presents 

the Federal Government with a common framework and 

implementation guidance needed to plan and execute ICAM 

programs. 

Franchise Funds Funds that are government-run, self-supporting businesslike 

enterprises managed by federal employees. Franchise funds 

provide a variety of common administrative services, such as 

payroll processing, information technology support, employee 

assistance programs, public relations, and contracting. 

Infrastructure as a Service 

(IaaS) 

The capability provided to the consumer to provision processing, 

storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources 

where the consumer is able to deploy and run software such as 

operating systems and network applications. The consumer does 

not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has 

control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, 

and possibly limited control of select networking components 

(e.g., host firewalls). 

11 Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and Implementation Guidance Version 

1 – CIO Council, November 2009 

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Integration Services The software services that enable elements of distributed business 

applications to work as one unit. These elements can share 

function, content, and communications across heterogeneous 

computing environments. In particular, service integration offers 

a set of architecture services such as platform and service location 

transparency, transaction management, basic messaging between 

two points, and guaranteed message delivery. 

Interoperability Services The software services that define the capabilities of discovering 

and sharing data and services across disparate systems and 

vendors. 

Innovation Center A place, a forum, and a resource center dedicated to developing 

and testing ideas for business and technology. It is an enriching 

environment where sharing space, business basics and 

collaborative creativity will cultivate new ideas, transforming 

them into reality. 

Lightweight Directory An application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed 

Access Protocol (LDAP) directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) 

network. LDAP is both an information model and a protocol for 

querying and manipulating it. It is an open industry standard that 

defines a standard method for accessing and updating information 

in a directory. 

Local Area Network (LAN) A computer network that interconnects computers in a limited 

area such as home, school, computer laboratory or office building. 

Message Oriented Software or hardware infrastructure supporting sending and 

Middleware (MOM) receiving messages between distributed systems. MOM allows 

application modules to be distributed over heterogeneous 

platforms and reduces the complexity of developing applications 

that span multiple operating systems and network protocols. The 

middleware creates a distributed communications layer that 

insulates the application developer from the details of the various 

operating system and network interfaces. 

Performance Model (PM) An enterprise architectural model that articulates the linkage 

between internal business components and the achievement of 

business and customer-centric outputs. 

Plug and Play Describes a computer's ability to have new devices, normally 

peripherals, added to it without having to reconfigure or load 

device drivers for the new card. This term is also used in the 

software industry to describe how applications, services and other 

software-based applications can be swapped in and out with little 

or no reconfiguration to existing applications. 

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Quality of Service (QoS) A method to guarantee a bandwidth relationship between 

individual applications or protocols. Quality of service is the 

ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, 

or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a 

data flow. The QoS is also defined as the set of techniques to 

manage network resources. 

Service Component Model An enterprise architectural model that identifies and classifies 

(SCM) horizontal and vertical service components supporting Federal 

agencies and their IT investments and assets. It also defines how 

these services are delivered to the user. 

Service Data Objects (SDO) A technology that allows heterogeneous data to be accessed in a 

uniform way in a service-oriented architecture. The SDO 

specification was originally developed in 2004 as a joint 

collaboration between BEA and IBM and approved by the Java 

Community Process. SDO offers a convenient way to work with 

XML documents. 

Service Level Agreement 

(SLA) 

A negotiated agreement between two parties, where one is the 

customer and the other is the service provider. It is part of a service 

contract where the level of service is formally defined. In practice, 

the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery 

time (of the service) or performance. The SLA records a common 

understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, 

guarantees, and warranties. 

Service Oriented Integration 

(SOI) 

An architectural style which requires a service provider, a service 

requester, and a service description. SOI is a set of architectural 

principles, patterns, and criteria which address characteristics 

such as modularity, encapsulation, loose coupling, separation of 

concerns, reuse, and compose-ability. SOI is also a programming 

model with tools and technologies, such as Web Services. 

Software as a Service 

(SaaS) 

The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s 

applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications 

are accessible from various client devices through a thin client 

interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email).The 

consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud 

infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, 

storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the 

possible exception of limited user-specific application 

configuration settings. 

Stateless Service A service is stateless when it is not consuming memory related to 

the temporary storage and processing of state data. Whether or 

not a service enters into a stateless condition is determined by the 

functionality of the service capability that was invoked. 

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Technical Model (TM) An enterprise architecture component that is a component-driven, 

technical framework. The TM categorizes the standards and 

technologies to enable and support the delivery of service 

components and capabilities. It also unifies existing agency 

technical models and E-Gov guidance by providing a foundation 

to advance the reuse and standardization of technology and 

Service Components from a governmentwide perspective. 

Virtualization The creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, 

such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device 

or network resources. 

Virtual Private Network 

(VPN) 

A method of computer networking – typically using the public 

internet – that allows users to privately share information between 

remote locations, or between a remote location and a business' 

home network. 

eXtensible Markup 

Language (XML) 

A set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. 

It is a computer language for describing information and 

exchanging information between computer systems. 

XML Payload The XML document containing the essential data that is being 

carried within a packet, or a message protocol. 

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