The Department of Veteran’s Affairs Enterprise Architecture (VA EA) Program is established in accordance with the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-106) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, “Management of Federal Information Resources,” which require the establishment and maintenance of an Enterprise Architecture. VA Directive 6051, "Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) Enterprise Architecture" establishes the Department-wide VA Enterprise Architecture, as well as the role of the VA Chief Architect to steward VA's EA program.
The VA EA Program establishes a disciplined approach for:
For the EA Program to be successful, the VA EA focuses on obtaining, structuring, and making visible content that describes VA’s strategies and objectives, mission and business activities, information, systems and applications, security solutions, and supporting technologies. VA considers the VA EA as the foundation of its VA EA Program and evolves it based on the eight basic elements identified in the CAF that must be present in an agency EA program – governance, principles, method, tools, standards, use, reporting, and audit – and the strategic drivers that affect its content.
The VA EA Scope illustration below provides a conceptual depiction of the breadth of information to be made available via the VA EA. The VA envisions its Enterprise Architecture as the mechanism for creating and housing the aggregation and alignment of its strategic, operational, and technology domains of information.