Enterprise Architecture Program for DMV CSI Systems Redesign Report

This report analyzes the application of Enterprise Architecture (EA) to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) CSI systems redesign. The DMV, facing fragmented processes across credentialing, tax processing, and financial management, aims to modernize its systems into a single, integrated platform. The report highlights how EA, as a structured blueprint, can align IT with business goals, standardize the IT environment, reduce costs, and increase agility. The report discusses key benefits such as improved system design and implementation, better business-IT alignment, enhanced requirements engineering, reduced IT complexity, and improved project management. It also references case studies of EA implementation in Dell and the healthcare system in India to demonstrate EA's effectiveness. The report emphasizes how EA facilitates the use of emerging and existing technologies to meet objectives, adhere to regulations, and ultimately transform the DMV's outdated systems into a more efficient and modernized environment. Agility and efficiency are presented as primary goals of the EA program. The report concludes that by leveraging EA, the DMV can achieve its goals of a streamlined, integrated, and modernized CSI system.

An enterprise architecture (EA) is a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and
operation of an organization. The intent of an enterprise architecture is to determine how an
organization can most effectively achieve its current and future objectives. Enterprise
Architecture has become one of the most popular and efficient ways that enables organizations to
use all technology and IT capabilities to support organization’s business goals and objectives.
Enterprise Architecture is a solution to standardize Information Technology environment, reduce
cost, and increase agility. In general, “enterprise architecture can be considered as a structured
and aligned collection of plans for the integrated representation of the business and information
technology (IT) landscape of the enterprise, in past, current, and future states” (Niemann, 2006).
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is a complex organization under the direction
of Secretary of Transportation and its most common services are: Credentialing, Tax processing,
and overnighting transportation safety and information management. Currently, each core
business area such as credentialing, tax processing, and financial management has its own
system and process. DMV has decided to redesign its CSI systems. The purpose of this redesign
is to put all the fragmented processing of DMV’s core business areas in one single modernized
system which is able to integrate the DMV processes while having full functionality. The new
system should interface to other system, such as DMV’s Purchasing, Inventory, and Virginia
Criminal Information Network (VCIN), DMV’s Human Resource system, Traffic Records
Electronic Data System (TREDS), and other related systems. The Enterprise Architecture
program is the best solution that can be used to move from the current outdated systems to the
new modernized system. In addition, EA program uses emerging technology as well as the
technology already in place to achieve all the Department of Motor Vehicle’s CSI redesign
objectives. Furthermore, EA program applies all necessary disciplines, policies, and standards to
meet laws and regulations.
Examples about how EA program can benefit DMV:
 Systems design and implementation: Currently, DMV has fragmented processes for core
business areas such as credentialing, tax processing, and final management. Enterprise

Architecture program can help to design and implement a single modernized system to put all
these processes and systems together.
 Business IT alignment: Using EA program ensures great understanding of DMV’s business
objectives such as consolidating different applications, providing a financial component,
enhancing better security, and by realizing DMV’s business goals EA program helps
organization to choose the best emerging technology in addition to the existing technology to
achieve DMV’s business goals.
 Requirements Engineering: Enterprise Architecture’s documentation helps to increase the
speed of collecting requirements information for the DMV’s CSI systems redesign from the
DMV’s users, customers and other stakeholders. In addition this documentation ensures the
requirements accuracy.
 IT complexity: Integrating all these DMV’s process and systems makes the new system very
complex. EA program helps to reduce the new system complexity as much as possible.
 Project management: EA defines each of the project stakeholder’s role and increase the
collaboration and communication between them.
One example is what Anjali Kaushik and Aparna Raman show in their study about how
EA is applied to the healthcare system in India. “An EA approach to health information system
development allows for important inter relationships to be identified including which
components need to be aligned to which parts and in so doing reduce the risks and incentives of
fragmentation, duplication and lack of interoperability” (Kaushik and Raman, 2015). Another
example shows how EA is being used in the Dell Company. Dell has been known as one of the
world’s major manufacturers of personal computers. The company uses its Enterprise
Architecture team to map out a future direction for the IT team with a three-year roadmap.
According to Dell, it uses EA to reach its corporate goals, the company needed to change its IT
infrastructure. This transformative process involved consolidating multi-national systems to
improve efficiency, reduce costs and enforce common standards (Baum, 2012).

EA program can be helpful for organizations such as DMV to transform their current
systems to better and modernized systems. In EA program, first the current stage (systems and
process) will be fully realized. Then EA guide the organization to use proper technology to reach
its business goals and objectives. Agility and efficiency are some of the EA’s main goals.

References:
Baum, D. (2012). IT Transformation at Dell. Retrieved September 1, 2015, from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/entarch/oea-dell-case-study-1521201.pdf
Kaushik, A., & Raman, A. (2015). The new data-driven enterprise architecture for e-healthcare:
Lessons from the Indian public sector. Government Information Quarterly, 32(1), 63-74.
Niemann, K.D. (2006) From Enterprise Architecture to IT Governance―Elements of Effective
IT Management, Wiesbaden, Germany.