Abstract: The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 directs the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of major Departments and Agencies to develop, maintain, and facilitate the implementation of an Information Technology (IT) Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a means of integrating agency goals and business processes with IT. In addition, the Clinger-Cohen Act gives the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the authority to ensure good IT performance at agencies, by enforcing performance accountability by using the EA. OMB has stated that without an EA, all government agencies are at risk of not having new initiatives funded.

The NWS EA shows the relationships between the organization's Strategic Goals/ Mission/ Principles/Initiatives, the Enterprise Architecture, and the IT Capital Planning and Investment Control Process. It provides executive managers with increase understanding of the IT Capital Planning and Investment Control process and control of its IT portfolio. It ultimately serves as the Life Cycle Model for the enterprise.

The NWS EA will be used to support the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) in achieving it's goals by serving as a comprehensive blueprint. This blueprint will assist in the development of newly proposed AWIPS initiatives by identifying gaps that exist between the current and target architectures and by providing an optimum solution for transition.

The NWS EA will yield a number of by-products, including the identification of redundant IT systems and the creation of a more standard and easier to manage IT infrastructure, which in turn provides assistance in the capital planning and decision making process and promotes economic efficiencies.