This is a DRAFT STREAMLINED COPY of the proposed updates to the GC Enterprise Architecture Framework(formerly GC EA Standards) for assessment
In the past few weeks, the GC EA team has re-reviewed and streamlined all the inputs received from the various SMEs and departments and came up with the below proposed streamlined copy of the Architecture Assessment framework. The remaining input will be placed into an upcoming GC EA Playbook/Guidelines. This proposed streamlined updates will be going another iteration of reviews with the SMEs.
Changes from the previous version are marked as underlined and new additions are marked as italic and underlined
The draft list of questions associated with the new standards can be found here
The GC Enterprise Architecture standard is part of the Directive on Service and Digital. It is listed as Appendix A - Mandatory Procedures for Enterprise Architecture Assessment in the Directive.
To view more detailed info on each point listed below, you can click on the top title for each of the Architecture layer, OR any of the blue link below.
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1. Business Architecture
Fulfill the Government of Canada users and other stakeholder's needs
- Clearly identify internal and external users and other stakeholders and their needs for each policy, program and business service
- Include policy requirement applying to specific users and other stakeholder groups, such as accessibilities, gender based+ analysis, and official languages in the creation of the service
- Model end-to-end business service delivery to provide quality, maximize effectiveness and optimize efficiencies across all channels (e.g lean process)
Architect to be Outcome Driven and Strategically Aligned to the Department and to the Government of Canada
- Identify which departmental/GC business services, outcomes and strategies will be addressed
- Establish metrics for identified business outcomes throughout the lifecycle of an investment
- Translate business outcomes and strategy into business capability implications in the GC Business Capability Model to establish a common vocabulary between business, development, and operation
Promote Horizontal Enablement of the Enterprise
- Identify opportunities to enable business services horizontally across the GC enterprise and to provide cohesive experience to users and other stakeholders
- Reuse common business capabilities, processes and enterprise solutions from across government and private sector
- Publish in the open all reusable common business capabilities, processes and enterprise solutions for others to develop and leverage cohesive horizontal enterprise services
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2. Information Architecture
Collect data to address the needs of the users and other stakeholders
- Assess data requirements based on users and other stakeholder needs
- Collect only the minimum set of data needed to support a policy, program, or service
- Reuse existing data assets and only acquire new data if required
- Ensure data collected, including from third party sources, are of high quality
Manage data strategically and responsibly
- Define and establish clear roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data management
- Identify and document the lineage of data assets
- Define retention and disposition schedules in accordance with business value as well as applicable privacy and security policy and legislation
- Ensure data are managed to enable interoperability, reuse and sharing to the greatest extent possible within and across departments in government to avoid duplication and maximize utility, while respecting security and privacy requirements
- Contribute to and align with enterprise and international data taxonomy and classification structures to manage, store, search and retrieve data
Use and share data openly in an ethical and secure manner
- Share data openly by default as per the Directive on Open Government and Digital Standards, while adhering to existing enterprise and international standards, including on data quality and ethics
- Ensure data formatting aligns to existing enterprise and international standards on interoperability. Where none exist, develop data standards in the open with key subject matter experts, in consultation with the Enterprise Data Community of Practice
- Ensure that combined data does not risk identification or re-identification of sensitive or personal information
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3. Application Architecture
Use Open Source Solutions hosted in Public Cloud
- Select existing solutions that can be reused over custom built
- Contribute all improvements back to the communities
- Register Open Source software to the Open Resource Exchange
Use Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted in Public Cloud
- Choose SaaS that best fit for purpose based on alignment with SaaS capabilities
- Choose a SaaS solution that is extendable
- Configure SaaS and if customization is necessary extend as Open Source modules
Design for Interoperability
- Design systems as highly modular and loosely coupled services
- Expose services, including existing ones, through APIs
- Make the APIs discoverable to the appropriate stakeholders
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4. Technology Architecture
Use Cloud first
- Adopt the Use of the GC Accelerators to ensure proper Security and Access Controls
- Enforce this order of preference: Software as a Service (SaaS) first, then Platform as a Service (PaaS), and lastly Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Fulfill Cloud Services through SSC Cloud Brokering Services
- Enforce this order of preference: Public cloud first, then Hybrid cloud, then Private cloud, and lastly non-cloud (on-premises) solutions
- Design for cloud mobility and develop an exit strategy to avoid vendor lock-in
Design for Performance, Availability, and Scalability
- Ensure response times meet user needs, and critical services are highly available
- Support zero-downtime deployments for planned and unplanned maintenance
- Use distributed architectures, assume failure will happen, handle errors gracefully, and monitor performance and behaviour actively
- Establish architectures that supports new technology insertion with minimal disruption to existing programs and services
- Control Technical Diversity - design systems based on modern technologies and platforms already in use.
Follow DevSecOps Principles
- Use continuous integration and continuous deployments (CI/CD)
- Ensure automated testing occurs for security and functionality
- Include your users and other stakeholders as part of DevSecOps process
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5. Security Architecture and Privacy
Build Security into the System Life Cycle, Across All Architectural Layers
- Identify and categorize information based on the degree of injury that could be expected to result from a compromise of its confidentiality, integrity and availability.
- Implement a continuous security approach, in alignment with CCCS’s IT Security Risk Management Framework. Perform threat modelling to minimize the attack surface by limiting services exposed and information exchanged to the minimum necessary.
- Apply proportionate security measures that address business and user needs while adequately protecting data at rest and data in transit.
- Design systems to be resilient and available in order to support service continuity.
Ensure Secure Access to Systems and Services
- Identify and authenticate individuals, processes and/or devices to an appropriate level of assurance, based on clearly defined roles, before granting access to information and services. Leverage enterprise services such as Government of Canada trusted digital identity solutions that are supported by the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework.
- Constrain service interfaces to authorized entities (users and devices), with clearly defined roles. Segment and separate information based on sensitivity of information, in alignment with ITSG-22 and ITSG-38. Management interfaces may require increased levels of protection.
- Implement HTTPS for secure web connections and DMARC for enhanced email security.
- Establish secure interconnections between systems through secure APIs or leveraging centrally managed Hybrid IT connectivity services.
Maintain Secure Operations
- Establish processes to maintain visibility of assets and ensure the prompt application of security-related patches and updates in order to reduce exposure to vulnerabilities, in accordance with GC Patch Management Guidance.
- Enable event logging, in accordance with GC Event Logging Guidance, and perform monitoring of systems and services in order to detect, prevent, and respond to attacks.
- Establish an incident management plan in alignment with the GC Cyber Security Event Management Plan (GC CSEMP) and report incidents to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS).
Privacy by Design
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