2017 EA Hall of Fame Winner
 |
Congratulations to Mr. Kevin Wince!The 2016 EA Hall of Fame Award Winner |
Mr. Kevin Wince accepts his EA Hall of Fame award from Cort Coghill, FEAC's director of education operations.
Summary Description of Mr. Wince's contributions to the Enterprise Architecture practice, promotion or professionalism:
Kevin has demonstrated exceptional performance, fostering a climate that sustains excellence and optimizes results within GSA IT, across the entire Agency and throughout the Federal Government.
Kevin’s innovative approach to Enterprise Architecture has revolutionized how the business and technical sides of GSA communicate with each other. Starting in an environment with multiple EA tools, repositories and disparate architectures, Kevin has developed an environment where the EA stakeholders actively look at the same data at the same time to make investment decisions. As Kevin’s approach was gaining a following beyond GSA’s two main Services (the Public Buildings Service and Federal Acquisition Service), other external organizations began to take notice and ask to learn more. Kevin shared his approach with Chief Enterprise Architects (CEAs) from other Federal agencies, including USDA, DoE, and VA among many others. Kevin’s activities have even been noticed by the Federal CEA who has asked Kevin to help update the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework by leading the working group on Business Engagement. The Federal CIO has also noted Kevin’s accomplishments and has started promoting GSA as a leader in Federal EA.
Kevin continually spearheads EA efforts that address important federal goals. He is an inspirational leader and is considered a role model by agency leadership, peers, and employees. Kevin is a confident leader who encourages his employees to set goals to improve their skills, and then provides them the support to do so. He has fostered great connections within his team by collaborating with them on employee engagement actions, and he has also continuously improved as a leader by seeking out feedback and practicing active listening. To his credit he has established a high level of trust by demonstrating integrity in every facet of his job.
Under Kevin's leadership, the EA program has realized many accomplishments:
Enterprise Architecture - Kevin has turned EA at GSA into a flexible repository with a streamlined user experience. In addition to the traditional EA databases and metamodels, this EA highlights the business stakeholder’s needs and presents the information in a way that is simple and easy to follow. The GSA EA Analytics and Reporting (GEAR) web application is open to everyone at GSA, making the enterprise architecture transparent and available for inspection (and correction) by more than twelve thousand employees. Kevin is also responsive to the needs of the users, rapidly responding to requests for new reports or visualizations. He has designed his team to serve the needs of the stakeholders, often abandoning legacy practices in favor of open and useful collaboration.
Kevin has also been a tireless advocate for EA, both within GSA and across Federal agencies. His innovative approach and thought leadership has garnered the attention of other government and industry leaders.
- Developed an EA methodology that utilizes agile development practices to rapidly deliver business and IT data relevant to stakeholders in a way that is coherent, digestible and repeatable.
- Shared GSA’s EA methodology with CEAs and CIOs from other Federal and Local Agencies: Executive Office of President of the US, Office of Management and Budget (OMB); US Health and Human Services (HHS); US Department of Agriculture (USDA); Department of Energy (DOE); Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); Federal Health Architecture (FHA); Social Security Administration (SSA); US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR); US Corps of Engineers; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); and the Orlando Utilities Commission, Florida.
- Revamped GSA’s EA governing body, the Enterprise Architecture Committee (EARC), including a review of membership to incorporate business line participants, establishment of a new charter, and integration with enterprise IT governance.
- Renewed GSA’s involvement in the Chief Architect Forum (CAF) as an active member.
- Integrated EA with security operations to include security controls, automated Federal Information Security Act (FISMA) reports and Authority to Operate (ATO) renewal notices.
- Coordinated with GSA’s Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Program Manager and Senior Agency Official to integrate CUI data and relationships into the GSA EA.
- Initiated partnership with GSA senior leaders to develop an agency segment target architecture called the Common Acquisition Platform (CAP).
- Accepted an invitation to join the board of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM) to lead IT-related scholarship and federal intern opportunities for college-age students.
Application Rationalization - Understanding that EA data cannot be developed in a vacuum, Kevin created a team to help guide GSA’s business and technology stakeholders through a process called Application Rationalization. This methodology brings together the two worlds of business and technology and provides them with a process to communicate their portfolio needs in the same language. The detailed review process of Application Rationalization provides an incredible amount of clarity to assist in senior level investment review decisions. The freshly validated information is then incorporated into GSA’s enterprise architecture. Application Rationalization has resulted in the identification of cost avoidances, and in cost savings through reduced redundancy and elimination of applications across the organization. When sharing his methodology for EA with other agency’s CEAs and CIOs, Kevin has stressed the importance of understanding the needs of both the business and technology stakeholders, and that Application Rationalization has been GSA’s method of choice to accomplish this.
IT Standards - At the beginning of Kevin’s tenure at GSA, the process for managing the software inventory at GSA was struggling. While several different organizations within GSA IT recognized this need, no one group was able to fully institute control. Kevin was able to bring together the different divisions within GSA IT, as well as the business-support divisions, and bring maturity to the software standards approval process that brought everyone together for a coherent conversation. All software requests were vetted through GSA’s legal, security and Section 508 teams before being presented to the EARC for discussion and approval. Each department of interest was then able to participate in the evaluation of these requests, to ensure that there was no needless duplication, as well as spread awareness of different software offerings that may be advantageous beyond the initial request. Kevin chaired this organization until GSA appointed a full time Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The EARC model was so successful that the CTO requested that this organization remain in existence to provide that focus of agency-wide interest and participation.
- Established and led a process for reviewing and standardizing software acquisition to ensure that all purchases would adhere to legal, security and Section 508 requirements before being purchased.
- Established points-of-contact (POCs) and subject matter experts (SMEs) within architecture domains to review IT standards.
- Used metrics to drive decision making and establish customer service goals.
- Conducted monthly sprints with his IT Standards team to identify roadblocks and drive continuous process improvement.
IT Policy Management - With responsibility for overseeing all CIO policies, Kevin ensured there was little redundancy and no contradiction between 35+ different IT policies and that all of them remain current and relevant. GSA’s Directives Management Branch points other GSA offices to the CIO policies and GSA IT’s procedures as the model for success.
- Enhanced a formal and structured approval process for CIO policies allowing all organizations the chance to provide input, and to ensure timely completion.
- Stayed abreast of current technical and management issues to determine the need for new or updated directives.
- Improved the IT Standards process through a revised GSA-wide policy and strict implementation practices.
- Coordinated issuance of a new policy for the implementation of a GSA Enterprise IT Governance model.
Publications:
CIO Review, September 2016, Delivering Business Value through Agile EA
Awards and Nominations:
2016 GSA IT Award for Excellence in Teamwork
2016 iCMG Enterprise Architecture Award winner for IT Landscape and Rationalization
2015 GovEA Excellence in Enterprise Architecture Award winner for EA Driven Results
2015 iCMG Enterprise Architecture Award winner for IT Landscape Rationalization
2014 iCMG Enterprise Architecture Award winner for Enterprise GovernanceRecognized as finalist for Forrester Enterprise Architecture Awards 2014, 2015, and 2016
