JIS Architecture and Implementation Program

The success of criminal justice information technology (IT) projects often depends on strong leadership and coordination at the state level. Without it, projects can become fragmented, as diverging priorities and budget factors may outweigh a more strategic approach that meets state and national needs for information sharing and interoperability. Advancements in technology enable agencies at all levels of government to improve operations and save costs, but the full adoption of national standards and evidence-based practices is essential to realize the full benefits of those advancements. This Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) project will promote the use of evidence-based practices in data sharing, privacy protection, security, and interoperability at the state level through engagement of the State Administering Agency (SAA) community, and foster state leadership and coordination of IT investments that support justice information sharing. The project will not only help improve implementation strategies for information sharing at the local, county, state, and tribal levels, but also maximize the impact of BJA grant funding to those jurisdictions, as well as ensure that national policy efforts are being adequately informed by stakeholders across the justice system. The SAA is an agency within a state and designated by the Governor to have the authority to accept criminal justice funding on behalf of that state. The SAA has a unique role to identify criminal justice issues, coordinate programs, conduct planning activities, develop policy, and support implementation initiatives. The grantee must have demonstrated a past history in the successful ability to work in close partnership with the SAA of each state and territory to inform them of project activities and validate outcomes.

The SEARCH Group, Incorporated will provide helpful guidance on implementing justice information exchanges through service-oriented architecture, federated identity management, and other standards-based approaches. However, implementation experience indicates that justice practitioners need expert guidance as they begin to use the toolkit in their own projects and derivative architectures. Generally, after receiving focused technical assistance, they are able to progress well on their own. The project will address this need with a comprehensive training and technical assistance program, consisting of the following goals and deliverables: Twelve (12) in-depth Global Reference Architecture (GRA) implementation technical assistance (TA) engagements and up to six (6) targeted TA engagements that provide more focused guidance and hands-on help to jurisdictions nationwide that are committed to using the GRA and GISST; collaboration with national partners and BJA on the Global Standards Council (GSC) and related workgroups, to ensure that TA engagements remain aligned with the very latest GSC direction and thinking, and so that the GSC may benefit from lessons learned during the TA engagements; development and publication of up to four (4) publications (whitepapers, technical briefs, podcasts, etc.) that support the work of the GSC and related workgroups and/or disseminate lessons learned or promising practices to the national community; and, continued support for the JIEM® methodology and tool, including certifying new users and integrating the methodology with other business process and information modeling methodologies. CA/NCF