OMB closes FEAMS for Core.gov

• By Jason Miller
• Apr 03, 2006

The Office of Management and Budget's Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office is shutting down one IT project repository that wasn't being used in favor of another that is hardly being used.

OMB chief architect Richard Burk told agency chief architects last week that the agency IT investment repository known as the Federal EA Management System will be replaced by the Component Organization and Registration Environment Web repository, at Core.gov.

'Based on the last year's usage rates, and discussions about the costs and value of the online application, FEAMs.gov will be deactivated as of April 30, 2006,' Burk said in an e-mail to chief architects. 'For information on government service components available for agencies to use, register at CORE.gov, the cross-agency forum for component development, registration and reuse.'

FEAMS will remain in operation until April 30, Burk said.

OMB had high hopes for FEAMS, based on a Housing and Urban Development Department system to track IT investments. It had gone through a last round of testing in September 2004, but agencies never found it useful or user friendly.

But Core.gov, which the CIO Council launched in March 2004, hasn't caught on with agencies either. Just recently, the site offered free user training classes at the end of March, and the council published operational procedures for how to use the repository.

The CIO Council also has plans to retool Core.gov to make it more useful, Burk has said.