The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has published a Business Reference Model as part of the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). The Federal Enterprise Architecture is a "business-based framework for cross-agency, government-wide improvement; it provides OMB and the Federal agencies with a new way of describing, analyzing, and improving the federal government and its ability to serve the citizen." The new BRM is a "function-driven framework for describing the business operations of the Federal Government independent of the agencies that perform them; it represents the first layer of the Federal Enterprise Architecture and it is the main viewpoint for the analysis of data, applications and technology. The BRM identifies three Business Areas that provide a high-level view of the operations the Federal Government performs. These three Business Areas comprise a total of 35 external and internal Lines of Business, representing the services and products the Federal Government provides to its citizens, together with with 137 Sub-Functions or lower level activities that Federal Agencies perform." The accompanying XML schema describes and defines the type of content including the entities, attributes, elements, and notation of the Federal Enterprise Architecture. An XML document supplies detailed descriptions for the federal business areas, lines of business, and sub-functions of the Federal Enterprise Architecture.

The Business Reference Model "BRM is a function-driven framework for describing the business operations of the Federal Government independent of the agencies that perform them... The BRM identifies three Business Areas that provide a high-level view of the operations the Federal Government performs. The three Business Areas comprise a total of 35 external and internal Lines of Business -- the services and products the Federal Government provides to its citizens; and 137 Sub-Functions -- the lower level activities that Federal Agencies perform... The Business Reference Model provides an organized, hierarchical construct for describing the day-to-day business operations of the Federal government. While many models exist for describing organizations - org charts, location maps, etc. -- this model presents the business using a functionally driven approach. The Lines of Business and Sub-functions that comprise the BRM represent a departure from previous models of the Federal government that use antiquated, stovepiped, agency-oriented frameworks. The BRM is the first layer of the Federal Enterprise Architecture and it is the main viewpoint for the analysis of data, applications and technology.

Background: "To facilitate efforts to transform the [US] Federal Government to one that is citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-based, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is developing the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), a business-based framework for Government-wide improvement. The FEA is being constructed through a collection of interrelated "reference models" designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across Federal Agencies. These models are defined as: [1] Business Reference Model (BRM); [2] Performance Reference Model (PRM); [3] Data and Information Reference Model (DRM); [4] Application Capability Reference Model (ARM); [5] Technical Reference Model (TRM)..."