Angry Architect

This book is about IT Architecture and is a methodology based on a technical five domain framework; Applications, Information, Network, Platform and Operations. It addresses each providing pretty much the currently accepted practices for each domain.

This means that over time the book will probably not age that well, but it is a fairly sound summary of the current state of play. It includes areas and concepts like wireless, ESBs, ODS and even SOA and virtualization, in a concise but not very detailed way.  After all it is only 180 pages and there would be books with more  pages on every one of these topics.

The  philosophy of  blending  “strict rigor and organic innovation”  sets this book a little at odds with the Euro architects, but it does produce an easy reading and informative text.  The book opens with the all too common Why EA? sell chapter;  in which he covers off the usual agility verses cohesion issues.  However, I think it is in the next two chapters on Architectural Principles and Governance in which the book makes its real contribution.

Principles seem to be a problem for a lot of architects. Particularly, connecting them in a meaningful way to the design and development domains. This book offers what may be the best twenty odd pages linking business models and strategy to principles that I’ve seen written for the layman.  He goes on to back this up with a simple, but better than average chapter on governance.  In which he rather timidly pokes a stick at the “managerial behavior” elephant. I can almost feel him constraining his frustration to the suggestion of a few metrics for the architectural review board’s performance. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much to say about handling architectural exceptions, but then again not many authors do.

This is a good book, current, and easily read,  a little lightweight and while some sections will with time become obsolete others contain sound advice obviously born of experience.  Not deeply technical or academic it is a more than a fair attempt to bridge the business IT divide. I think most architects would find something useful in this book.

Reese, Richard J. (2008), I/T Architecture in Action, Tyler Westcott

ISBN 978-1- 4363-0505-1



This book really is about Enterprise Architecture with the emphasis on the enterprise and not the IT architecture. Written by a frustrated practitioner it offers a cohesive while perhaps not as comprehensive as one might like methodology in a very compact 130 + pages including glossary.

The book starts with devastatingly simple proposition that “Enterprise-architecture is the integration of everything the enterprise is and does.” It works for me. The first chapter establishes the methods framework a twenty five cell structure that maps Purpose, People, Preparation, Process and Performance drawn from a project management methodology against five “sideways views”. These are Efficient, Reliable, Elegant, Appropriate and Integrated. While I kind of get the 5 Ps I kind of missed the “sideways views”. I mean Elegant?

The lack of a foundational theory and the immediate progression to a framework is a little alarming particularly when the rest of the book is then dedicated to filling out the framework. Twenty five cells in about 120 pages (less than five pages a cell) with I must say a reasonable amount of white space at the end of many of the sections. Not surprisingly, there is not much meat to the tools and techniques used to fill out the cells.

Given its size this volume was never going to be much more than a set of architect’s notes. But putting that aside and being impressed with it not giving into the temptation of becoming an IT architecture book, I have to be positive about this book. Small, concise and perhaps a little overawed by the concept of recursion this book tackles EA without falling for the IT trap.

This is a book as it says itself for chief officers, strategists and programme managers and I agree with that. This is not the book to start your collection with and probably isn’t that much use to the average IT focused corporate architect. And frankly it’s a bit pricey for what it is. But, is it worth a slot in your EA library? I’d have to give it a reserved yes. Not wishing to damn it with faint praise, it is what it is.

Graves, Tom (2008), Real Enterprise Architecture, Tetradian Books, Colchester

ISBN 978-1-906681-00-5

Initially you’d have to question reviewing this book as an EA book at all; although some enterprise architects need to be reminded that ultimately EA is about software. This book is really aimed at software developers who want to market a product, in the authors own words, “single-user programs costing less than $50″. I’ve not read much in this space so I’m not that good a judge, but its seems a competent work to me.

Hohmann’s developers are not the typical corporate IT department software developers encountered in architecture books. But, here’s the EA angle, there are lessons to be learned from this market driven software development viewpoint.

Hohmann’s search for a winning solution constantly connects his software development strategy to business imperatives and it is this search for a greater context that makes this book worth a look. His thoughts on the forces that shape software architecture, “marketecture”, market maturity, usability, training, education, user communities, product releases, upgrading and patch management are as valid for an internal corporate audience as they are for the open market.

Not surprisingly the book spends some effort on the commercial issues of COTS software like licensing and business models which might help you understand your vendors better, but won’t be of much use to the average corporate architect.

This book is for small scale software developers who want to produce software that resonates with their target market. This is not an EA book, but having said that I’m of the firm belief that no one has a mortage on good ideas and that a good architect reads eclectically. So if you are involved with developing software either within your organization or for the general market then borrow a friends copy for the weekend.

Hohmann, Luke (2004) Beyond Software Architecture, Signature Series, Addison-Wesley, Boston

ISBN 0-20-177594-8

This is an interesting book. In a curious way it is almost devoid of an underlying theory, something I’ve criticized many methods and books for and yet it maintains a cohesion that is difficult to fault.

This book is about models, decision and analysis techniques and that makes it quite a rare and useful volume. I am frequently dismayed by the poor analytical skills of architects that I encounter day to day. This book has the analysis process and its management as its central theme and manages to do it without becoming overly academic which is a bit of a triumph.

Think EA meets operations research and you’ll start to get a feel for a book dedicated to rational (no not the IBM brand) enterprise information systems management. This is EA as decision support for the CIO.

It discusses strategic issues like goal setting and decision alternatives and domain definition. It then takes these goals and breaks them down into properties and provides techniques for collecting evidence; a practice that isn’t as well developed as one would expect in many organizations.

The authors support this approach with a huge number of simple, but thought provoking models just the kind of thing you need to get you working on your problems. My favorite is the credibility of evidence model. There’s a section on intuitive EA assessment in which they manage to give the process a lot more structure and logic than the usual rubbish that passes for intuitive analysis. And the section on organizing for EA actually has more content than is apparent on first inspection. But you’ll have to work your way through the models. Based on COBIT the EA as a process approach reminds me a lot of Spewak and Hill with the same directness and perhaps a similar failing to grapple with social realities.

The book only credits two authors on the cover however I counted about adozen contributors. The writting is clear concise if somewhat bland typical “Euro Architecture” style, but at 300 pages not too hard a read. This is not the book to base your practice on, it’s not strong on governance or business integration. However, it is one of the best technique books you’ll find. This is the sort of book that you’ll reference more than read. Not a book for beginners or managers but obviously worth its place on your bookshelf.

Johnson, Pontus and Ekstedt Mathias (2007), Enterprise Architecture, Studentlitteratur AB, Lund,  Sweden

ISBN 978-91-44-02752-4

This is a small book with big ambitions. At only a little over 140 pages it is by EA standards a modest volume. But that shouldn’t put you off.

The book presents a surprisingly comprehensive approach to EA with a simple and yet well structured theoretical foundation and enough practical detail to make it credible without overwhelming the novice.

Written as a text book for an architectural course it consists of four main sections. These include the usual explanation for why we need EA, updated for the global economy and a little more stakeholder centric than the usual effort. Followed by “positioning EA” which is actually more like defining and describing EA and then two sections on the execution of EA.

One of these is the now a days almost obligatory case study / example, typically the refuge of people who can’t actually explain what they mean. My initial reaction was to reach for the phone, order a pizza and turn on the football. But, surprisingly the situation was saved by an example with some real meat.  Not only do the authors demonstrate their points, but they manage to connect them to both their own technique and broader well know concepts like Zachman’s framework; all without becoming arcane. In 30 odd pages they deliver more value for the architect than many complete books.

They follow these sections up with a topic that should be getting more air play than it is “The Enterprise Architect”. It seems that these days every man and his dog is an architect, frankly I wouldn’t feed many of them. But, having said that it’s no easy matter deciding what makes an architect. Well, this book has a good go at answering that question and even if you don’t agree with the them  there is a certain order and cohesion to their argument that must be respected.

This is a crisp clean work written in “Euro Architecture” style, which is not surprising given its origins. It will work for architects at all levels and will add value to any bookshelf.  Recommended.

Opt’land, Martin, Proper, Erik, Waage, Maarten, Cleo, Jeroen, Steghuis, Claidia 2009, “Enterprise Architecture”, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

ISBN 978-3-540-85232-2

I don’t like buying the same thing twice. On first inspection one might think that was what one was doing. This new edition of a book we’ve already reviewed will look familiar to those who have the previous volume; even the number of pages in each section is similar.

I’m also suspicious of later releases that are substantially bigger than the original work; the previous edition weighs in at 220+ pages while this work has stacked on another 130 pages. Which you would think is a bit of a warning sign, but it wears it surprisingly well. I didn’t feel like it was that much of an imposition. In fact, its a feature of the book how already succinct sections have actually been trimmed even further allowing more room for the expansion of the important stuff.

While maintaining the orientation of the original work Grigoriu has addressed the short comings of the previous edition. His framework is now much more securely seated in the foundations of Zachman and Spewak without losing that business process and organizational focus that made the original work  stand out.  Something that’s not easy to achieve.

While the book takes a cursory look at the usual framework suspects it does so mainly to establish its own credentials. The bulk of the new material is not surprisingly an elaboration of Function, Flow Layer and Views (FFLV) Framework and the result is coming of age, a framework that can punch it out with the best of them! The bar has been raised and if you’re not one of the TOGAF mind slaves the FFLV has to be a serious contender. Accept its business process focus and use something else for the more abstract end of business strategy, but for the mechanics of execution this could be it.

I think it’s fair to say that this is the book that Grigoriu always wanted to write and that its production has been a bit of a journey, but the best things always take time. I criticized the previous edition for not being as complete as it should have been, well that’s been answered and while nothing is ever perfect I found myself thinking I’ve got to get a copy of this!

This is not a book for managers. This is a book for architects. It’s a good set of alternative views in an alarmingly increasingly monoclonal world. This book will extend most architects’ horizons, experienced or novice and is a worthy successor to the previous edition. It’s time to upgrade your library. This could be the “little black book of EA”.

Grigoriu, Adrian (2009), An Enterprise Architecture Development Framework 3^rd Edition , Trafford Publishing, Victoria, British Columbia.

ISBN 141208665-5

When you read a book where do you start? I always start at the back, the back cover to be precise. There was a certain familiar ring to what I read on this occasion. See if you can pick it? “There has never been a TOGAF Guide like this. 100 Success Secrets is not about the ins and outs of TOGAF. Instead, it answers the top 100 questions that we were asked and those we came across in forums, …”

Almost instantly I dived for my copy of Enterprise Architecture 100 Success Secrets, and there on the back cover it was. “There has never been an Enterprise Architecture manual like this. 100 Success Secrets is not about the ins and outs of Enterprise Architecture.” At this point they removed a blank line to make it a little less obvious and continued. “Instead, it answers the top 100 questions that we were asked and those we came across in forums, …”

Same author I thought, Gerard Blokdijk and Boyce Raynard, apparently not. Same publisher I thought, hard to tell, I couldn’t find the accreditation. I’d suggest that one of these gentlemen should be acknowledging the other or that possibly they are the same person. But, I don’t know why one might expect that from someone with such a cavalier attitude to IP and copyright. Interestingly, page 11 in both volumes is blank, same manuscript perhaps?

I’ve had my say about EA 100 Sucks Secrets and it applies equally to this con job. With one addition, typically I don’t like to criticize the quality of language in a book, after all many works are translated and many of the best EA writers are not native English speakers. Besides its banal content, this is without doubt the most appallingly written EA book I have come across. I’m left with the distinct impression that it was written by someone whose command of English leaves something to be desired, like someone else to do the writing. Grammatically challenged and logically incoherent. I suspect each topic is restricted to about a page to limit the amount of damage it can do.

I could go on about why would one have a section on Enterprise Architect 6.1, 6.5 and 7.0 as well as sections about downloading it?  Or ask why is there a section dedicated to the difference between a CV and a Resume?  But,  I can’t be bothered shredding this rubbish.  But, that’s just my opinion.

At this point I usually give the ISBN and publisher details, but it’s really not worth the effort.