This book is now quite old. However, Cook’s book remains a useful primer for those seeking a first understanding of Enterprise Architecture.
This is a small well written, easy to read volume. It tracks the history of Information Systems development and succinctly explains how we got where we are, the need to plan IT systems and the difference between distributed and decentralized computing.
While fundamentally sound, once she begins to talk about specific technologies the book’s age begins to show. I would suggest reading it until you encounter distributed data bases. Shortly, after that you’ll need to stop. Distributed databases are not the answer to all your problems! But by then you’ll have got the useful stuff out this book.
I’ve used this book successfully as an introduction for a number of people. If you don’t find it interesting then give up EA there and then; it only gets worse.
An aging, but still useful primer.
Cook, Melissa A. (1996), Building Enterprise Information Architectures Reengineering Information Systems, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey