You can always tell a book is having an impact when people create a short hand for its name Ross, Weill and Robertson (RWR) have certainly done that.
This book is the state of the art strategy / EA fusion argument. Based on years of research by the Sloane School at MIT this book makes a compelling case for the use of EA. Not only do RWR advocate the use of EA and support it with hard research, but they insist that EA become a core skill central to the development of the organization’s strategy and management.
In simple straight forward language they make no bones about the extent of change required. Talking about managers they state in a matter of fact way that “they will need to learn new behaviors” with the “shifting of flexibility between local and global” (p. 81) In short, they advocate a major shake up in management and structure. This is the beginning of the end of amateur IT management. Not before time I say.
This book is going to be very confronting for many managers, because the message is that basically they’re not up to it and they are going to have to surrender power to more competent centralized groups. But, if the organization is to truly exploit IT and create its “foundation of execution” then this is inevitable.
I understand that a major Australian bank has used this book as its “bible” for its current transformation, which includes the replacement of 30 year old core systems. Their objective is to be able to change business models in 20 minutes. With RWR’s vision implemented; if that’s possible, it might be doable. But I say good luck to them. It’ll be interesting to revisit them in 12 months.
This book is aimed principally at C level executives and chief architects. While very much at the business end of the EA spectrum I’d suggest that it would be a useful addition to most EA libraries.
Ross, Jeanne W., Weill, Peter and Robertson, David C. (2006), Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
ISBN 1-59139-839-8
This is another excellent book that should be required reading for all Enterprise Architects.
The real trick is to get executives to read this book.
Absolutely the trick is to get executives to read this book. But it will never happen. You take a gobbly-gook, perceived IT centric term like “enterprise architecture” and you put it in front of the word “strategy” (something executives think of as their core competency) and we’ll guarantee the book will never be read by the c-suite. With that said, I love the book!!
[...] – from Angry Architect [...]