Realizing eBusiness with Components [Hardcover]

Paul Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 020167520X | ISBN-13: 978-0201675207 | Publication Date: October 25, 2000 | Edition: 1

What this book is about Unfortunately, there is a great deal of hype and over-expectation surrounding e-business. Many organizations are jumping on the e-business bandwagon without understanding what they are getting into. Lack of planning and analysis, resulting in inflexible solutions that are unable to integrate with existing systems, are all too common. At the same time, e-business calls for a closer relationship between those involved in business development and those required to support these initiatives within the company's information technology infrastructure. This book is designed to provide practical advice for planning, analysis and design of e-business systems using component-based development (CBD). Just as e-business is more than a series of web pages, so CBD is not just an approach to problem solving using software building blocks. It includes architectures, processes, modeling techniques, economic models and organizational guidelines, all of which are well placed to ease migration of large organizations to e-business. The book is long on practice and short on theory. Theory is included where relevant to practical problems.The core of the book is an extensive example that tracks the experiences of a typical company, with a traditional set of business processes and supporting software systems, through various stages along the road to e-business. Who should read this book This book is primarily intended for IT planners, architects, analysts and designers responsible for e-business solutions in large organizations. Equally it is aimed at business strategists, business process engineers and business architects. More significantly, this book is aimed at the new breeds of individual that are emerging, as the dividing lines between business and software grow increasingly blurred. More broadly the book is intended for anyone interested in modeling business components. In particular, it is hoped that the increasing number of business component and framework vendors will benefit from the increased understanding that clear and precise component models provide of their products to their customers. How to read this book Naturally I would prefer it if you read the book cover to cover.However, with the exception of Chapter 6, which should be read after reading Chapter 5, each chapter of this book can be read individually and readers with specific interests can go straight to the subject of their choice. For those who are not familiar with component-based modeling techniques, it is important to refer to Appendix 2 for guidance. There are four parts to the book as follows. First we set the scene and explain underlying principles Chapter 1 introduces the need for a component-based approach to e-business systems, explains the basic principles of the approach and sets the emphasis on planning, analysis and business integration. Chapter 2 looks at how to align e-business software development within the context of the organization's business goals and objectives. Chapter 3 shows how to integrate business needs into a clearly defined component architecture. Chapter 4 describes a truly component-based process framework and guidelines for dealing with these issues and to assist with planning and control of CBD for e-business.Next we come to the core of the book: a continuous practical case study Chapter 5 provides a practical case study of how to apply a component-based approach to e-business in an organization migrating to e-business, but wanting to protect and utilize its investments in existing systems. Chapter 6 continues the case study and considers how to evolve the early solutions extending the scope to full business process integration and on to business transformation. Third, we describe three key supporting strategies: provisioning, funding and team organization Chapter 7 looks at how components are provisioned and considers a range of different options including framework extension, wrapping, adapting, outsourcing, purchasing and bespoke design. Chapter 8 describes tactical measures for funding component-based projects and provides metrics and costing criteria before considering how to identify benefits in the context of e-business. Chapter 9 centers on team roles, providing guidance for projects at various stages along the road to e-business using components and considers how to use the roles to structure teams based on different organizational needs.Finally, the appendices provide essential supporting information Appendix 1 provides short descriptions of component and Internet standards and typical accompanying physical architectures. Appendix 2 provides a catalogue of component modeling techniques. The purpose is not to describe a complete definitive methodology, but to establish just enough semantics and notation with hints and tips to guide the reader.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In April 1999 I joined Sterling Software from Select Software Tools. I was very excited because Sterling Software was doing great work with component-based development. Shortly after joining, however, I noticed I had a health problem, but was told it was nothing to worry about. During this period I settled into my new job, learning from my colleagues and enjoying working on different assignments. A few months later, after several misdiagnoses, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Before the end of the year, I had undergone a punishing course of chemotherapy. Right now I'm well again, but taking nothing for granted!
While the chemotherapy was unpleasant, it gave me plenty of time to think - if only to take my mind of its effects! I thought about the work I had done at Select, about the discussions I'd had with my new colleagues at Sterling Software, and the work we were doing with clients in applying component technology to the problems and opportunities of e-business. IT departments coping with the shift to e-business seemed like an aircraft that had to be re-engineered in flight. This book is the result of my reflections.
What this book Is about
Unfortunately, there is a great deal of hype and over-expectation surrounding e-business. Many organizations are jumping on the e-business bandwagon without understanding what they are getting into. Lack of planning and analysis, resulting in inflexible solutions that are unable to integrate with existing systems, are all too common. At the same time, e-business calls for a closer relationship between those involved in business development and those required to support these initiatives within the company's information technology infrastructure.
This book is designed to provide practical advice for planning, analysis and design of e-business systems using component-based development (CBD). Just as e-business is more than a series of web pages, so CBD is not just an approach to problem solving using software building blocks. It includes architectures, processes, modeling techniques, economic models and organizational guidelines, all of which are well placed to ease migration of large organizations to e-business.
The book is long on practice and short on theory. Theory is included where relevant to practical problems. The core of the book is an extensive example that tracks the experiences of a typical company, with a traditional set of business processes and supporting software systems, through various stages along the road to e-business.
Who should read this book
This book is primarily intended for IT planners, architects, analysts and designers responsible for e-business solutions in large organizations. Equally it is aimed at business strategists, business process engineers and business architects. More significantly, this book is aimed at the new breeds of individual that are emerging, as the dividing lines between business and software grow increasingly blurred.
More broadly the book is intended for anyone interested in modeling business components. In particular, it is hoped that the increasing number of business component and framework vendors will benefit from the increased understanding that clear and precise component models provide of their products to their customers.
How to read this book
Naturally I would prefer it if you read the book cover to cover. However, with the exception of Chapter 6, which should be read after reading Chapter 5, each chapter of this book can be read individually and readers with specific interests can go straight to the subject of their choice. For those who are not familiar with component-based modeling techniques, it is important to refer to Appendix 2 for guidance. There are four parts to the book as follows.
First we set the scene and explain underlying principles
Chapter 1 introduces the need for a component-based approach to e-business systems, explains the basic principles of the approach and sets the emphasis on planning, analysis and business integration.
Chapter 2 looks at how to align e-business software development within the context of the organization's business goals and objectives.
Chapter 3 shows how to integrate business needs into a clearly defined component architecture.
Chapter 4 describes a truly component-based process framework and guidelines for dealing with these issues and to assist with planning and control of CBD for e-business.
Next we come to the core of the book: a continuous practical case study
Chapter 5 provides a practical case study of how to apply a component-based approach to e-business in an organization migrating to e-business, but wanting to protect and utilize its investments in existing systems.
Chapter 6 continues the case study and considers how to evolve the early solutions extending the scope to full business process integration and on to business transformation.
Third, we describe three key supporting strategies:
provisioning, funding and team organization
Chapter 7 looks at how components are provisioned and considers a range of different options including framework extension, wrapping, adapting, outsourcing, purchasing and bespoke design.
Chapter 8 describes tactical measures for funding component-based projects and provides metrics and costing criteria before considering how to identify benefits in the context of e-business.
Chapter 9 centers on team roles, providing guidance for projects at various stages along the road to e-business using components and considers how to use the roles to structure teams based on different organizational needs.
Finally, the appendices provide essential supporting information
Appendix 1 provides short descriptions of component and internet standards and typical accompanying physical architectures.
Appendix 2 provides a catalogue of component modeling techniques. The purpose is not to describe a complete definitive methodology, but to establish 'just enough' semantics and notation with hints and tips to guide the reader.
Acknowledgements
I have been fortunate to be working with a superb group of people at Sterling Software UK. First and foremost, I must thank the management team at Sterling Software UK for their unwavering support during a most difficult time healthwise: Sue Dixon, an exceptional lady, for her great kindness and compassion, Lori Wormald for her patience and understanding, Dan French for providing executive support and an environment of wonderful team spirit and Steve Olding and Danny Glover for their encouragement and support.
The material in this book draws on previous work of others who have pioneered CBD in Sterling Software. Credit is due to Alan Brown, John Cheesman, John Daniels and John Dodd and for supplying much of the intellectual foundation.
Others in Sterling Software and deserve special mention are as follows: John Assheton, Liz Cooper, Danny Saro, and Sue Whitehead for providing comments on early draft material, Suzanne Martin and Steve Turner for helping out with the case study examples; and Desiree Brennan for her excellent marketing assistance.
Special credit is due to Alan Brown and Sebastian Nokes (NetB2B2), both of whom provided very significant feedback that caused some major revisions to earlier material.
I thank my team of reviewers, external to Sterling Software, for providing useful insights and help: Alistair Gill, Simon Johnson, Meilir Page-Jones, David Sprott and Paul Turner.
Thanks are also due to my editor Clemens Syperski for his insightful comments and to Alison Birtwell of Addison Wesley Longman for her editorial management.
Last but not least I thank my family for putting up with my distraction for the best part of six months!

020167520XP04062001

From the Back Cover

"This book is the most complete, technically sophisticated introduction to the problems of second generation e-business development that I have read. It provides the kind of overview that managers need and then proceeds to provide the kind of details that architects, designers and developers need, as well."
- Paul Harmon, Editor, Component Development Strategies, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium Faculty

"Not only does this book provide important insights into its two advertised topics, but it also provides a valuable how-to guide for modeling and developing applications in any business. The book is packed with examples showing that the author has been there, done it and knows exactly how to explain the sophisticated concepts and techniques at the confluence of modern business and modern software technology. Well done, Paul!"
- Meilir Page-Jones, Senior Methodologist, Wayland Systems Inc.

"This is the first book that clearly describes how to do component-based development driven by business models. It does this with practical real-world e-Business examples and describes not only the technology and the integration with the business requirements, but also a pragmatic process how to actually succeed. A book by one of the world's leading experts on components."
- Magnus Penker, CEO, Open Training

This book provides practical advice for planning, analysis and design of e-business systems using component-based development (CBD). It includes
architectures, processes, modeling techniques, economic models and organizational guidelines, all of which are well placed to ease migration of large organizations to e-business.

The core of the book is an extensive example that tracks the experiences of a typical company, with a traditional set of business processes and supporting software systems, through various stages along the road to e-business.

Plus!
· how to grow your e-business capability at minimum risk.
· how to integrate e-business objectives plans with software solutions
· how to model e-business system requirements
· how to structure software projects to meet e-business needs.
· how to organize teams to provide e-business solutions
· how to provision and manage components
· how to architect and specify components and interfaces
· how to identify the business benefits of your component-based project.
· how to fund and measure the success of component projects

020167520XB04062001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (October 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020167520X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201675207
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,857,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Advice on how to make a hard but necessary move, January 29, 2001

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Realizing eBusiness with Components (Hardcover)

While the recent downturn in the dot-com curve proves that e-business is just old business with an asterisk, there are some fundamental differences. The two most foremost are that e-businesses are technology driven and changes happen at a speed that can leave you codeless. When designing and constructing the technology solution, it is essential that you cut sufficient slack so that it can undergo substantial changes very quickly. The most realistic way to do this is to build generic pieces that can be interchanged easily and where modifications can be done in one piece that are invisible to all others. This strategy is of course the extensive use of software components.
However, like so many other solutions, the initial steps are the hardest. Not only is it necessary to retool development to the component model, but the initial design will almost certainly be slower to develop than any other. However, once done, there is a cascading effect that will lead to reduced costs for an extensive period of time. The how and why of the ways all this works are well-documented and explained in this book, largely from a management perspective. By far, the most effective chapter is chapter 8, "CBD Funding Models."
The decision to move to component based development will of course be based on return on investment (ROI) considerations. Given that the standard in the industry is that the up-front component development cost will be 150 -250% that of traditional development, there are significant justification hurdles to be surmounted. Since it is unlikely that such an increase will be easily accepted by those who control the budget dollars, it will be necessary to justify the changes using other funding strategies. These include spreading the cost over several departments and the selling of the components to other companies. While not all solutions may be feasible, at least the options are explained so that sound strategic decisions can be made.
The move to components is as much a cultural as technical move. To do it successfully, it is necessary that all players be committed, capable of communicating openly about the future and understand that the complete benefits will not be seen for some time. All of this requires that effective team structures be built, which is the topic of chapter 9. Building an effective team in the e-business world is quite different than the traditional, hierarchical team. Flat organization with direct communication lines among all the members is essential if the desired speed of execution is to be attained. Things sometimes move so fast that a delay of even a few hours can have serious consequences. Such an organization is described in detail, along with a recommended size and a list of the members and the roles that they will play. As is emphasized, not all of these roles are necessarily full-time, so it is possible that one person may fill more than one or one person may fill the same role in more than one team.
While moving to components is hard, not doing so is probably worse. Given the chance and with proper organization, it is possible to do so with enthusiasm, effectiveness and a sense of pride that will help retain your workers for the long term. That requires a plan, and this book will help you make a good one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A useful book for all trying to model enterprise systems, February 15, 2002

By 

A. K. Johnston "(www.andrewj.com/books)" (LEATHERHEAD United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Realizing eBusiness with Components (Hardcover)

This is a very good, practical book. I found it very readable, with just an appropriate level of textual detail in most cases. It's the first book I read which tries to tackle the problem of modelling and understanding Enterprise-level system interactions. If anything, Paul sells it a bit short by tying it to "e-Business", since a lot of the ideas and disciplines can apply to less forward-looking Enterprises who are trying to solve traditional integration problems but who may not identify with the e-Business tag.

The early part of the book discusses the principles of component-based development (CBD), and how this can be combined with process modelling to both help improve the business, and to provide a clear model for the systems needed to support it. Importantly, Paul sees the development of both business processes and systems as something which must happen progressively, so neither has to be the subject of "big bang" changes.

The next section of the book discusses the different types of components, and their role in a typical architecture comprised of both new and legacy systems. Paul then introduces his "CBD Process Framework", a way of defining components and then "provisioning" then by the most appropriate combination of new development, purchasing and re-using existing assets.

The core of the book takes a typical business process (car rental) and develops a worked example of the various business, logical and physical models which are required to define the component architecture. The models are each taken through several stages, corresponding to an evolving e-Business process and a system which is growing incrementally. This is much more realistic than presenting the final model "as is", and allows much better understanding of how the model develops. In many ways this is the part of the book which delivers the greatest real value.

The final part of the book discusses different provisioning and funding strategies for CBD, and how an e-Business team should be structured. There's a lot of good stuff here, which may be very useful to someone new to object- and component-based development. However if I'm honest I found this less useful, since there are better specialist books on this subject and it doesn't hold the interest as well as some of the earlier sections.

As an Appendix, Paul presents descriptions of all the major component technologies, and all the major UML-based modelling techniques. This could be a valuable reference for anyone.

I have one slight reservation on the book's core - Paul follows a convention in which an "interface" is a collection of types, and says that "by convention" the interface includes access to all the types. This is a bit different to the Microsoft model, for example, and may make it more difficult to establish good navigation around the object model, or to support "stateless" models. However, this is something to be aware of rather than something which should detract from what is otherwise a very useful tutorial.

I like this book. The worked examples of developing the e-Business model are excellent, so much so that I now recommend this book to anyone trying to model such things using UML.

...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good books don't have to be thick, November 10, 2001

By 

RA Botha (Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Realizing eBusiness with Components (Hardcover)

When I got this book I was was amazed by how thin it was - a mere 230 pages. What made me frown even more, was that on first inspection I determined that only 175 pages was main text and the rest was appendices.

After reading the book I realize that it is above properties that help make it the excellent book it is. The appendices contain information about technologies (which could date quickly) and modeling techniques (which possibly don't become obsolete so quickly but could be supplemented as new techniques become available). This makes it a very easy read for people who are already familiar with the modeling techniques or technologies. It effectively removes the need to discuss too much about the diagrams in the text itself.

The main text moves fast, stays relevant and focused thus yielding a very thin (in typical IT terms!) book. It starts immediately by discussing e-commerce, its business relevance and discussing the issues of aligning business and technology.

The book particularly impress me by maintaining its business focus throughout. The development of components is tightly coupled to the business process that is being automated (or newly developed). In this respect it propagates an approach whereby a component-based architecture is incrementally developed. The focus continually stays with providing real value to the client.

Management issues (project management, ROI etc) are also addressed in the later chapters in the book and adds significant value to the text especially if read by potential project managers.

In my opinion the book is a must read for any prospective designer/developer/project manager of e-Business systems.