Customer Reviews

How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks: Creating or Choosing an Enterprise Architecture Framework

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If you're able to preview a copy of this book (3rd ed), turn to page 15,29,52,102,139, and 241 to see if you could read the characters on one of those diagrams. It seems that lots of them could be just a copy-and-paste from some low-resolution image files, which make these "Enterprise Architectures" unreadable. Then turn to page 116 "Section 15.6.1 What is the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA)". It tells you that it's a collection of interrelated reference models, which are defined as: Performance Reference Model (PRM), Business Reference Model (BRM), Service Component Reference Model (SRM), Data and Information Reference Model (DRM), and Technical Reference Model (TRM). Period. No explanation about these models and how they relate to one another. This is far beyond "concise". The sub-title of this book is "Creating" or "Choosing" an enterprise architecture framework but there is no comparison among them through out the entire book. Not to mention creating one with the coarse information given in this book. What else is missing? Index, table of figures, and more for you to find out if you decide to buy one.

When I received this book I quickly scanned it and dismissed it as a niche book for architects working in the US Government or contractors working in that environment. After reading it, though, I believe that this is an invaluable book for enterprise architects in the commercial sector as well.

For those working in or with the US Government, and especially the Department of Defense, this book's in-depth comparison of enterprise architectures within that domain is an amazing resource. Among the government- and DoD-specific architectures covered are Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) issued by the CIO council, Command, Control, Communications, Computer Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Architecture (a part of the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DODAF), and Joint Technical Architecture. This book also covers CCA architecture compliance. This is an interesting part of the book because lessons learned from CCA compliance requirements may possibly translate into an approach for aligning commercial architectures to Sarbanes-Oxley, which is a hot topic in the commercial sector.

Enterprise architectures in the commercial domain that are covered include the Zachman Framework, Enterprise Architecture Planning, The Open Group Architecture Framework, and the Integrated Architecture Framework. More importantly, there are manufacturing-specific frameworks covered, such as the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open Systems Architecture, which round out this book's comprehensive survey of architectures.

The manner in which the above architectures are covered is what I most like about this book. The author has performed the mind-numbing task of collecting relevant factors of each architecture, then presenting them in a set format: history, purpose, scope, principles, structure, guidance and compliance. This format allows you to use this book as a catalog of architectures, as well as the basis for comparing the strengths and weaknesses of architectures that are suitable for a specific environment.

I also like the first eight chapters, and chapters 11 and 12, which provide general information about enterprise architectures, definitions, and advice on how to select the best architecture based on requirements.

This is an important book for enterprise architects that will serve as an encyclopedia, idea book, and general resource.

I bought this book because the title suggested that it would have a good comparison of many enterprise architecture standards available that would guide us to shortlist and then choose one of them. To my surprise I did not find any comparison of such standards. The book lists various standards but there is hardly any specific information highlighting strengths or weaknesses. No doubt that the subject itself is dry but the author does not help to make it any interesting. Neither the book has any flow that will give you structured information nor is a valuable resource even as a reference.
I found better information on the internet than that given in this book. I returned my copy back to Amazon.

If you are already an expert in Enterprise Data Architecture then this book may make some sense to you, but as an introduction the book tries to cover too much material without explaining any topic in sufficient detail. The author's first language is clearly not English, and the book is full of sentences that just don't make sense in English.

At first glance of this book the typos and alternate spellings gets annoying, but after some acclimating the information starts to sink in very easily. Each Framework is explained concisely and doesn't try to get into every detail. There are books for each of the frameworks for that. Overall, I am pleased with it and would suggest it to anyone that is early in their Enterprise Architecture career or anyone that needs to catch up with all the frameworks.