| I am not sure exactly when the importance of enterprise architecture (EA) dawned on me. What is clear is that it wasn’t a “one fine day” realization, rather a result of numerous conversations with CIOs, IT managers, CFOs, process managers, and multiple research studies that convinced me that EA is perhaps the most important and the most misunderstood idea in information technology (IT) and a critical emerging discipline to elevate the role of IT organizations in enterprises. Metaphorically, an EA is to an organization’s operations and systems as a set of blueprints is to a building. This handbook, unlike any other available today, aims:
• To provide a comprehensive and unified overview of practical aspects of EA.
• To integrate EA theory and concepts to field-tested methods, practical strategic issues, and implementation
challenges.
• To illustrate development methods and the process cycle through case studies and detailed examples.
• To provide insights into the impact of effective EA on IT governance, IT portfolio management, IT risks,
and IT outsourcing.
• To demonstrate the criticality of EA economics and its role in the strategic value of IT
This handbook is a compilation of 26 chapters on enterprise architecture written by practitioners and practicing academics from countries including Australia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Norway, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The authors of these chapters were included in the review process in addition to having their submissions reviewed by a panel of independent reviewers. The handbook has been “foreworded” by John Zachman, the “father” of the Zachman Framework; undoubtedly the first formal framework in the discipline of EA and Dr. Scott Bernard, an accomplished EA practitioner who is now also an academic being associated with the Carnegie Mellon University. |
