Issue No 20:
NEW ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE BOOKS
Foreword to New Book on
"Enterprise Architecture Using the Zachman Framework"
Printable PDF
Version
Feature: Two New Enterprise
Architecture Books
1.
"The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture:
Primer for Enterprise Engineering and Manufacturing"
by John Zachman
2. "Enterprise Architecture
using the Zachman Framework" by Carol O'Rourke, Neal Fishman and Warren
Selkow
TWO NEW ENTERPRISE
ARCHITECTURE BOOKS
PERTH,
AUSTRALIA – October 29, 2002: This month we feature two important books on
Enterprise Architecture: the first will be published towards the end of 2002;
the second will be published around March 2003. While TEN does not usually
include book reviews, because of the interest that TEN readers have shown in
Enterprise Architecture I thought it was important to draw these two books to
your attention.
The first book was written by John Zachman. This
alone is unique. While John has written many articles on Enterprise
Architecture, this is the first complete book written by the originator of the
Zachman Framework. It will be released in e-Book format and will eagerly be read
by Enterprise Architecture practitioners. It is described briefly below, with
more detail in a special issue of TEN when the book is formally released later
in 2002.
The second book was written by Carol O'Rourke,
Neal Fishman, and Warren Selkow. It teaches Enterprise Architecture as a way of
thinking about complex problems. I was invited to write the Foreword to the
second book. This book is also outstanding; it is a "must-read", as you will see
from my comments below.
Clive Finkelstein
TEN - The Enterprise Newsletter
Back to Contents.
This is an e-Book in which John Zachman first
outlines in three chapters the underlying Logic Structure and Rules of the
Framework. He explores the analysis of the Enterprise and Engineering Design
objectives. In subsequent chapters he works through the Enterprise frustrations,
and shows the completeness of the classification system used for Enterprise
Architecture through a discussion of the Metaframeworks. John finally concludes
that the rising evidence is that it is cheaper and faster to architect an
Enterprise than to “start writing the code while someone finds out what the
users had in mind”. The sixteen chapters of the book are followed by
comprehensive appendices of reference material, including a description for each
of the thirty cells of the Framework.
As an e-Book it will initially be released on CD
as it also contains around 20 video clips by John Zachman. These clips provide
additional video details from John, supporting the text he has written on
various considerations of the Framework. It includes many figures that
illustrate complex ideas, with a number of directly-clickable web links to
additional detail available from the Internet.
When this e-Book is formally
released, the Preface and Executive Summary will be published in a special issue
of TEN. That issue will also tell you how you can purchase the e-Book.
Back to Contents.
FOREWORD TO THE BOOK
I first learned of this book in December 2001, at
the annual ZIFA Forum (Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement) in
Scottsdale, Arizona. ZIFA is an annual conference of practitioners of the
Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture (http://www.zifa.com/).
I have spoken at ZIFA over the years about some of the enterprise architecture
projects with which I have been involved.
My good friend Warren Selkow, along with Carol
O'Rourke and Neal Fishman, drew me aside to tell me they were writing a book to
teach the concepts of enterprise architecture using the Zachman Framework.
They told me the book was intended for many
audiences. It was to be a university text for undergraduates and graduates, but
they also wanted to address the community college level. Furthermore, the text
was for business, government, and defense organizations. This was an extremely
ambitious undertaking!
As they described the book, I became intrigued.
The scale of what they were planning had never been attempted before, yet the
text was sorely needed. When they asked me if I would write the Foreword, I
immediately accepted, as my curiosity had been whetted. As they sent me each
chapter to review, the significance of the book emerged. They were succeeding in
their ambitious objective. So now that the book is complete, what is my opinion?
This is a brilliant book! It introduces the
concepts of enterprise architecture with humor, using lessons from history. The
subject is enormously important, but before this book was written, enterprise
architecture was presented in a very abstract way. This made the importance and
power of enterprise architecture difficult to communicate.
Enterprise architecture is a rigorous way of
thinking about any problem or problem domain. The Framework concepts are simple,
but its application is powerful. The Framework shows how complex problems using
enterprise architecture can be resolved by considering all the perspectives and
aspects that must be addressed to understand each specific problem or domain:
- Perspectives enable a problem domain to be
viewed through the eyes of all of the people who need to be involved: the
planner, owner, designer, builder, subcontractor, and functioning enterprise.
These people and their different interests must all be understood if the
result that is produced is to address their various needs.
- Aspects are the questions that must be asked
to understand each problem domain. These questions are: what, how, where, who,
when, and why. They need to be asked from each person's perspective.
Since the dawn of computers, many application
systems have been developed at a great financial cost, yet the majority of
applications do not successfully address the needs of the business. This is due
to the complexity of most enterprises and to the complexity of systems
development. The problems are endemic. Above all, the problem is due to the
inability of business people and IT people to communicate effectively. The
Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture brings clarity and understanding
to all.
The Framework enables business people to ensure
their requirements are met from a business perspective without requiring them to
become technology experts. The Framework enables IT people to understand the
business needs from an IT perspective and does not require them to become
business experts. The Framework helps business and IT people communicate
effectively by considering complex problems from each person's perspective in
terms of the six aspects: what, how, where, who, when, and why.
The Zachman Framework of Enterprise Architecture
enables senior business managers to be sure that all requisite business controls
needed for corporate governance and accountability can be implemented. The
Framework helps ensure the systems, when built by IT, address the needs and
responsibilities of each person who should be supported. The Framework provides
a clear way to ensure all requirements are addressed, providing a roadmap for
business survivability and success.
This is not a dry technical text. In these pages
Carol O'Rourke, Neal Fishman, and Warren Selkow have written a book that not
only informs and instructs, but also entertains! This is why I love it. Not just
for the book's importance, but because it is fun to read.
The book is an invaluable aid for teaching, but
has also been written for self-study. It does not require prior knowledge of
computers or of information technology. The text is intended to be used in many
disciplines including:
- Business Administration
- Business Management
- Computer Science
- Information Systems
- Information Technology
For these reasons, it is an excellent book for
all who need to understand and manage the planning, design, and construction of
any complex endeavor. It teaches its readers how to think and how to solve
complex problems.
In business, government, and defense
organizations, this book leads business managers and their business experts-at
all management levels-through the use of enterprise architecture using the
Framework. It teaches them to think about the planning, design, and
establishment or restructuring of any complex enterprise. The book teaches
experienced IT staff how to think about the planning, design, and construction
of systems (manual or automated) that are needed to support the enterprise. Such
IT staff includes CIOs, CTOs, IT managers, information engineers, enterprise
engineers, business process reengineers, systems analysts, business analysts,
data analysts, process analysts, data administrators, project managers, and many
others.
The authors have done their work well. This book
will be widely read and used by all of their projected audiences.
Each chapter is structured in several teaching
modules. Each module is introduced first with Learning Objectives that indicate
the concepts being presented. After covering each module, Review Questions are
presented to test understanding of the subject matter. In a formal education
environment, these can be assigned to students as exercises for completion.
Chapter 1 introduces John Zachman, the originator
of the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture. The chapter provides a
short overview of enterprise architecture to establish context.
It is in Chapter 2 that the book draws you in and
its beauty starts to emerge. This chapter provides a glimpse of the gems of
knowledge that lie ahead in later chapters. The authors have turned to history
to introduce their message. Every problem must be examined in terms of the six
aspects: what, how, where, who, when, and why.
They start with the pyramids of Egypt. These
structures are wonders of engineering. Together, Carol O'Rourke, Neal Fishman,
and Warren Selkow take us into the mind of Imhotep, the architect of the Great
Pyramid. In their hands, the enormity of the task that Imhotep faced comes to
life.
We join him as he grapples with problems of
planning, designing, and construction using the available technologies of his
time. We soon realize he also must develop systems for project management,
resource management, and accounting-so that he can administer all aspects of
this massive project.
My reaction on reading this was WOW! What a great
way to introduce the thinking encouraged by enterprise architecture. As Chapter
2 unfolds further, the power of their approach becomes evident. For they then
continue our journey through history.
The authors move us forward thousands of years,
to the Cathedral of Chartres, built in the 12th Century. This cathedral was the
first of the great Gothic Cathedrals. They take us to the Manhattan Project,
where we consider the problems associated with the design and construction of
the atomic bomb. This brought World War II to an end, but also ushered in the
Nuclear Age. From there we move to Levittown and the construction of housing for
the U.S. veterans returning from World War II. Each of these was a complex
project, involving new problems that had to be resolved. Each project is
introduced using the six aspects of the Framework.
We move forward to the Apollo mission: to land a
man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Chapter 2 finally closes with the
design and construction of the first all digitally designed plane: the Boeing
777.
Whereas Chapter 2 took us through the perspective
of the planner, Chapter 3 moves us through the perspective of the owner. Each
succeeding chapter takes us through the remaining perspectives: designer
(Chapter 4), builder (Chapter 5), subcontractor (Chapter 6), and the functioning
enterprise (Chapter 7).
In Chapter 3, we learn about different types of
organizations from the perspective of the owner. We consider the 1999 Ford
Mustang Cobra automobile. We discuss the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), the
dot-com enterprises and their demise in the stock market downturn of 2000. We
look at public education, Coca Cola, Walt Disney, Movie Outpost, Keane, Cascade
Engineering, and Equifax. These case studies help us to understand issues with
which the owner must be aware. Each is considered in terms of what, how, where,
who, when, and why.
Chapter 4 takes us into the mind of the designer.
We learn about the role of the designer at Lockheed, in designing an aircraft
capable of flying at a sustained speed of Mach 3. We discuss the role of people
in meetings, as a way of understanding the different types of personalities and
people that a designer must consider in his design solution. We see how Covey's
Seven Habits can help the designer. We discuss the impact of office politics and
the importance of metrics and life cycles in design.
Chapter 5 uses Napoleon's disastrous march on
Russia in the winter of 1812 to introduce the importance of environment and
topography to the builder. The builder must ensure that design criteria are
satisfied under all circumstances. The impact that the design of the Roman
chariot had on NASA, centuries later, when building the space shuttle,
demonstrates the longevity of design decisions that can affect the builder. A
project at Abbott Laboratories also illustrates the need to meet all design
criteria. Rules, standards, units of measure, metrics, statistics, and tradeoffs
are also considered from the perspective of the builder. Examples are drawn from
Oracle and from the .NET initiative of Microsoft. The danger of the builder
changing the design-without first having that change reviewed by the designer-is
discussed by considering the collapse of floating walkways in the atrium of the
Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, with its consequent terrible loss of life.
Chapter 6 addresses the technical issues of
systems development that are important to the subcontractor. Parallels are drawn
to the artistic nature of the subcontractor's task within the enterprise and
shows how current object oriented approaches, patterns, and extreme programming
practices, and long-term thinking can be naturally applied to the Framework.
This chapter illustrates that art is an important part of computer science.
With Chapter 7, the authors present the
functioning enterprise perspective and the Zachman Framework for Enterprise
Architecture in its entirety. At this point, you will already understand the
clarity of thought behind the Framework. By using the Framework, you will
appreciate its effectiveness in resolving both complex and simple problems.
The book concludes by discussing the authors'
extension to implementing the Framework in Chapter 8.
I wholeheartedly commend this book to you. It is
an outstanding introduction to the concepts and the benefits of the Zachman
Framework for Enterprise Architecture. When you have completed the book, you
will be well prepared to apply these principles to understand and resolve any
complex problem that you may encounter in the future.
Clive Finkelstein,
Perth, Western Australia
"Enterprise Architecture Using the Zachman
Framework", Carol O'Rourke, Neal Fishman, and Warren Selkow, published by
Course Technology, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Boston, MA (2003).
ISBN: 0-619-06446-3. Anticipated Publication Date: March 2003
Back to Contents.
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