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Store See larger picture Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson - Harvard Business School Press List Price: $38.00 Price at Amazon.com: $25.08 (Save 34%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Shipping rates and policies Average Customer Review: Based on 29 reviews. Amazon.com Sales Rank: 7964 Product Description Enterprise architecture defines a firm's needs for standardised tasks, job roles, systems, infrastructure, and data in core business processes. Thus, it helps a company to articulate how it will compete in a digital economy and it guides managers' daily decisions to realise their vision of success. This book clearly explains enterprise architecture's vital role in enabling - or constraining - the execution of business strategy. The book provides clear frameworks, thoughtful case examples, and a proven-effective structured process for designing and implementing effective enterprise architectures. Featured Customer Reviews Enterprise architecture insights from more than 200 companies, November 07, 2008 In much the same way that the classic "The Mythical Man Month" by Frederick P. Brooks (see my review) has repeatedly been sighted across two decades by numerous publications, this work by Ross, Weill, and Robertson has been referenced so many times in industry periodicals over the last couple years that it needs to be read at least once by everyone in the business world involved in this space. A cursory review of the texts currently available on enterprise architecture shows quite simply that this subject is still rather new. And experience has shown that the topic of enterprise architecture itself can at times cause confusion, misunderstanding, and even divisiveness within a firm, with reasons ranging from difficulty of definition to business or IT politics. The authors of this book tackle the subject well, and provide many examples throughout the discussion. In fact, the quantity of text associated with examples far outweighs the overall discussion in a majority of the chapters. Given that the reader audience here is primarily the executive, and especially executives who are unfamiliar with enterprise architecture, it makes sense that this is the case, but for readers who are already rather familiar with enterprise architecture strategy the heavy weight toward examples can be a bit much. Unlike some of the other books available on this subject, the tables and figures dispersed throughout are presented very simply so that anyone following the text can grasp their meaning, although occasionally these are reminiscent of what one might find in Computerworld magazine (especially those involving surveys of CIOs, where the survey sample is very low, leading one to wonder whether the implications drawn truly reflect the industry). According to the authors, this book is "a call to action for those companies that have not yet started on this journey [building a foundation for execution] and a handbook for those who are in the midst of building their foundation", and the following main steps are discussed: defining an operating model, designing and implementing an enterprise architecture, and adopting an IT engagement model. The discussion of the first step is a strong area of the book, in which diversification, coordination, replication, and unification are presented to help the reader decide in which quadrant their company or business unit belongs. According to the authors, assessing one's business in this manner is important since these operating models position companies for different types of growth. In the mind of this reviewer, another strength of this book is a discussion on the stages of enterprise architecture maturity: business silos, standardized technology, optimized core, and business modularity. While the engagement model and level of enterprise architecture maturity can and should evolve in many cases to achieve corporate success, the authors stress that stages should not be skipped due to the high risk involved with such a strategy. The third strength of this book is the discussion on benefits of enterprise architecture. Successful implementation of each stage of an enterprise architecture, the authors demonstrate, generates new or expanded technology and business benefits: reduced IT costs, increased IT responsiveness, improved risk management, increased management satisfaction, and enhanced strategic business outcomes. One of the best quotes included in "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy" is the following, by Doreen Wright, the first corporate CIO of Campbell Soup Co.: "Looking at the IT function is like having the company look at itself in the mirror: Whatever's wrong with the company will show up in the IT function." Another, by Albert Einstein, might already be familiar to you: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." One premise behind enterprise architecture is that business and IT need to work together, and the ability of this book to drive home this concept is what makes it required reading. Very Pleased, October 21, 2008 Was very please with the text book I bought. I will buy from seller again. Great Book, August 08, 2008 Our company is big on this book. our IT CIO has distributed several copies of it to several key people in the organisation. Not readable, July 31, 2008 It was highly prized by a co-worker. Therefore, I assume that it's just not my type of reading: barely dragged myself to the midstream and drowned there. Try to sample it first. Hope that helps. Well deserved 5 stars, April 10, 2008 The book is really great and deserves 5 stars. I am an Application Architect working for one of the biggest financial companies in the world and we are using this book as a starting point for improving our Enterprise Architecture. I whish this book was thicker or maybe had a second volume. You might also be interested in these items... IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A Planning and Implementation Guide for Business and Technology IT Architecture Toolkit (Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute Series) Enterprise Architecture Planning: Developing a Blueprint for Data, Applications, and Technology Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children