Building Enterprise Information Architectures: Reengineering Information Systems at Dominant Systems Book Store

The manager's guide to building a business-oriented information systems architecture. Written for IS and corporate management, CIOs, and consultants. Provides a practical, easy-to-use framework for developing and implementing an enterprise information architecture aligned with business requirements. Learn to eliminate redundancy, control costs, and deploy new technology in an orderly way.

Customer Reviews & Comments
Ms. Cook takes a no-nonsense approach to building an enterprise architecture that puts business requirements first. She starts this excellent book with a quick history, setting information architecture into a context. This is followed by addressing the hard part of architecture: overcoming political resistance and tackling the thorny problems of aligning systems to what the business needs. She pulls no punches. The next part of the book, chapter 3, introduces the Zachman Framework, which I personally believe is one of the best foundations for an architecture that aligns IT to business. Chapters 4 through 7 thoroughly delves into the layers of the Zachman Framework, and provides a coherent and comprehensive description of all of the "moving parts" from both an IT and a business perspective. The theoretical underpinnings are translated into an actionable plan in chapter 8, titled, "Making It Happen". This chapter is pragmatic and gives a detailed roadmap to implementing an enterprise information architecture that will truly align information technology to business requirements. Here are the key things I like about this book: (1) It focuses on the business, subordinating technology to a supporting role. This is refreshing. (2) It provides one of the best descriptions of the Zachman Framework I have ever read. (3) Political realities and organizational resistance are taken into account, and some excellent advice for overcoming these barriers is given. (4) Ms. Cook's approach to implementation is straightforward, and if followed, will greatly improve your chances for a successful implementation of an enterprise information architecture. Make no mistake, such an implementation is a daunting task with opportunities to fail lurking in many places. She has obviously encountered a good many implementation problems and gives some great advice on how to overcome them. Ms. Cook has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge of information architecture, and a strong case for the Zachman Framework in this book. She also reinforces the need for a well thought out approach to implementation, and provides clear advice on how to successfully accomplish this.

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