Over time, organizations become more complex, driving the need for collaboration to develop a consistent enterprise architecture (EA). Collaboration involves working closely with others to produce something of meaning and value to those involved. In some organizations, the inability of enterprise architects to collaborate effectively can reduce the usefulness of their efforts.
Fortunately, the authors of this book go a long way to dispel existing popular corporate lore surrounding enterprise architects and their products. They note that enterprise architecture is an evolving art that combines the expertise and skill of enterprise architects. In fact, enterprise architecture actually depends on collaboration with others to achieve mutual objectives, such as meeting the needs of business leaders in a given enterprise at a given moment. However, practicing enterprise architects will tell you that this task is much easier said than done.
The book consists of nine chapters grouped in two parts. In chapter 1, the authors recommend evolving current enterprise architecture practice into a more contemporary collaborative process. They explore this through a series of contrasting perspectives under the umbrella term “The Gray Reality.” Topics include perspective, governance, strategy, and transformation. In chapters 2 through 5, the authors describe EA building blocks, including definitions, activities, measures, frameworks, and maturity models, paving the way to the next part of the book.
Up to this point, the authors have not only established a foundation of traditional EA (or what they might call not-so-collaborative EA), but they have also introduced the fundamental notion of collaborative EA. In chapters 6 through 8, they suggest that complexity is due in part to organizational interdependency and in part to the chaotic activity observed in the mix of people, processes, and technologies involved in any given enterprise, large or small.
In chapter 9, the authors challenge enterprise architects to become change agents, to evangelize collaborative EA by taking this innovative collaborative approach forward. Doing so will help overcome the observed phenomenon of deterioration that marks current EA practices, which operate without the enrichment of collaboration. This collaborative EA vision highlights the path forward, building awareness and forming collaborative habits. Collaborative enterprise architects will not only build confidence and enrich their experiences, but they can also realize true transformative value by incorporating lean, agile, and enterprise 2.0 methods into their best-practice repertoire.
I recommend this book to those readers looking to enhance their existing understanding of collaborative enterprise architecture, and those interested in the benefits of incorporating lean, agile, and enterprise 2.0 methods into their practice. I applaud the authors for illustrating their arguments throughout the book with a fictional company and situation to help translate theory into practical use. The book seems oriented toward those readers who are interested in enterprise architecture, but are not necessarily practicing enterprise architects.
