Amazon.com: The Practice of Enterprise Architecture: A Modern Approach to Business and IT Alignment (Enterprise Architecture Research): 9780645082524: Kotusev, Svyatoslav: Books

I am a former CIO, presently teaching graduate courses in EA and ICT at The University of Denver. I have no shortage of textbooks and other books on the practice of Enterprise Architecture, but I came across the first edition of Dr. Kotusev's book last year, and I simply could not put it down. Let's just say I am a former CIO who is still suffering from PTSD from the EA consultant community. The practice space is full of complicated charts that are supposed to be a substitute for wisdom, lots of breathless hype that masks good communication inside the organization, and the hard work of getting (and keeping) alignment between the business and IT done right. His text is clear, illustrations demonstrative and not cutesy (I included one from his first chapter--setting up the practice field--in the examples above, and the process he describes is what you always wanted it to be and rarely received (normally paying a fair amount for it along the way). His first chapter introducing the basics of EA (I renamed it for my students as "Enterprise Architecture for the Terrified") as well as his Appendix that covers the history of the profession/practice in the latter half of the 20th century--they are both worth their weight in gold.My EA experience was breathless hyperbole, multitudes of technical promises (some of these guys were Pentecostal preachers in another life), mystifying but altogether meaningless or impractical graphics--that's what you normally get in this field. Dr. Kotusev's book is so refreshingly different that I wanted everyone to discover this little gem.Rick Bauer, Graduate Professor of ICTThe University of Denver

What sets this book apart from important EA texts is that it focuses on outcomes that work, based on research. It is a good approach if you are looking to build or renew an EA practice around actionable approaches that focus on business outcomes.

To parrot some of the others, this book is refreshingly practical and useful.EA can often become a mind-numbing, PTSD-inducing practice of meaningless meetings about diagrams that do not (successfully) serve a purpose. I organically "grew" into an EA while helping small businesses scale their operations to meet demand. These were not Fortune 100 companies with huge cash reserves; to be successful, I had to be practical. Add structure, but only just enough, and only what proves useful & feasible.This is the only book I've ever found that goes into detail, provides sensible instructions, and derives those instructions from research & not punditry.