Architecture Principles: The Cornerstones of Enterprise Architecture

by Danny Greefhorst, Erik Proper

Enterprises, from small to large, evolve continuously. As a result, their structures are transformed and extended continuously. Without some means of control, such changes are bound to lead to an overly complex, uncoordinated and heterogeneous environment that is hard to manage and hard to adapt to future changes. Enterprise architecture principles provide a means to direct transformations of enterprises. As a consequence, architecture principles should be seen as the cornerstones of any architecture. In this book, Greefhorst and Proper focus on the role of architecture principles. They provide both a theoretical and a practical perspective on architecture principles. The theoretical perspective involves a brief survey of the general concept of principle as well as an analysis of different flavors of principles. Architecture principles are regarded as a specific class of normative principles that direct the design of an enterprise, from the definition of its business to its supporting IT. The practical perspective on architecture principles is concerned with an approach to the formulation of architecture principles, as well as their actual use in organizations. To illustrate their use in practice, several real-life cases are discussed, an application of architecture principles in TOGAF is included, and a catalogue of example architecture principles is provided. With this broad coverage, the authors target students and researchers specializing in enterprise architecture or business information systems, as well as practitioners who want to understand the foundations underlying their practical daily work.

Genres: Architecture, Technology

212 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 2011

Reviews

[David Carpinteiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book brings an explanation and purpose of EA, in a very breaf manner, and then focuses on EA principles, what they are and they importance for the construction of an enterprise architecture in a business.
What you will learn is the importance of EA principles, how they make clear for everyone why something must be done and how, allowing to have a common language in the business. They are critical and the core for building an EA.
Don't think it's an easy book to read and understand, starts very well, but some parts of the book are a bit difficult or confusing to understand, but the last parts, especially appendix A, makes suddenly everything clear, and the information there present is of an extreme value (thanks for that 😀 ).

In sum a must read for any business professional that want to know how to bring order to chaos in EA.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive book on architectural principles:
- what are architecture principles
- different classifications of architecture principles
- how to define and apply them (using a fictitious insurance company)
- several case studies of organizations using architecture principles
- a principles catalogue (~60 principles containing the statement, type of information - business, data, application, technology - impacted quality attributes, rationale and implications)

I liked the many examples and case studies. Sometimes the writing felt a bit dry (mostly the third chapter, but the writers say that this can be skipped by readers that are only interested in the practical side).

Overall, I think the book delivered on its promise.