Technology Strategy Patterns: Architecture as Strategy

by Eben Hewitt

Technologists who want their ideas heard, understood, and funded are often told to speak the language of businessâ??without really knowing what that is. This bookâ??s toolkit provides architects, product managers, technology managers, and executives with a shared languageâ??in the form of repeatable, practical patterns and templatesâ??to produce great technology strategies.

Author Eben Hewitt developed 39 patterns over the course of a decade in his work as CTO, CIO, and chief architect for several global tech companies. With these proven tools, you can define, create, elaborate, refine, and communicate your architecture goals, plans, and approach in a way that executives can readily understand, approve, and execute.

This book

Architecture and Adopt a strategic architectural mindset to make a meaningful material impactCreating your Define the components of your technology strategy using proven patternsCommunicating the Convey your technology strategy in a compelling way to a variety of audiencesBringing it all Employ patterns individually or in clusters for specific problems; use the complete framework for a comprehensive strategy

Genres: Technology, Business, Programming, Technical, Computer Science, Architecture, Management

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2018

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski]

An ultra-specific book for certain category of people - "high-value consultants", enterprise architecture strategists, technical executives very far from the actual technology - I've been there, so I can honestly say: this book is useful for them.

Everyone else? Move along.

To keep the long story short, this is a collection of simple techniques to communicate enterprise architecture in the simplest, most clear & effective way. It is NOT about technology, not about people or processes - it's all about strategy, vision & making (/influencing) important decisions about strategy or technology vision.

Is there anything in particular I really liked in this book? Yes. It starts with the very basics (literally 101) of presenting clear & ultra-concise information and ... some concepts presented here (that I use for 20 years ...) have been explicitly named (like MECE) & emphasised - that's what I really needed: sometimes you have a junior team member & you feel that the message (or output of analysis (s)he presents to you is chaotic) - sometimes I couldn't frame what this chaos was about, now I have framed concepts that will help me feedback such a person.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is borderline between four and five stars for me. We'll see as I'm able to really start applying these patterns whether it proves to be as useful as it seems. One word of warning, I won't be surprised to see some less than positive reviews of this book from readers who come to it looking for something very different. Just be warned, if you are not looking for advice and patterns for approaching the *business* side of technical strategy, don't bother with this book. If you are looking for that, this book is full of great resources. If nothing else, it taught me about quite a few ideas and additional areas that I needed to investigate more. My favorite non-fiction books are usually the ones that lead me to even more sources to read and learn from and this book definitely met that mark.

[Railgun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the author said, this is a book for the wannabe CTOs. The content is about helping us form and present a technology strategy to the audience - the CEO and the board.

[Anton Antonov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally, it is my go-to book when I need to re-consider my approach, explore alternatives, and remind myself what patterns I have in my hand.

I've read this book several times in consecutive years and, most recently, even listened to the audiobook.

I recommend it to anyone looking to:
1. Get an idea of what even technology strategy means
2. How do people around them construct strategies
3. What options do you have
4. How can you move forward when getting feedback on whether you are on the right path after months?

[Denis Romanovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Technology strategist/enterprise architect explains how to use strategic thinking and strategic analysis tools. Does this really well and easy to comprehend. Good for any technology leaders.

[Mindaugas Mozūras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet, as technologists, we are businesspeople. A hammer doesn't exist to be a hammer. It's a tool to construct something else.

This book is meant for a particular audience. As a CTO, I am part of that specific audience. There are not that many books that are targeted so specifically for my job. Unsurprisingly, I've enjoyed the book quite a lot, and I imagine I'll refer to it in the future (while writing this, I made a note to order a physical copy to put it near my desk). Some parts of the book induced some eye-rolling from me, but the good parts were so insightful that I have to give it a strong rating.

[Woody Rousseau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livre original qui propose des patterns (think design patterns) pour partager en tant que CTO sa stratégie au business et obtenir des investissements pour la réaliser.
Grands principes intéressants et beaucoup de management visuels proposés.
Deux aspects manquants selon moi : dommage qu’il y ait peu d’éléments de fond sur les stratégies technologiques (sur quelles archis, quelles technos il faut miser?) + j’aurais aimé plus d’exemples complets de decks de slides

[Daniel Rezny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good set of pattern how to build an architecture from the beginning till the real strategical architecture. Very important is communication!
I will, for sure try some of these techniques

[Hossam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe that every technologist, architect and strategist will relate or appreciate to a big extent the practicality of the techniques and structure Eben brought to life in this brilliant work. It is one thing to theorize about strategy and architecture as in many of the conventional literature, versus getting things put forward pragmatically from the practitioner's perspective, and that what this book is about.

Ebin dedicates a great deal of detailed chapters to explain core strategy tools in action and how and when to use it in a context that is technology and architecture driven. Examples, MECE, PESTEL, Scenario Planning, Future Funnel, Backcasting, Porter's Five Forces, Value Chain, Growth-Share Matrix, Core/Innovation Map, Application Portfolio Management, and much more. It also goes beyond the strategy formulation and pays more focus and attention to how to present, structure and communicate the strategy in concise and impactful ways.

I enjoyed reading through the chapters and found it addressing the core challenges faced in every day corporates. The book provides a clear guide and pattern-based approach to technology strategy formulation through careful examination for the outer and inner circles that influence the organization including macro-trends, industry focus and even department-wide dynamics. I would highly recommend for anyone in information technology who wants to do more strategic, relevant, meaningful work for their organizations.

[Jevgenij · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admire the attempt to make the work of architects and analysts more structured, but the reality is that all those "patterns" are just a lot of water invented by business people. In reality there is only one pattern: logical thinking, experience and research.

[Thanonchai · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry but gives really good advice on the big picture of IT Architecture - especially the why part.

[Ruslan Bes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I'm not the main focus group of this book, but for me many of the patterns weren't bringing much.

A lot of them are focusing on either categorizing things in quadrants or building lists.

There are several good advices though. For instance, it's a nice point that people tend to have wildly different views on the most obvious things, like the list of your apps. So before deciding on a meeting what to do with them (finance, abandon, outsource etc.), you need to set up a common ground.

Maybe if you are a chief architect already then this book can give you some hints how to organize your work better, but chances are, you already following most of the patterns naturally.

For the most of software architects though this book won't give much for their daily work. Maybe it can give them some insights into the work of CTO, but that's it.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good material but a bit of a slog reading cover-to-cover

The beginning of this book has some wonderful insights and perspectives on software architecture and the role in business and there really are some great patterns outlined that I’ll probably refer back to time to time, but it was quite a slog reading this cover-to-cover. I ended up skimming after I got to the 10th pattern or so. It is also aimed more at executive-level architects at more traditional businesses, so was a bit dry and stodgy in its approach. With that said, I’d recommend this to anyone who is involved in software architecture or any kind of technical business strategy, as I think it can really help level up communicating and connecting technology to the larger business.

[Rastko Vukasinovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of tools experienced consultant and from time to time strategist has gathered and polished over the years.

I would recommend the book to anyone who needs some ideas and guidence on how to better plan, strategize or formulate their strategies.

With that being said, I do not think anything you can find (including this book) can teach you something that can be called "strategy patterns". This book just gives lots of nice concepts and good practices nicely formulated for teaching and reuse.

I appreciate the form - which is a handbook glued together with some high quality (but still filler 😊) content.

Disclaimer: I share lots of similar experiences, or at least experiential conclusions with the author, so the book resonated with me a lot - for you it might be different.

[J K Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book but mostly focused on software architecture and strategy for developing software. Still, I was able to get some good ideas from it for infrastructure and start building a slide deck from some of the basic templates described in the book. I was surprised that there wasn't an accompanying website to download the templates already. (And I made a Github repository for that here: https://github.com/ryumaou/ITStrategy... ) Also, the author seemed to have an ax to grind with McKinsey & Associates, a management consulting firm. His criticism of them became less and less subtle as the book went on.

[Y. Mithat C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, this is a hands-on book.
It is a great book shows the way from strategy to execution in a "very" practical approach. However, it does not forget to link practicals to philosophy and fundamental logic.
My takeaways; I've been using similar methods and tools for a very long time. This book shows some new ones and news ways to use the old ones.
There are some missing point. For example; it'd be better to have template for SBM.

[Sardar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is practical.

The way the advice in this book is organized in "patterns" may appeal to some and drive away others. It is about rational decision-making and no-nonsense communication with stakeholders in an ideal world. It reminds you about aspects you have to take in account assuming you can on your own get all the necessary information (how long, how difficult, how secure, expected growth, risks etc). It lacks good stories from the author's past.

[Simon Gianoutsos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does contain a bunch of good patterns and guidance of what to include in a Technology Strategy and a great starting point for what to include in an Architecture Definition. As a shopping list of things to consider putting in a strategy it is good, but reading through each of them was a bit dry.

[Gerhard Kessell-haak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good overview of useful techniques and patterns to assist when putting together a technology focussed strategy. I didn't personally find much that was new, but it is a nice compendium that you can leaf through when compiling your thoughts and figuring out how best to support and communicate your strategy.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An opinionated overview of the building blocks necessary to create an architecture strategy, this is a great guide for technologists who need to learn to begin working with the executive ranks. The book is a collection of business strategy exercises, facilitation techniques, and presentation advice. Recommended.

[Guillermo Ortiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive collection of tools specific for technical managers in big organisations such as tech consultancies or corporations. It's precisely my case so I've found it extremely useful and it will go into my toolset for my day to day activities. It's very clear, concise and straight to the point.

[Arun Mahendrakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a good number of patterns that will help to discuss with upper management/strategy members of an organization - with a in-depth focus on what and how to present information to build up a strong strategy model.

MECE, PESTEL, futures funnel and various forms of 2-by-2s are patterns that I'm guessing I will refer back to.

[Piotr Tomaszewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like framework-style books, and Technology Strategy Patterns fits into this category nicely.

The book is dedicated to the particular area of strategy development, so don’t get confused by the title - it is not about technology. Instead, you will find a set of helpful patterns that may foster your strategy development efforts, and you will be guided on how to use this knowledge. If you are developing an IT strategy, this book will give you all you need to succeed.

The target audience is Architects, and I think CxOs. They will have the most significant value in reading Technology Strategy Patterns.

The best parts for me are communication and mental models, analysis and decision making.
For me, the book was handy - healthy four stars.

[Jakub Jurkiewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

it has some useful parts but tries to be too smart at times

It can be a useful book for new technology leaders, even seasoned executives may find interesting bits. The book tries to be too smart and complex at times, and often presents one dimensional way of looking at things.

[Kiran K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along with concepts real life examples are well explained. This is one of my first books which helped me articulate non functional requirements to Senior leadership.

[Rafal Gruszczynski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of tools and techniques

Pretty basic collection of tools and techniques related to software and organisation building. In fact trying to some extent to map one onto the other. Interesting and can help organising things a bit better. Of limited value. You'd better invest your time elsewhere.

[Fausto De · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pragmatic lessons that an Architect can apply to talk with business people and executives

[Chester Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of meaningful insights and practical advice. If you're a technology leader or just interested in strategy you shouldn't miss out on this book.

[Nilendu Misra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful walkthrough if MECE, PESTEL and similar frameworks with great examples. However, the book could have been a long-form medium post. It can be skimmed in an hour or two with useful retention.

[Volodymyr Bilyachat · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's a book which I will keep in my collection. This book is like a beginning of a new journey and it has many references to other materials.