I spend more than a little amount of time on airplanes, as do many of us. I've learned to travel without liquids or gels, and have come to appreciate the special joys of that center seat at the back of the plane that doesn't recline, right next to the lavatories.
Some people listen to music, others pretend to work. Me, I like to read. I can plow through 1 or 2 good-sized books on a business trip. And I came across a great book that really did something for me, and maybe it'll do the same for you.
The book is "Enterprise Architecture As Strategy". It was written as an outgrowth of a research project. It is lucid, explanatory and data-driven. It is full of "aha!" moments of all sorts. It has lots of real-world useful examples that you could probably use today.
And it gives many of us who work in the IT industry a framework to understand how IT evolves in large organizations, and -- more importantly -- how vendors need to work differently with customers at each stage of their evolution.
For me, it helped to answer several questions I hadn't figured out. For example, I talk to 10-15 customer per month, and I've done this for many years. I know they all want something very different, but why? And why do I have to present and explain the same concepts very differently for each audience to communicate effectively? Why are these guys focused on product, and these other guys focused on vision? Why is this customer focused on cost reduction, and this other one on organization flexibilty?
I didn't have a mental model as to what I was seeing. Now I do. It's making my life easier, or -- at least -- a little more comprehensible.
And -- more importantly -- if you work in a large IT organization and are sometimes puzzled by the context of it all, read this book. It'll probably help you make sense of it all, and help you understand where your company is on the IT journey.
I had the pleasure of seeing one of the authors (David Robertson) present the material during a 90 minute presentation at an EMC customer event. If you work in a large IT shop, and are having an off-site, I think everyone found his material and style exceptional.
(No, I'm not getting a kickback here, although EMC was one of the sponsors of the original research)
Enough said -- the link appears on the right rail. Enjoy!
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