Chess and the Art of Enterprise Architecture

I read this as part of a work book club last year and the conversations it generated, as well as the observations that have stuck with me, have been invaluable. For me this book was packed with points I keep coming back to. It was also enjoyable to read and thankfully short.Wierda's approach is highly pragmatic and appropriately challenging of how we've been doing things. Important questions include, is there much point in writing guidance if no one has time to read it? Is there much point in governance if there is no real power behind it? And, can any single architect embody the knowledge needed to make architectural decisions?I have used the image of the "virtual enterprise architect" many times since reading this and although it doesn't always work for the audience (I think it takes some experience and humility to accept it), it is always helpful for me in thinking about the right next step. I would recommend the book to any senior architect or senior IT leader.

I enjoyed the book, though, too much was dedicated to why EA doesn't work and not enough about how it might work... kind of scratching my head...

If you're at all interested in enterprise architecture, read this book. It provides a unique perspective on the successes and failings of the discipline. It does this while being extremely readable (even made me laugh a few times). I gained a lot from reading it, and still frequently refer back.

The book crystalizes the essence of the EA profession with its challenges and pitfalls. Unlike most EA books, it is beautifully written and easy to read. I love the mix of philosophical and practical angles. I am going to include this text as a must-read for my graduate EA students.

recommended

The structure of the writing is abhorrent. Each page has several footnotes that are inserted into the middle of sentences. In some cases, those footnotes have footnotes on the next page. It’s hard to make it through to the real concepts when you are constantly jumping around, only to find that the footnote is just talking about Wittgenstein and adds nothing to the sentence you were in the middle of reading. If it’s that important, the author should put it in the main body of text, and if not then leave it out completely. The author seems overly impressed with his non-sequiturs which only increase my desire to defenestrate* this book.* throwing a thing out of a window+, such as the scene in Braveheart where King Edward demonstrates with Phillip.+ fenestra -Latin

Excellent boo!. Every architect and aspiring architect should read this book.

I, as an enterprise & domain architect, wrestle in practice with questions like:- how to make EAs goals/concerns common to all involved- how to get/set my place in the governance structure- how to setup my EA team and collaboration- how to acquire/bundle the knowledge needed for a specific domain/assignment- how to handle uncertainty in current and future requirements- how to be effective in the agile change practiceI have seen and done my bit of ineffective practices using all available tools, approaches and frameworks.This book gives a detailed vision and system that provides a new set of answers to these questions. It is practical and it is detailed enough for me to start using. It is consistent and bolt in its statements. It has been developed in a learning process seeking for effectiveness. All of which I like.Highly recommended if you want new impulses for your EA practice.

Overall a good read with some useful insights, especially about the failure of traditional "big bang" EA approaches. I would recommend it, but I'd like to see a new edition which could easily improve some areas.It's really good on pragmatic advice "from the trenches", which is often lacking in these types of book, so for that alone it's worth a read.A couple of stars deducted (maybe a bit harshly, I think 3.5 stars might be more fair) because:- the author's non-native English, coupled with quite a few examples of poor editing (typos, some grammatical errors) can make it hard to read in places. It's never impossible to follow, but there are places where some tighter editing would really improve the book. It reads as "translated to English" in many places.- the author's definitions of many parts of cloud computing are strange, eg "examples of IaaS are Azure or AWS", from p175 footnote. I think this may really be another example of the language / grammar problem, because the author clearly understands how cloud use can simplify or complicate things, but again it dilutes the impact of the book. There are a few other instances like this in the rest of the book, though this one was the most obvious to me (having spent the last 4 years working on Azure hosted systems).- the end of the book, describing specific suggested approaches, feels a bit thin compared to the start of the book which describes current state of the industry. Eg the PSA chapter. I got more from the book's "this is why X fails" than from its later "I suggest this" parts.3 stars seems a bit like damning with faint praise, but I'd still recommend this, esp given the price compared to other books in the field.

Really appreciated reading this book on my journey into Enterprise Architecture. It covers aspects that more technical oriented books won't be looking at, in an easy language that will please most readers.Real life experience is shared by the author, simplifying the understanding factor and giving great insight on what matters in the domain.

I'm reading about different ways of managing projects and this has a few interesting ideas such as not bothering with the roadmap approach for architecture maps. He explains why it doesn't work and suggests other ways to look at the problem.

Speaking as an EA with 32 years of experience I believe that some of the conclusions are highly questionable and much of the rest is motherhood and apple pie

I much enjoyed reading the book Chess and the Art of Enterprise Architecture because it explains in a lucid and pleasant way the various pitfalls and success factors of EA. As a practitioner, I recognize the many anecdotes and typical cultural intricacies.The book is not about standard methods and formalisms, but compares two traditional orthodoxies with the advocated EA “chess setup” and R&R for the checks & balances. While this comparison is already making the book worthwhile purchasing, the annexes throw in extra goodies in the form of guidance on current & future state architecture and project architecture specification.