The basis for an Enterprise Architecture IT project comes from the identification of the changes necessary to implement the enterprise or organisation's strategy, and the growing information needs arising from this, which increases the demand for the development of the IT system.
The development of an IT system can be carried out using an urbanisation approach i.e. building an IT system using the metaphor of a city. This concept is based on the fact that in constructing or reorganising information systems, the reconstruction and modernisation involves permanent elements, as are found in a city. Although relatively new, this approach has been successfully employed in a number of projects over the past few years.
The practical approach given in this book allows enterprises or organisations trying to safeguard the efficiency of their IT system, while minimising costs and risk, to implement the theory and put it into practice.
The approach uses urban planning as a metaphor, and is based on real case studies. While the book is a translation from French, the text reads well - it's the metaphorical vehicle that got in my way. I prefer bare-bones technical descriptions, so this is probably not a barrier for most readers, many of whom may appreciate the way this book is written.
Using the urbanization paradigm the book leads you through all of the key elements of good architecture - modularization and layering (this approach is based on a four layer reference framework), modeling and meta models, and rules. I found the focus on business requirements, roles and responsbilities and way the author links a functional architecture to a business architecture to be forward-thinking and more evidence of sound practices.
