SOAPatterns.org

After SOA design patterns catalog was revealed for the first time in America at the Gartner Application ... Summit in Las Vegas now we have opportunity to get a first look at the material on line at SOAPatterns.org. SOA Design Patterns by is comprehensive catalog of SOA patterns.
Additionally SOAPatterns.org has ambitions to be a community site dedicated to SOA patterns. SOAPatterns.org publishes summarized versions of all patterns in the "SOA Design Patterns" book as well as candidate patterns made available for public review and feedback.

Good luck to SOAPatterns.org and Thomas Erl. Perhaps it will reach cult status equal to this of Portland Pattern Repository. I think that Thomas should consider similar format to PPR, to improve collaboration aspect of the repository.

Why does Enterprise Architecture Matter? by Simon Townson

Open Group in its architectural forum has just released interesting whitepaper by Simon Townson titled "Why does Enterprise Architecture Matter?".

The article focuses on Business Operations in context of Enterprise Architecture (EA). Chapter describing fundamentals of enterprise operations is very cleaver presentation of SAP EAF met-model concepts. For example, Simon writes: "Whether formally defined or not, the vision determines current business goals and the longer-term strategy. Goals are often broken down into shorter-term tactical objectives, owned by individual actors (i.e. employees or service providers), [...]" Brief look at this short exert reviles, key met model concepts such us: Vision, Goals and Actors.

Simon acknowledges that EA program proponents too often do not support their claims with EA benefits explanation and follows this thought by making a strong case for Enterprise Architecture. The Article explores key benefits of EA like strong IT to business strategy alignment, managed innovation within the enterprise and EA’s criticality to business survival.

Finally towards the end we find a simple taxonomy of EA benefits constructed around concepts such us: stakeholder, benefit type, benefit rationale and KPI.

Overall easy read pack with valuable information!

My Five ★ books rating system.

To keep track of my opinions about books I have read. I have established subjective rating system. It looks like this:

First ★
I manged to get trough entire book.

Second ★
There were simple, easy to understand concepts that I found usefully.

Third ★
The book covered complexed and usefully subjects that with some effort I was to comprehend.

Forth ★
It was smart. It was fun. It covered interesting and useful topics.

Fifth ★
It changed my way of thinking. Enlightening. Inspirational.