I have been working with several different perspectives on governance, strategy, it architecture and enterprise architecture. I have read several books on the three topics and as such I have been able to build a model for categorizing the literature.
The Model
The model is segmented into three different levels and three different categories. The first (vertical) category deals with information and how information is used. The second (vertical) category deals with strategy (you shouldn’t articulate a strategy that isn’t based on information). The third category (vertical) is about innovation since strategy is often about doing new things and do them well in order to move the enterprise.
The categories that are horizontal deals with different perspectives and as such as economy, organization and technology. There are some “blank” spaces in between the three horizontal categories and as such these should be seen as in the spectra of the three perspectives.
The various authors that I have organized in the model have been mentioned under the Harvard source notation standard e.g. Beer (1994).
The model is essentially constructed upon the same principles as Leavitt’s model for organizational and technological alignment which means that I can only recommend the reader to read books with-in all of the perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding of what Enterprise Architecture is all about. The model is of course a simplification of the reality.
Feel free to contact me if you feel that other books should be added to the model. You can contact me by comment this blog post or using the contact form.
Bibliography
Anderson, R.J., 2008. Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems 2nd ed., Wiley.
Andrew, J.P. & Sirkin, H.L., 2007. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation 1st ed., Harvard Business School Press.
Atkinson, A.A. et al., 2007. Management Accounting 5th (2007) ed., Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Baldwin, E.C., M, 2007. Managing IT Innovation for Business Value: Practical Strategies for IT & Business Managers: Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers, INTEL PRESS.
Beer, S., 1994a. Brain of the Firm 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons.
Beer, S., 1994b. The Heart of Enterprise New edition., John Wiley & Sons.
Bernard, S., A., 2005. An Introduction To Enterprise Architecture: Second Edition 2nd ed., AuthorHouse.
Broadbent, M. & Kitzis, E., 2004. The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School Press.
Brynjolfsson, E. & Saunders, A., 2009. Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy, MIT Press.
Ciborra, C., 2004. The Labyrinths of Information: Challenging the Wisdom of Systems, OUP Oxford.
Dietz, J.L.G., 2006. Enterprise Ontology: Theory and Methodology, Springer.
Doucet, G. et al., 2009. Coherency Management: Architecting the Enterprise for Alignment, Agility and Assurance, International Enterprise Architecture Institute.
Finkelstein, S., Harvey, C. & Lawton, T., 2006. Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double-Digit Growth, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Graves, T., 2008. Real Enterprise Architecture: Beyond IT to the Whole Enterprise, Tetradian Books.
Hoogervorst, J.A.P., 2009. Enterprise Governance and Enterprise Engineering, Springer.
Hoverstadt, P., 2008. Fractal Organization: Creating Sustainable Organizations with the Viable System Model, John Wiley & Sons.
Land, M.O. et al., 2008. Enterprise Architecture: Creating Value by Informed Governance, Springer.
Kaplan, R.S. & Norton, D.P., 2006. Alignment: How to Apply the Balanced Scorecard to Corporate Strategy illustrated edition., Harvard Business School Press.
Kaplan, R.S. & Norton, D.P., 2008. Execution Premium. Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Press.
Kaplan, R. & Atkinson, A.A., 1998. Advanced Management Accounting 3rd ed., Pearson Education.
Krafzig, D., Banke, K. & Slama, D., 2004. Enterprise SOA: Service Oriented Architecture Best Practices 1st ed., Prentice Hall.
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, P.B. & Lampel, J.B., 2008. Strategy Safari: The Complete Guide Through the Wilds of Strategic Management 2nd ed., Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
Potts, C., 2008. fruITion: Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology illustrated edition., Technics Publications, LLC.
Potts, C., 2010. RecrEAtion: Realizing the Extraordinary Contribution of Your Enterprise Architects, Technics Publications, LLC.
Prahalad, C.K. & Krishnan, M.S., 2008. The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Rogers, E.M., 2003. Diffusion of Innovations 5th ed., Simon & Schuster International.
Ross, J.W., Weill, P. & Robertson, D.C., 2006. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution illustrated edition., Harvard Business School Press.
Stamp, M., 2005. Information Security: Principles and Practice, WileyBlackwell.
Skarzynski, P. & Gibson, R., 2008. Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates illustrated edition., Harvard Business School Press.
Wagter, R. et al., 2005. Dynamic Enterprise Architecture: How to Make It Work 1st ed., Wiley.
Watkins, M.D., 2003. The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels First Edition., Harvard Business School Press.
Weill, P. & Ross, J., 2009. IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain, Harvard Business School Press.
Weill, P. & Ross, J.W., 2004. IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Harvard Business School Press.
Weick, K.E., 2000. Making Sense of the Organization, WileyBlackwell.
Weick, K.E. & Sutcliffe, K.M., 2007. Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty 2nd ed., Jossey Bass.
Woods, D. & Mattern, T., 2006. Enterprise SOA: Designing IT for Business Innovation 2nd ed., Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
The Coherency Architect 
The reason for why I have composed this comment is, that I have been contacted by various persons who would like more information on why the various books have been arranged as they are. I am in a situation where I don’t have too much time at hand, so I have only taken out some examples from the model.
As you probably have noted there are nine different perspectives that I have applied in order to gain an overview of the various good books on enterprise architecture (or somehow related to enterprise architecture) is on the market.
Potts’ “Fruition” from 2008 has been located under information due to I feel like the novel (is a work of fiction) deals with identifying what the Chief Information Officer (CIO) should do in order to gain an understanding of how the enterprise’s other managers think of strategy and how they should go on. Potts’ intention with the book is probably to emphasize a focus on investing in the enterprise, and as such focuses on the managers can create more value through their actions by including a person who has a great insight in what the enterprise does and how it works to be hold accountable on applying the systems (hardware, software, machinery etc.) that the enterprise invests in.
My view of what “Fruition” is all about might differ slightly on what Potts’ might think it is about. From my point of view (next generation enterprise architecture) the book really deals with identifying sources for strategic planning and make use of the information available in the social networks that consists of the various decision makers in the enterprise. The book is rather economics centric (or rather it focuses on business administration and management) and it is valuable on many different levels but I am of the opinion that the way it works the best from an enterprise architecture point of view is through the usage as an inspiration of taking actions based on a proper view of what the c-level executives and other decisions-makers to setup an enterprise architecture program that in a sense is born with a set of economics indicators that are likely to be supported by the management themselves.
Potts’ book titled “Recreation” (2010) is likewise written as a novel and it is based on fiction. The focus of the story is to introduce the focus of a market driven enterprise through applying the ideas and approaches of the enterprise architects have identified. As such I have identified the book as important to the strategy development of market driven strategies of the enterprises due to the novel explains how c-level executives can apply different approaches to ensure that their enterprises can deliver value to their customers. Due to the focus on power relations within the enterprise that the book deals with I have come to the conclusion that the enterprise architects can make use of the book to be inspired to apply their various enterprise architecture program to enable the enterprise to achieve better results by retaining customers. That is my reason for why I placed Potts’ books under the two different sections in the model.
Finkelstein’s book titled “the breakout strategy” is in reality a book on business models, but as such it addresses the problems of where to get more information on how the enterprise works. The information can be used to create a holistic understanding of what the enterprise should be about and as such it is rather easy to apply the models that the books proposes in order to gain an understanding of how the enterprise operates and how it should be operating in the future, and as such I feel that the book can be used as a source of inspiration to gain access to information that can enable the chief architect and the enterprise architects with scanning their environment for data that can be used in order get a better understanding of what is happening in the enterprise’s environment and how to deal with it.
I hope that this comment have answered the questions that you might have, and I invite all of you to comment this post if you need further information.
Kind regards,
Peter Flemming Teunissen Sjoelin.