Fundamentals of Enterprise Architecture

With the increasing complexity of modern cloud-based systems, an effective enterprise architecture program is more critical than ever. In this practical book, author Tanu McCabe from Capital One provides proven frameworks and practices to define an effective enterprise architecture strategy—one that will enable software and enterprise architects to create and implement great architecture strategies.

You’ll learn how to create shared alignment across business and technology, embed architecture practices into processes and tooling, incorporate technology and business trends, and instill contextual understanding over siloed decision-making. Complete with examples of patterns and antipatterns, this book provides reusable templates, assessment tools, and practical advice.

With this book, you will:

• Understand exactly what enterprise architecture is, and why it’s important to build an effective enterprise architecture practice
• Learn who needs to be involved to define and implement architecture strategies
• Examine common pitfalls that inhibit effective architecture strategies
• Assess the current state of your organization’s architecture practice to identify opportunities for improvement
• Define your own architecture strategy at both an organizational and personal level by applying the book’s frameworks
• Enhance your ability to make great architecture decisions using the frameworks and lessons provided
• Tanusree (Tanu) McCabe is a distinguished engineer who leads public cloud strategy at CVS and formerly led enterprise architecture strategy at Capital One as an executive distinguished engineer.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Key Enterprise Architecture Concepts

Chapter 2. Key Strategy Objectives

Chapter 3. Shared Alignment

Chapter 4. Embedded and Accessible

Chapter 5. Enable and Enforce

Chapter 6. Proactive and Reactive

Chapter 7. A Very Short Manifesto for Effective Enterprise Architecture

Chapter 8. Contextual Understanding over Siloed Decision Making

Chapter 9. Tangible Direction over Stale Documentation

Chapter 10. Driving Behavior over Enforcing Standards

Chapter 11. Evolution over Frameworks

Chapter 12. Assessment Framework

Chapter 13. Framework to Define Enterprise Architecture Strategy

Chapter 14. Framework for Architecture Decision Making

About the Author

Tanusree (Tanu) McCabe is an Executive Distinguished Engineer (EDE) who leads enterprise architecture strategy at Capital One, positioning the company to take strategic advantage of modern technologies such as cloud. Her experience with enterprise-wide transformations such as moving to the cloud and adopting Agile, and her technical expertise with modern architecture styles such as microservices and serverless, gave her first hand insight into what is necessary for an effective enterprise architecture practice. Tanu presented at several conferences such as AWS Re:Invent and ServerlessConf, covering topics such as architecting for resiliency and serverless applications.

She is driven to inspire positive innovation to allow creative freedom to flourish, and this book is a way to do just that – it provides knowledge to empower others to practice enterprise architecture effectively to yield business outcomes and unleash technical innovation. This knowledge was gained by her own trials and tribulations leading enterprise architecture strategy.