A Zachman Framework Populated with Baseball Models
23 May 10 - 00:00
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When searching the web for an answer to a question I got from a collegue I stumbled across the following link.
This link leads to a PowerPoint presentation from Terry Bahill of the
Systems and Industrial Engineering department of the University of
Arizona, on A Zachman Framework Populated with Baseball Models. To
explain the Zachman Framework mr. Bahill uses baseball as an example to
fill-in all cells in the framework. In the process he used scientific
documentation to describe all aspects of baseball.
I think this is an excellent way to show how the Zachman Framework can
be used in general, without going into an IT architecture discussion.
Building COTS solutions using EPIC
09 May 10 - 00:00
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The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute published in 2002 the Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-based systems (EPIC). The process is described in a 275 pages free to download paper.
The EPIC is meant as a guideline for building systems based on
Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components. The guideline describes the
steps to be taken to create systems starting from four "spheres of
influence". These spheres are:
- Stakeholder needs and business processes (requirements)
- Marketplace (what COTS technology is available)
- Architecture and Design (general setup of the system)
- Programmatic and risks (the management of the project)
The EPIC described a process to have these spheres overlap as much as
possible creating a coherent system based on the Rational Unified
Process (RUP). In the Inception and Elaboration phases the system is
designed by accumulating knowledge about the four spheres leading to
increased stakeholder buy-in.
The EPIC describes the steps to be taken to create a system, but I
found the last part of the document (section C) the most interesting.
In this section guidelines and artifacts are presented that can be used
as checklists when actually creating systems. It presents for instance
a market survey checklist describing the steps and questions one could
ask to market parties about their COTS products and component screening
criteria to evaluate COTS components. It even includes business process
change management guidelines to check the readiness of the organization
to work with COTS based solutions.
I found the EPIC very useful indeed and recommend it to anyone creating systems based on COTS products.
There is also a 
Master Certified IT Architect 
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
TOGAF Certified Architect