Eating the IT Elephant: Moving from Greenfield Development to Brownfield
Richard Hopkins and Kevin Jenkins explain why accumulated business and IT complexity is the root cause of large-scale project failure and show how to overcome that complexity "one bite of the elephant at a time." You'll learn how to manage every phase of the Brownfield project, leveraging breakthrough collaboration, communication, and visualization tools--including Web 2.0, semantic software engineering, model-driven development and architecture, and even virtual worlds.
This book will help you reengineer new flexibility and agility into your IT environment…integrate more effectively with partners ... prepare for emerging business challenges ... improve system reuse and value ... reduce project failure rates ... meet any business or IT challenge that requires the evolution or transformation of legacy systems.
Review By: Siva Krishnajee
12/31/2008This good book sheds light on how enterprises should manage an IT department and projects. The authors point out the exact difficulty in managing the systems and how to sort through these difficulties. The topics discussed in the book will be really helpful for IT and project managers in the long run.
Shelf life for this book could be seven to ten years as this book does not emphasize exclusively on any specific technology. It only mentions the methodology or the process that an enterprise should use for the IT program and project management. In IT, tools are generally short-lived. Things like operating systems, databases, and ERP and CRM (few of them) have longer life spans. Hence, the methodologies are the kind of things or tools that the authors of this book suggest may evolve or change over a period of time.
The book, written in plain, readable English language, doesn't contain a lot of jargon. Also, I like the real world examples the authors have included in this book. Their presentation of the complex topics with appropriate pictures is also good.
The book provides detail on the general current issues that the IT industry is facing. Using the methodologies suggested in the book may take time as implementing the suggestions has to be done at the enterprise level, not at a project or group level. Hence, using the knowledge gained through the book will take time. Approval of the higher level management and thorough planning is required for complete implementation.
This book is meant for IT and enterprise architects and other expert-level professionals. They are the ones who will be able to understand the concepts and issues discussed in the book.
Most of the real world examples that the book mentions are from the projects in United Kingdom. It would have been nicer to note some of the examples from all around the world. Also, authors could have mentioned future issues the industry might face with the currently emerging technologies.
Overall, this is a good book for people in the enterprise IT management role. It provides details on the current complexities, how to solve those issues, and the tools that can be used to sort out the issues.