Review By: Britt E. Cluff
09/24/2010

Readers looking for a reference book with a long shelf-life should add this book to their library. It is written in an academic style, much like a college text book, which makes it somewhat difficult to read cover-to-cover. It is an excellent reference on topics such as: fundamentals of enterprise networks, software reliability and risk management, and radio frequency identification (RFID). It will be most beneficial for experienced readers with several years experience in multiple areas of information technology.

The first section of the book provides exhaustive details on the topic of enterprise networks. It gets pretty deep technically, so be prepared for a lot of terms and descriptions that are difficult to understand. If the subject matter were presented at a higher-level, it would be easier to read and more valuable for the average reader.

The next section of the book focuses on the topic of software and service architectures. This section isn't as deep as the prior section but does provide a good overview of several architecture styles. It covers service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process management (BPM), and overall enterprise architecture.

The section I found most valuable was sixth section: management of integration. The authors provide valuable insight into the complexity of managing enterprise projects that involve integration. The chapters on managing virtual project teams and salvaging projects in trouble are definitely worth reading. The reader should develop a much better understanding of the human, technological, and operational contexts that are involved with managing virtual teams. Additionally, this section covers the communicational, relational, and functional processes that impact all the interactions of virtual teams which are critical to the success of the team and the project. Finally, the section reviews, e.g., when trying to salvage a project in trouble, avoid the trap of a quick solution. If the project team decides to lower quality in order to create time, it will only incur technical debt and long term loss as this solution will be much more costly to support and maintain.

In conclusion, although this is a very long book that gets very technical in some areas, I suggest keeping it in your library for reference material. The amount of detail covered in several sections and the extensive list of acronyms with definitions makes it well worth the cost.