Part 1: Business-Aligned Architecture and the Problems It Solves

This first part of the book is not technical at all and aims to provide a good understanding of what business-/IT-alignment is all about. It explains the difficulties and shortcomings in existing information systems and how some industrialization approaches may help overcome these problems. This is useful for anyone confronted with digital transformation. People with an IT system that does not deliver on its functional promises is hard to evolve, and is not cost-effective should also get a better understanding of why this is the case. After explaining causes and symptoms, this part of the book proposes a theoretical approach in the form of a utopic system that would be free of all these shortcomings and will guide our work in the next parts.

This part includes the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, The Sad State of Information Systems
• Chapter 2, Applying Industrial Principles to Software
• Chapter 3, Reaching Business Alignment
• Chapter 4, Dealing with Time and Technical Debt
• Chapter 5, A Utopic Perfect IT System