Know what doesn’t come up in conversation all that often?  The EA Body of Knowledge document, created by MITRE.  Perhaps it is because the document really isn’t used in the commercial settings, or perhaps it is viewed as an overlap of TOGAF (which it isn’t).  Or perhaps, with no one actively promoting it, there is no awareness of it?  I’m not sure the reasons, but the document does exist. 

If you are interested in taking a look, you can find the EABOK at the following link:

 http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_papers/tech_papers_04/04_0104/04_0104.pdf

I will be looking over the EABOK in the coming weeks, looking at things like

  • Who wrote it and who will keep it up to date?
  • How does the book reflect the evolving field of Enterprise Architecture
  • What organizations use the document, and how is it used?
  • Who is required to read it and learn it?  What value would they get out doing so?

 

If you are familiar with the EABOK, and would like to help me to understand the answers to these and other EABOK questions, please contact me.

By Nick Malik

Former CIO and present Strategic Architect, Nick Malik is a Seattle based business and technology advisor with over 30 years of professional experience in management, systems, and technology. He is the co-author of the influential paper "Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture" with Dr. Brian Cameron that effectively defined modern Enterprise Architecture practices, and he is frequent speaker at public gatherings on Enterprise Architecture and related topics. He coauthored a book on Visual Storytelling with Martin Sykes and Mark West titled "Stories That Move Mountains".

4 thoughts on “Who among us uses the EABOK?”
  1. Hi Nick,  

    just reflect the original website and the document date … it's pure history.  I use this (ancient) document regularly to insure, that I am on trail and doing at least the basics in a proper manner. The same can be applied to PeaF and friends. For real work I go for TOGAF.

    Yours   Dirk

  2. With all due respect, Dirk, a publish date of 2004 is not pure history.  Most TOGAF certified architects are certified on a version of TOGAF that predates 2004.  Zachman Framework followers are rather proud of the fact that their framework is a decade older than that.  Most textbooks on EA were written before 2004.

    I've reached out to some of the authors listed in the document.  We shall see what they reply.

    — Nick

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