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About the Book

This book shares my approach to running an IT architecture practice in larger organizations based on my experience as Chief Architect at AVIV Group, eBay Classifieds, and Adevinta.

I call my approach “Grounded Architecture” to highlight the need for any IT architecture function to stay well-connected to all levels of an organization and led by data. 

Grounded Architecture has two main parts:

• Structure, elements you need to create in an organization to run Grounded Architecture practice and “ride” an architecture elevator, and
• Reflections, a set of my considerations and guiding principles that can help put the ideas of Grounded Architecture into practice.

The Grounded Architecture structure consists of three elements:

• Data Pillar,
• People Pillar,
• Architecture Activities Platform.

The Data Pillar ensures that architects’ decisions are data-informed, based on an up-to-date and complete overview of the organization’s technology landscape.

The People Pillar represents a strong network of people doing architecture across the organization that is crucial to ensure that architecture function has any tangible impact.

Lastly, the Architecture Activities Platform defines a set of processes and agreements enabling architects to do everything architecture typically does, leveraging data and people pillars to create a data-informed, organization-wide impact.

As reflections, I provide key lessons I learned while developing ideas of Grounded Architecture in practice:

• Architects as Superglue
• Skills
• Impact
• Leadership
• Architects’ Career Paths
• Culture Map: Architects’ Culture Mindfield Compass
• Managing Organization Complexity: Six Simple Rules
• In the Eye of the Storm: Aligning Business, Product, Technology and Organization Strategies
• Product Development and The Build Trap
• Architecture Governance: Mandates, Taxation, Nudge
• Economic Modeling: ROI and Financial Options

About the Author

Željko Obrenović

@zeljko_obren

Željko Obrenović (http://obren.io) is a Chief Architect at AVIV Group. Before joining AVIV Group, he worked as a Principal Architect at eBay Classifieds, a CTO of Incision, a principal consultant at the Software Improvement Group (SIG) in Amsterdam, a consultant at Backbase, an assistant professor at the Technical University in Eindhoven, and a researcher at CWI.