Well, I have to get ready for my graduate thesis now.

At first, I would take some time to read books written by Peter Weill and some other authors about the relation between business and IT. I’d like to take the relation between business and IT as my graduate thesis. I hope in this area, I can find something interesting.

overview of the book

l chapter 2: introduce the first discipline for creating the foundation for execution: the operating model and its two key dimensions—business process standardization and integration. Four different types of operating models are described: Unification, Coordination, Replication, and Diversification.

l Chapter 3: introduce the second discipline for creating the foundation for execution: the enterprise architecture. The key elements—digitized business processes, IT infrastructure, shard data, and customer interfaces—are indentified and linked in the enterprise architecture. The one-page core diagram is introduced, and comparative diagrams are developed for each of the four operating models.

l Chapter 4: the four stages of enterprise architecture maturity: business silos, standardized technology, optimized core, and business modularity.

l Chapter 5: how companies get unique business benefits at each of the four stage s of maturity by using various management practices and roles. We explain how achieving these benefits require implementing different management mechanisms at each stage to formalize organizational learning.

l Chapter 6: The third discipline for creating the foundation for execution: the IT engagement model. The IT engagement model has three ingredients; IT governance, project management, and linkages connecting the two. A good engagement model enables a company to build its foundation one project at a time.

l How outsourcing can contribute to enterprise architecture maturity but warn that outsourcing success is far from guaranteed. To improve the likelihood of success, we show how to use the operating model and enterprise architecture to determine what and when to outsource. We distinguish between three different types of outsourcing—strategic partnerships, co-sourcing alliances, and transaction relationships.

l Chapter 8: make the urgent case for increased agility in companies that must compete in a global economy.

l Chapter 9: summarizes the key ideas in the book with a review of the symptoms of an ineffective foundation for execution. We follow with a set of six steps for rethinking your foundation for execution. Then we provide ten leadership principles for building and leveraging a foundation for execution.