Building Corporate Portals With XML (Enterprising Computing) |
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| Clive Finkelstein, Peter G. Aiken, John A. Zachman |
| October 1999, Computing McGraw-Hill, Paperback, 529 pages, ISBN 0079137059
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Topics covered: Strategic business planning, data
modeling, metadata analysis and engineering, XML business reengineering,
and quality initiatives.
The author, Clive Finkelstein and Peter Aiken,
October 1, 1999
Overview of the Book
When we wrote "Building Corporate Portals with XML", Peter Aiken
and I were concerned that XML and Enterprise Portals (to use their alternative
name) would be seen as yet another silver bullet. XML and its related
technologies are exciting, and they certainly have great potential. But
to achieve that potential requires effort. Our focus therefore was not
to cover the technologies exhaustively (as they are still evolving) but
instead to provide enterprise guidance for the Design, Development and
Deployment of Enterprise Portals, using XML as one of several enabling
technologies.
The industry is in the early stages of the application of XML to the
development of Enterprise Portals. Some Enterprise Portals will evolve
from Data Warehouses. Others will emerge from the integration of dissimilar
systems using XML - helping to integrate structured data in relational
databases and legacy systems with unstructured data in text documents,
reports, email, graphics, images, audio and video resources. New business
process opportunities and systems will emerge. Existing processes will
be reengineered to take advantage of these new opportunities. We will
all be surprised by what changes from the impossible (yesterday) to the
possible, tomorrow.
XML and Enterprise Portals both depend on knowledge of the metadata -
the jargon or terminology; the language - used within an enterprise. Like
people who speak different languages, communication without a language
dictionary is very difficult, if not impossible. Without enterprise metadata,
any communication between dissimilar systems using XML is also very difficult,
if not impossible.
We therefore structured the book not as a definitive text on the technologies,
as they are rapidly evolving. Instead we focused on methods, well known
and based on Information Engineering and Enterprise Engineering concepts,
to set down the steps that enterprises can follow to gain advantage from
the new opportunities that will emerge.
Part 1 (Enterprise Portal Design) presents strategic business
planning and data modeling methods that are used with methods for strategic
modeling and decision early warning. We show how these forward engineering
methods are used to define the knowledge and metadata needed by new systems
to realize the opportunities presented by Enterprise Portals and XML.
Part 2 (Enterprise Portal Development) recognizes that no enterprise
operates in a vacuum; there are existing databases and systems that will
need to be reverse engineered to enable the metadata from these resources
to be utilized - so they can be integrated with new systems and databases
defined in Part 1.
Using the enterprise metadata identified in Parts 1 and 2,
Part 3 (Enterprise Portal Deployment) introduces XML concepts.
It then shows how XML is used as a technology for Business Reengineering
and Systems Reengineering. It introduces a number of products to assist
in the design, development and deployment of Enterprise Portals - including
modeling tools to automatically generate XML metadata tags and definition
files, XML database products, Enterprise Portals, text mining and information
dissemination products. |
Foreword Acknowledgments Permissions
Introduction
Pt. 1. Enterprise Portal Design
- Ch. 1. Enterprise Portal Concepts
- Ch. 2. Strategic Business Planning: Designing Tomorrow, Today
- Ch. 3. Data Modeling: A Window into the Enterprise
- Ch. 4. Strategic Modeling: A Map for the Future
- Ch. 5. Engineering Enterprise Portals: Implementing Decision Early Warning
Pt. 2. Enterprise Portal Development
- Ch. 6. Metadata Analysis Dimensions
- Ch. 7. Metadata Engineering Activities
- Ch. 8. Metadata Types
- Ch. 9. Metadata Quality
- Ch. 10. Metadata Project Example
Pt. 3. Enterprise Portal Deployment
- Ch. 11. The Internet and XML: The Future of Metadata
- Ch. 12. Using XML as a Business Reengineering Technology
- Ch. 13. Enterprise Portals and Reengineering Technologies
- Ch. 14. Implementing Organizational Quality Initiatives
- Ch. 15. The Central Role of Enterprise Portals
Index |
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"Corporate Portals unlock essential information from both structured
data in relational databases and legacy systems and unstructured data
in all documents and graphic files. Corporate Portals provide access to
the cumulative knowledge resources of an organization through a single
corporate gateway."--BOOK JACKET.
"Building Corporate Portals with XML provides a foundation to implement
this revolutionary knowledge management technology. The book takes the
reader from the planning stages to creating and implementing a Corporate
Portal using the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The book also clearly
explains how to convert data from a legacy system into a modern Corporate
Portal."--BOOK JACKET.
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Review-Date: 9/2/2002 Rating: 1 Summary: What a waste!
This book wastes quite a few things, very respected names like Finkelstein, Aiken and Zachman and lots of pages. It will waste your time as well. This book is a vague attempt on connecting XML with information engineering.
Review-Date: 12/7/2001 Rating: 1 Summary: Book from the 1980‘s?
The first 300 pages of this book read more like a systems design book from the late ‘80‘s than an up–to–date treatise on portals and the use of XML.
The rest of the book jumps glosses over XML, reengineering tecnnology, "Organizational Quality Initiatives", and the all important final chapter, " The Central Role of Enterprise Portals" starts by fawning over a Microsoft XML web site that illustrates how you can convert some of your old applications and spends 15 of the 50 pages in the chapter giving a poor description of those 9 ‘scenarios‘.
Unless your data systems are mired in the late ‘80s information architecture described in this book, you‘d be best served by a more modern approach to data presentation and distribution.
Review-Date: 6/14/2000 Rating: 2 Summary: Disappointed
This book assumes you already are knowledgable in most areas. Wanted to know more about XML and portals. Actually, found nothing useful. Very little about XML. Examples and guide are for a portal someone else already built. I don‘t want someone else‘s portal.
Review-Date: 5/5/2000 Rating: 1 Summary: This is Not an XML book
I‘m a programmer and sometime–architect. I was looking for a book that identified (1) Why XML is useful and (2) How to use it. This book is over 500 pages long; about 20 pages of it have XML on them. If you‘re a practical person looking to get up to speed quickly, look elsewhere.
Review-Date: 4/13/2000 Rating: 1 Summary: What‘s in a Name?
Good description of Data Warehousing techniques, etc but NOREAL HELP for XML Portal builders. I may be a little critical since Irun a PS organization that does this but really, there isn‘t much meat here around anything new. The title is only a clever marketing ploy and the writers admit as much in the intro. Pass it on by unless you need to understand DataWarehousing in General and are trying to sneak it by your manager as an "XML book".Better for Data Warehousers is the Data Warehouse Life Cycle Toolkit by Kimball.
Review-Date: 3/2/2000 Rating: 5 Summary: It‘s My Professional "Bible"
This book is an excellent single reference and "how to" for Enterprise Engineering, Data Warehousing, Corporate (Enterprise) Portal Deployment, Metadata Management, and Business Reengineering. In addition it provides an overview of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and describes the uses and value of XML in support of these methods and practices. I have never read a more thorough description of the activities necessary for an enterprise to deliver the right information, regardless of source or format, to the right people, in the right form, and on demand. That alone justifies buying and using this book as my professional "Bible." The authors have also included practical advice and procedures for fully using the power of the Internet, intranets, and extranets to not only deliver quality information, but also transform enterprises to ensure their success in the 21st Century. As if that weren‘t enough, this book is a virtual "treasure map" that can guide visionary individuals and enterprises through the perpetual dangers of rapidly changing environments to the reward of information systems that fully support enterprise goals and strategies. For over ten years, I have been a successful practitioner of many of the methods and techniques described by the authors, and I found the book to contain well–written, comprehensive descriptions of those methods. I also found many more techniques and practices that are both new and inspired, which will be of great value in my consulting practice. I highly recommend this book to any information technology professional, regardless of experience. It should become your most valued reference. I also recommend that business analysts, management consultants, and enterprise managers acquire this book. Even though you may not be charged with "building enterprise portals," applying the concepts and methods contained in this book will make your jobs easier and may even be the key to your success.
Review-Date: 2/19/2000 Rating: 5 Summary: Very pleasently surprised
I picked this book up expecting to acquire a working knowledge of how XML is used in the building of corporate portals. I anticipated wading through a myriad of coding examples and references to this ERP and to that language. I thought I would find a logical road map of how to use my company‘s metadata and XML to open new arenas in the realm of e–commerce. I was anticipating an academic treatise. I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the title of the book was somewhat misleading. The book is actually a text constructed to educate the reader on the design, development and functionality of corporate portals. If you are looking for a book that you will be able to refer to as a guide to acquire a better understanding of corporate portals, I would highly suggest this book. It is both educational and enjoyable to read. But, if you are searching for a book to function as a technical journal that focuses only on metadata and XML, you should look elsewhere
Review-Date: 1/26/2000 Rating: 1 Summary: This book is not very useful if you are a practitioner
On page xxii of the introduction, the authors say :–"The methods in this book define a methodolgy". I looked but could not find any methodology it in the following 500+ pages, and I like reading.If you are teacher you might find this book useful, if you are a research worker you will not find anything new, and if you are a practitioner, skim through it in a book store before deciding whether to buy it.
Review-Date: 12/1/1999 Rating: 1 Summary: A Tedious and Exhausting Read
An overly academic presentation of the subject matter. Tedious and exhausting to read. Chapter after chapter of definitions and abstractions that complicate the subject matter rather than elucidate it. Not a nuts and bolts explanation of how to effectively use XML in a corporate setting.
Review-Date: 10/22/1999 Rating: 5 Summary: Excellent presentation of architecture!
This is a fabulous book! There is something for everyone: business executives, IS management, techies, everyone.The work is well written, filled with excellent examples, comprehensive. There are examples of approaches to architecture, methodologies for modeling, explanations and examples of XML, business reasons to pursue these things, etc. I am encouraged every time I see someone providing an excellent presentation of the holistic approach to architecture. I am frustrated every time I see a company rush to the web, getting excited about the shiny new front–end toys, and not being successful because the real problem is in the legacy that shackles the company. A new front end will not provide information by itself. That is a point thoroughly made by this book. Technology is only one part of an information portal. And, perhaps, it is the easy part. "To achieve the true flexibility and information support that is offered by Enterprise Portals, organizations must integrate and use their information and knowledge resources more effectively than they do today. This knowledge integration depends on the establishment of an Enterprise Architecture..." pp. 508–509. Some people already embrace this. This book will help others to "get it". Unfortunately, some will never get it. Thank you Mr. Finkelstein and Mr. Aiken. Great Work!!!
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