Latest Forrester Wave on Enterprise Architecture Management Suites

In this month, Forrester has published Forrester Wave on Enterprise
Architecture Management Suites (EAMS). The EAMS market is not so well
defined, so I guess Forrester is trying to establish this product
category through this report. It has identified 10 vendors, which
offer products that closely matches the Forrester definition of EAMS.
It has identified Mega, Troux, Software AG and Alfabet as leaders with
following comments:
1. Mega is the most advanced second-generation EA tool migrating to
EAMS with strong GRC.
2. Troux Technologies is the strongest for standards and application
portfolio management.
3. Software AG promises the best business connection to EAMS.
4. Alfabet is the thought leader and a defining force in the EAMS category

Forrester has further identified Metastrom, IBM, Casewise, Avolution
and The Salamander Organization as Strong Performers with following
comments:
1. Metastorm offers interesting technologies to become an EAMS player.
2. IBM offers a modular approach to EAMS adoption.
3. Casewise builds on its ease of use to construct an EAMS strategy.
4. Avolution is a newcomer with a surprisingly strong showing.
5. The Salamander Organization provides a toolbox and services to
build your own EAMS.

Finally there is one vendor - BiZZdesign, which has been named as
Contender as it provides a strong second-generation EA tool but lags
in the EAMS space.

Though this report would be useful for Enterprise Architects in
general, it would have become more useful if it had contained more
discussion about this product category itself.

Book review: Head First Data Analysis

Data analysis is a relatively complex topic. Hence it is nice to see a
very different and welcoming treatment as used in this this book. This
book is a learning guide on topics such as optimization, hypothesis
testing, bayesian statistics, regression, etc. Each chapter uses a
case study to discuss the topic. The book makes use of a lot of
pictures and exercises to provide conceptual understanding and to keep
you awake while reading! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book while
(re)learning otherwise complex topics. I highly recommend this book to
all those who are new to data analysis and wish to enjoy learning the
same!

I give five stars (out of five) rating for this book!

Book Review: "Psychological Testing at Work" by Edward Hoffman

If you are generally interested in knowing about what kind of psychological tests that could be used in workplace then this is an excellent book to read. It provides an extensive survey of several dozens of psychological tests, classified by the purpose they serve.

What I liked the most is chapter three briefly covering history of workplace testing. Then there is another chapter (#7) that is dedicated to probably the most popular psychological test at workplace – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Other chapters that could be of interest include the ones covering tests related to leadership and emotional intelligence.

In all, it is a book to read if you do not know much about psychological tests but wish to know the basics within few hours.