Credit where due: I was reviewing Jez Humble's Continuous Delivery and he delves into this issue in depth on pages 295-300.

Thanks. email me char AT erp4it.com and I can send you. Reviews on Amazon are always appreciated. I had many reviews on the 1st edition but Amazon has now split them away from the 2nd edition.

Great point Niek. Yes, these criteria should be part of standard RFI/RFP templates for tools in this space.

Peter, you anarchist. Next thing you'll be saying that knowledge is socially constructed. Chris... I guess I wind up going philosophical. Agree that shared meaning is essential. As a data architect, have spent many hours driving diverse stakeholders towards just that end. But what is "true meaning" and who determines it?

I think there is more we can do in profiling how information-rich a given enterprise's operating context is. Big data...

Of course, entrepreneurs are often bounded by limited resources. Should have noted that. This blog is a first draft.

Interesting point. What if it is a net new organization with a net new system?

Also I've gone round with whether "transactional" is essential. For me, it has connotations around discrete state management that are essential aspects of applied computation. Walking down the street is participating in an "information-rich" environment, but it's not particularly transactional. David McGoveran (http://www.alternativetech.com/) has a 7 part series "Understanding Business Transactions" that greatly influenced my thinking here and I'd recommend. (You have to register on his site.)

Mark, I like it. Nice and concise. Things like this can always be elaborated, but it is good to start simple.

Glad you like it. One thing you can do is focus on how IT becomes constrained: 1. Failure to deliver the expected services 2. Failure to evolve those services There are variations on these, but they are the essential two.

Author's note: I wrote this before reading Don Reinertsen's work. Highly recommended.

Population wise, workstations may be more likely to have a 1:1 relationship between Machine and OS. But my Mac has both a Windows and a Mac partition. It's 1:2 for many such Macs. At the end of the day, it's all about the value of the information. If there is value for you (e.g. in avoiding software licensing issues) in tracking workstation OSes separate from the devices, then you need both entities. If you don't need the data for any business process, then don't bother - just collapse the Machine and OS entities. The 2005 paper is superseded by the book. Thanks much for the compliment, an Amazon review saying the same thing would be much appreciated.

I have been concerned also about the readability of the Kindle version. Do you have any issues along those lines?

Actually, we held the final manuscript until I obtained ITIL 2011 (timing was very tight) and I updated all ITIL references to 2011. Thanks for your supportive words, and if you could put same into an Amazon review I'd be eternally grateful. Charlie

Thanks! Hope the second edition is a step forward for them.