The following is a collection of information resources, articles, and references that can be used to develop a greater understanding of some of the areas of professional development within the information technology industry.

Recent White Papers and Articles

• Professional IT Practice Areas
• Introduction to the Natural Process
• Embedded Quality Management (eQM)
• Combining the NP Advanced Lifecycle™ and Spiral Development Practices

Natural Process Certified™ Training Resources

• Natural Process Training Co. - provides Natural Process™ professional IT workshops, training, and certification programs
• Accent Global System Architects, LLC - provides organizational certification and IT process improvement training

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Enterprise Architecture (EA) takes an approach at developing a greater understanding of business processes, technology assets, and infrastructure. Some basic terminology includes "As-Is", or what exists today, and "To-Be", which reflects what is the vision or goal in the future.

Enterprise Architecture fits into the Natural Process Framework as a tool that is used to better understand an organization, its requirements, business processes, and technology topology (i.e. servers, infrastructure, etc.). It is not intended to be used as an information systems architecture or design. Instead, it is used by our analysts to define the problem which needs to be solved and the target state of an organization.

Technical Resources

• Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA) - an industry leader in enterprise architecture research and development.
• Federated Enterprise Architecture Certification (FEAC) Institute
• The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)™

Service Oriented Architecture

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a set of principles and best practices that are applied to an information systems architecture. These principles help to build more flexible, stable, and integrated systems. These differ from Object Oriented (OO) programming in that they apply to a more macrosystem level as opposed to at the code or programming level. OO programming improves the quality of a code component, SOA improves the quality of the overall system.

Technical Resources

• IBM - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - IBM is a prominent SOA thought leader

Information Systems Architecture Resources

Within the Natural Process, Information Systems Architecture involves the translation of requirements or enterprise architecture into a plan, an architeture, and a design. In short it translates an enteprise architecture into a service oriented architecture.

Technical Resources

• Worldwide Institute of Software Architects (WWISA) - links to interesting information regarding software architecture books, philosophy, training, and other resourcess

Project/Program Management

Within the Natural Process, project and program management are essential to the implementation of successful solutions. It is our philosophy that project managers are developed through structured training. In addition, we believe that the most effective project and program managers come from careers as analysts, engineers, or architects within the information technology industry.

Technical Resources

• Project Management Institute (PMI) - The Project Management Institute is an industry recognized provider of project and program management related training and certification

Quality Assurance Resources

Within the Natural Process, quality assurance is more than just software testing. It involves a disciplined approach to ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all specifications and artifacts related to the architecture, design, and implementation of a information technology solution. This includes user documentation and training, communications, and support documentation.

Technical Resources

• Quality Assurance Institute Worldwide (QAI)

Requirements Analysis and Design

The Natural Process subscribes to the philosophy that requirements analysis and design are inseparably intertwined processes. This approach solves many of the current problems associated with conventional requirements processes.

Standards Based Resources

• Carnegie Mellon, Software Engineering Institute (SEI) - development and management of the SEI Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI), a IT process appraisal methodology
• The Open Group - the Open Group is a
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)® - Official Site

Disclaimer: The links on this page are for research and reference reasons only. The Natural Process Foundation may not endorse the particular views of any of these organizations.