To get the most out of this book

To be as practical in our approach as possible, we’ve made a few assumptions about you, your skill level, and your needs. First, we assume that you will know the basics of cybersecurity (or information security), such as a working knowledge of common security controls. Second, we assume a baseline of enterprise technology knowledge.

We’ve also assumed that the organization in which you will be applying the techniques we discuss is like most: one that could benefit from increased architectural rigor but where rigor itself is not an end goal. Larger organizations that systematically follow a highly rigorous process – or service providers with contractual requirements to do so – will find that we have scaled back or streamlined some elements of the process to make it accessible and achievable to smaller teams. In general, we have stated explicitly where, how, and why we have made these changes in the sections where we do so.

Lastly, we suggest (but it is not required) that you have one or more active problems to which you can apply the techniques in this book, meaning that you can apply the process sequentially as you learn it to the real-world challenges in your job. Being able to apply the concepts directly helps ensure that the principles are retained.