System theory for architects https://bit.ly/2yXGImr	Epistemology
“The most important work on EA and applied System Theory today.” “Makes EA more powerful, coherent and usable.” “I read and regularly refer… way beyond any other EA/system engineering/human factors/systems theory resource.” “I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your musings on systems… exceptionally useful”.	Descriptions <create and use> <represent> Describers <observe & envisage> Realities
Blurb Preface Comments Slide show	Home page

General	1 System thinkers & their ideas	1 Ashby’s six fundamentals	1 A psycho-biological philosophy	1 The relevance of systems to EA
Current thinking	Systems 2 Systems in general 3 System change - intro 4 Social systems thinking - intro 5 Critical system thinking etc 6 Thinkers before systems thinking 7 Systems thinking vocabulary	Third order cybernetics 2 Complexity science 3 System change varieties 4 Social networks and systems 5 Second order cybernetics 6 Self-organising systems 7 Third order cybernetics 8 System coupling varieties	System science and philosophy 2 Systems science or poetry? 3 The physics of systems 4 Memories and messages 5 Language and logic 6 Systems as complex types 7 Triangular philosophies	Enterprise architecture 2 Enterprises as systems 3 EA as applied system theory 4 TOGAF as applied system theory 5 EA and social systems thinking 6 Premises of EA and TOGAF 7 EA and philosophy
Background	System Dynamics	Classical cybernetics	More on complexity and science
	Forrester and Meadows’ ideas System stability and change System Dynamics methodology Discrete event-driven systems (DEDS) Converting discrete to continuous	Ashby’s classical cybernetics Ashby’s law of requisite variety Cybernetics intro Information feedback loops Ashby’s cybernetics wrt EA	What is a complex system? Complexity measurement Complex adaptive systems Complexity explained? – part 1 Complexity explained? – part 2 Relativity v quantum mechanics	Idealisation in system theory Abstraction from “the real machine” Abstraction in the eternal golden braid Abstraction varieties and typology
Other systems thinkers	Systems thinkers	Systems thinkers	More sociological thinking	The schism
	Ackoff’s ideas Beer’s ideas Bertalanffy’s ideas Boulding’s ideas Clemson’s ideas - slide show Checkland’s ideas	Von Foerster’s ideas Maturana’s ideas Luhmann’s ideas Marx and Engels’ ideas Snowden’s ideas	Bausch’s overview More sociological perspectives Ackoff’s system classes System types People types	The schism in systems thinking EA, GST and social system thinking Social entities v. social systems Actors, roles and assignments
General system ideas	System ideas 1	System ideas 2	More about systems	Older GST musing
	Introducing system ideas Holism and emergent properties Encapsulation The primacy of behavior Determinism and hysteresis	Goal-directedness Hierarchical (v network) organisation Chaos and non-linear behaviour Predictability and probability Agility	The elements of systems Primacy of external and behavioural views Terms and concepts in system description The anatomy of the reference model Formalising system description	System state: entities and identities Homeostasis and control Hierarchies and lattices. ISO 42010 in a nutshell What ISO 42010 means ISO change proposal
Description and Reality	Description theory	Musings	More musing	Type theory
	A philosophy of systems Description theory Description Communication Information Language, logic and data Fuzzy types and fuzzy instantiation	Mental models and how brains work The magic number seven Other information theories Taxonomies and ontologies The evolution of description	Insights from description theory The psychology of description The philosophy of description Principles for a controlled vocabulary Data and reality – after Bill Kent	Type theory Older musings The evolution of types Types in different disciplines How things instantiate types Types and instances Types and meta types Types and instances – analysis Set and type theory
Philosophy	Philosophy	Philosophical musings	More philosophical musings
	A philosophy of systems System philosophy Types and tokens Knowledge and truth A critique of realism	The problem of universals Description and reality The 9 propositions of scientific idealism Insights from the idealism triangle System theory as scientific idealism Philosophical position statement	Existence in space and time Ontology and phenomenology Logical positivism (Wittgenstein) About life Relevance of the above to EA	System thinkers dictionary - draft System thinking ontology – draft References More references Types and sets references Laszlo and Krippner references
More	Enterprises as systems	Business system models	More musings	Older musings
		Business system modelling premises Business architecture as systems Business capabilities as social systems EA in the system theory space EA as applied system theory Quality systems Error! Bookmark not defined.	Architects, descriptions and systems Architectural descriptions of systems EA as multi-level architecture description The practical terminology challenge Enterprise state data Modelling madness.	Functionality and Logicality Granularity and Modularity Composition and Generalisation Systems as abstractions UML types and instances Modelling the passage of time

You may read and share a link to this site provided you accept that for organisational use a small licence fee is due.

If you like the site, please declare your appreciation in an appropriate social or professional medium.

It is illegal to print, copy or present pages of this web site except as explained in access and usage rights.