System theory for enterprise architects	.	Scientific idealism
“The most important work on EA and applied System Theory today.” “Makes EA more powerful, coherent and usable.” “I read and regularly refer to [your web site]… way beyond any other EA/system engineering/human factors/systems theory resource.”		Descriptions <create and use> <idealise> Describers <observe & envisage> Realities
Blurb 1 Preface 6 Philosophy Comments Click for next “System Theory” tutorial		Home page

Description and reality	General system theory	“Systems thinking”	Enterprises as systems
2 Information and communication 3 Language, logic and data structures 4 Knowledge and truth 5 Description theory	7 Ashby’s ideas 8 Introducing system theory 9 A systems thinking glossary 10 Stability and change in systems	11 Seven signs of shamanism 12 Early system thinkers 13 Systems thinking approaches	14 Premises of EA and TOGAF 15 EA as applied system theory 16 EA as applied systems thinking
Most papers below contain research for, or detailed elaboration of, what is in papers above.
Information and description	General system principles and properties	Challenging systems thinkers	Business system models
Mental models and how brains work The magic number seven Communication theory - supplement Other information theories ------------------------------------- The evolution of description The evolution of types Taxonomies and ontologies	GST principles Introducing system properties Holism and emergent properties Encapsulation Information feedback loops The primacy of behaviour Determinism and hysteresis Ashby on cybernetics	Marxism, system theory and EA Boulding’s ideas Ackoff’s ideas Beer’s ideas Maturana’s ideas Luhmann’s ideas Complex adaptive systems? Bausch’s “consensus in system theory”	Business system modelling premises Premise 1: Encapsulation by interfaces Premise 2: Behaviours run over time Premise 3: Structures need space Premise 4: Data conveys meaning Premise 5: Models are abstractions Premise 6: Things are typified Error! Bookmark not defined.
Scientific idealism	Questionable system properties	The schism	Business capabilities
The problem of universals Description and reality (a reader asks) A philosophy for system theory The 9 propositions of scientific idealism Insights from the idealism triangle System description as scientific idealism	Complexity Goal-directedness Hierarchical (v network) organisation Chaos and non-linear behaviour Predictability and probabilty Agility?	The schism in systems thinking EA, GST and social system thinking Social entities v. social systems Actors, roles and assignments	Business architecture as systems Business capabilities as social systems EA in the system theory space EA as applied system theory Quality systems
More philosophical musing	Discrete v. continuous systems	System/problem classifications	Abstraction
Philosophical position statement Existence in space and time Ontology and phenomenology Logical positivism (Wittgenstein) About life Relevance of the above to EA	Relativity v quantum mechanics Discrete event-driven systems (DEDS) Continuous System Dynamics Converting discrete to continuous	Introducing system classifications Ackoff’s system classes Snowden’s Cynefin framework People classes	Idealisation in system theory Abstraction from “the real machine” Abstraction in the eternal golden braid Abstraction varieties and typology Abstraction in TOGAF and Zachman
Type theory	More about systems		More…
Set and type theory Types in different disciplines How things instantiate types Why we confuse types and instances Types and meta types Types and instances – analysis	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 theory dictionary and ontology		Architects, descriptions and systems Architectural descriptions of systems EA as multi-level architecture description The practical terminology challenge
More…	Other / older	References	Other / older
Insights from description theory The psychology of description The philosophy of description Principles for a controlled vocabulary Data and reality – after Bill Kent	System state: entities and identities Homeostasis and control Hierarchies and lattices. Enterprise state data Modelling madness. ISO 42010 in a nutshell What ISO 42010 means ISO change proposal	System theory and thinking references Types and sets references Laszlo and Krippner quotes & references Philosophical dichotomies	Functionality and Logicality Granularity and Modularity Composition and Generalisation Systems as abstractions UML types and instances Modelling the passage of time

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