Enterprises as Complex Systems: Extended Axiomatic Design Theory and its Application in Enterprise Architecture Practice

Abstract

The concept of self-evolving/self-designing systems is defined using the notion of life cycle relationships. The authors propose that to design complex enterprises as systems of systems on each level of hierarchy one should maintain a self-designing property, that is, the designers should be part of the system. It is explained that by so distributing the design authority, under certain circumstances the "apparent complexity" of the system visible to any one designer can be reduced. To ensure the success of organised self-design, the approach uses their extension of Suh's axiomatic design theory with the "axiom of recursion." The authors quantitatively demonstrate through two examples the benefits of applying these design axioms in enterprise engineering to reduce the complexity of a system of interest, as well as the complexity of a system which designs the system of interest.