Systems engineering for the living enterprise

This paper explores an approach to enterprises as living human social systems. It introduces the problem of widespread failure of reengineering efforts and the application of information technologies to business entities. The heart of the problem is characterized as a gap between business professionals and technologists, which is intrinsic, but needs to be bridged in a way that yields effective technological interventions. Several architectural viewpoints are introduced that describe the nature of enterprise, and that raise interesting questions about possible extensions to systems engineering methods.