1st Edition

Systems Architecting of Organizations Why Eagles Can't Swim

By Eberhardt Rechtin Copyright 2000

    The most difficult questions facing organizations today do not have scientifically or mathematically provable solutions. Many answers that do exist depend upon time and circumstance.

    Systems Architecting of Organizations: Why Eagles Can't Swim tackles a very difficult dilemma: how do even highly respected organizations maintain their vaunted excellence, accommodate the new world of global communications, transportation, economics and multinational security, and still survive against stiff competition already in place? As they are finding out, depending upon the circumstances, the demands of excellence on the one hand, and of change on the other, can be cruelly irreconcilable.
    This book does not just describe business strengths and weaknesses. First, it identifies potential weaknesses, then offers guidelines and insights to address them. Its approach is architectural and heuristic. Second, this book is about maintaining success in a dynamic world, not about achieving it in a static one; few are clear on what to do and not to do in the face of major change.

    Systems Architecting of Organizations: Why Eagles Can't Swim helps professionals gain new perspectives when reviewing their own organizations and to see problems and opportunities previously not apparent.

    Features

    PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
    Why Eagles Can't Swim

    TREATING ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS
    The Unusual Field of Complex Systems
    Emergent Capabilities and Values of Systems and Organizations

    AN ARCHITECT'S PERSPECTIVE OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE
    The Market Place and Other Battlegrounds
    "Delicate Balancing" in and by the United States Government

    INTERNAL CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
    Unstated Assumptions and Other Subliminals Different Structures, Different Rules, and, Consequently, Different Capabilities
    Decision Making in Complex Organizations

    THE FOUNDATIONS OF SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTING
    The Context and Use of System Insights and Metaphors
    Architecting A Reorganization and Forming its Architecting Team

    STAY THE COURSE OR CHANGE IT?
    The Why and When of Architectural Change
    The What and How of Radical Change

    APPENDICES
    Propositions for Organizational Architecting
    A Listing of Insights
    Annotated List of Citations
    INDEX

    Biography

    Rechtin, Eberhardt