COIM: An object‐process based method for analyzing architectures of complex, interconnected, large‐scale socio‐technical systems

There is growing evidence for the relevance of human behavioral factors in successful development of new products, processes, and services. The evidence is even clearer when the forces affecting the development and evolution of long-lived, large, and open complex socio-technical systems are examined. Methods that study the architecture of these systems can help scholars and practitioners to better understand, manage, and develop socio-technical systems. We propose an approach and a method to address these needs that is grounded in the theory of systems architecture and builds on the strengths of Object Process Methodology (OPM) and the process for representing Complex Large-scale Interconnected Open Socio-technical (CLIOS) systems. We do so by integrating these methods into the CLIOS-OPM Integrated Method (COIM). COIM is conducive to studying a system's architecture and its evolution, as it is enhanced by a set of qualitative methods for answering questions about the reasons (why) and process (how) of change in human-made systems over time. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  H. Simon.  Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning , 1991 .

[2]  Tim Weilkiens,et al.  Systems engineering with SysML / UML - modeling, analysis, design , 2007 .

[3]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000, Theory in CSCW.

[4]  David J. Silverman,et al.  Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook , 1999 .

[5]  Joseph M. Sussman,et al.  A Framework for Analysis, Design and Management of Complex Large-Scale Interconnected Open Sociotechnological Systems , 2009, Int. J. Decis. Support Syst. Technol..

[6]  Walter A. Sedelow,et al.  The Concept concept , 1993, Proceedings of ICCI'93: 5th International Conference on Computing and Information.

[7]  Francisco J. Arcelus,et al.  Social demands as strategic issues: Some conceptual problems , 1982 .

[8]  Warren P. Seering,et al.  THE INFLUENCE OF ARCHITECTURE IN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS , 2004 .

[9]  C. Cassell,et al.  Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research , 2004 .

[10]  Z RodrigoMardones,et al.  CHILE: TRANSANTIAGO RECARGADO , 2008 .

[11]  Osorio Urzúa,et al.  Architectural innovation, functional emergence diversification in engineering systems , 2007 .

[12]  Nam P. Suh.  Design of Systems , 2007 .

[13]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[14]  P. Gummett.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology , 1988 .

[15]  Karen R. Polenske,et al.  Competition, Collaboration and Cooperation: An Uneasy Triangle in Networks of Firms and Regions , 2004 .

[16]  Dov Dori,et al.  Object-process methodology - a holistic systems paradigm , 2013 .

[17]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. , 1985 .

[18]  W. Powell,et al.  Networks and Economic life , 2003 .

[19]  J. Laffont,et al.  Competition in telecommunications , 1999 .

[20]  John D. Sterman,et al.  System Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World , 2002 .

[21]  F. Jacob,et al.  Evolution and tinkering. , 1977, Science.

[22]  Steven D. Eppinger,et al.  Integration analysis of product decompositions , 1994 .

[23]  D. Newbery.  Privatization, Restructuring, and Regulation of Network Utilities , 2000 .

[24]  G. Burgess,et al.  The Economics of Regulation and Antitrust , 1997 .

[25]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[26]  Karen Page,et al.  Network Forms of Organization , 1998 .

[27]  E. Rechtin,et al.  The art of systems architecting , 1996, IEEE Spectrum.

[28]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[29]  Hans van Vliet,et al.  Software engineering - principles and practice , 1993 .

[30]  Alan MacCormack,et al.  Managing the Sources of Uncertainty: Matching Process and Context in Software Development , 2003 .

[31]  Alexander L. Wolf,et al.  Software architecture , 2001 .

[32]  John D. Sterman,et al.  Business dynamics : systems thinking and modelling for acomplex world , 2002 .

[33]  J. Fountain.  Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change , 2001 .

[34]  N. Smelser,et al.  Handbook of Economic Sociology , 1994 .

[35]  Dov Dori,et al.  Developing Complex Systems with Object-Process Methodology Using OPCAT , 2003, ER.

[36]  W. Paul,et al.  Computer Architecture , 2000, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[37]  J Swanson,et al.  Business Dynamics—Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World , 2002, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[38]  Adam M. Ross,et al.  Architecting the system of systems enterprise: Enabling constructs and methods from the field of engineering systems , 2009, 2009 3rd Annual IEEE Systems Conference.

[39]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[40]  Herbert A. Simon.  Can there be a science of complex systems , 2000 .

[41]  Uyless D. Black.  Data networks - concepts, theory and practice , 1989 .

[42]  Philip J. Koopman.  A TAXONOMY OF DECOMPOSITION STRATEGIES BASED ON STRUCTURES, BEHAVIORS, AND GOALS , 1995 .

[43]  J. Vernon,et al.  Economics of regulation and antitrust , 1992 .

[44]  Robert P. Smith,et al.  A model-based method for organizing tasks in product development , 1994 .

[45]  C. Perrow.  Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay , 1975 .

[46]  Joshua B. McConnell,et al.  THE CONCEPT OF THE "CLIOS PROCESS": INTEGRATING THE STUDY OF PHYSICAL AND POLICY SYSTEMS USING MEXICO CITY AS AN EXAMPLE , 2004 .

[47]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology , 1989 .

[48]  Dov Dori,et al.  Conceptual Modeling in Systems Biology Fosters Empirical Findings: The mRNA Lifecycle , 2007, PloS one.

[49]  J. Donahue.  The Privatization Decision: Public Ends, Private Means , 1991 .

[50]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society , 1984 .

[51]  H. Maturana,et al.  Autopoiesis and Cognition : The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Scie , 1980 .

[52]  Dov Dori,et al.  The Model Multiplicity Problem: Experimenting with Real-Time Specification Methods , 2000, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[53]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  Unified Modeling Language User Guide, The (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) , 2005 .

[54]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  Product Design and Development , 1995 .

[55]  A. Kahn,et al.  The economics of regulation , 1970 .

[56]  James M. Utterback,et al.  The product family and the dynamics of core capability , 1992 .

[57]  Eugene B. McGregor.  Privatization and public-private partnerships , 2004 .

[58]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 , 1984 .