Thriving Systems Theory and Metaphor-Driven Modeling

Description

How is it that one system is more effective, appealing, satisfying and/or more beautiful than another to its stakeholder community? This question drove Christopher Alexander’s fifty-year quest to explain great physical architecture and gave birth to pattern-languages for building that underpin much of modern systems engineering. How is it that so many individual stakeholders consistently recognize the same quality, the same beauty in a system? This question led George Lakoff to research the role of conceptual metaphor in human understanding. What is essential to stakeholders’ satisfaction with systems? Fred Brooks, in his publications, addressed this question. This monograph fuses these diverse streams of thought in proposing Thriving Systems Theory by translating Alexander’s properties of physical design quality into the abstract domain of information systems and modeling. Metaphor-Driven Modeling incorporates the theory while examining its impact throughout the system life cycle: modeling, design and deployment. The result is holistic and innovative, a perspective on system quality invaluable to students, practitioners and researchers of software and systems engineering. Les Waguespack is a computer science Ph.D., professor and chairperson of computer information systems at Bentley University, USA. Dr. Waguespack’s experience as programmer, software engineer, software architect, database architect, project manager and systems consultant underpins 35 years of teaching and research, the last 20+ years teaching object-oriented modeling and systems engineering to undergraduates, graduate students and practicing professionals. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Introduction....Pages 1-6 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Christopher Alexander’s Nature of Order....Pages 9-14 Wholeness and Center Properties Mapped to Modeling....Pages 15-26 Achieving Versus Observing Strength in Choice Properties....Pages 27-37 Building Life into Information Systems....Pages 39-45 A Vision of Thriving Systems....Pages 47-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Metaphorology....Pages 83-89 Metaphor-Driven Modeling....Pages 91-98 Protecting Life in System Life Cycles....Pages 99-103 Metaphor-Driven Systems Engineering....Pages 105-114 Thriving Systems and Beauty....Pages 115-121 Promoting Life Using the Object-Oriented Paradigm....Pages 123-138 Promoting Life Using the Relational Paradigm....Pages 139-151 Thriving Systems Through Metaphor-Driven Modeling....Pages 153-161 Back Matter....Pages 163-167