ABSTRACT
Different words mean different things to different people. The key words used in systems architecting are no exception. Excellence, success, and value can easily be confused. The definitions of architecting, designing, and engineering have been the subjects of debate for at least 200, if not 2000, years. Complexity, nonlinearity, and chaos are much more closely related mathematically and systemically than we used to think. This chapter is organized very differently from the alphabetical listing in most dictionaries. Two basic concepts are important in creating systems and treating organizations as systems. The first concept is the unusual nature of complex systems in which analysis, scientific methodology, and the applied sciences — while unquestionably necessary — are not sufficient, and why. The second concept is the importance of emergent functions in adding value at the systems level beyond that of its separate elements.
