Managing architectural emergence: A conceptual model and simulation

  • Authors:
  • David Dreyfus;Bala Iyer

  • Affiliations:
  • Boston University School of Management, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, United States;Babson College, TOIM Division, Babson Hall, Babson Park, MA 02457-0310, United States

  • Venue:
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Information systems are increasingly interconnected. They evolve through a sequence of projects that are affected by, and subsequently modify, this interconnectedness. We suggest that decision makers can influence emergent information systems by closely managing only a subset of their applications. We define this set of applications as the architectural control points (ACPs). To help architects manage their architecture, we develop a conceptual model of information system architecture as a network comprising a set of nodes linked by dependencies. We use simulation and network analysis to identify and show the value of ACPs.