Enterprise Systems Architecting: Emerging Art and Science within Engineering Systems

With the growing complexity of systems, there is a corresponding increase in the complexity of the enterprises that develop, operate, and sustain such systems in an increasingly global environment. This drives the need to take a broader view of enterprises as systems in themselves to which we must apply the principles and practices of architecting. The current practice of Enterprise Architecting has been a significant contribution to creating and sustaining modern enterprises; however, we feel the current field is not a sufficient approach to the enterprises of this new century. A broader and more holistic approach is needed in context of an engineering systems perspective, drawing on the emerging systems architecting field, and taking into account new paradigms and environmental drivers. In the paper, we propose Enterprise Systems Architecting as an emerging art and science within the field of Engineering Systems. We discuss our present research focus, as well as some of the promising research being done by others that can contribute to this emerging area.