This book stems from a growing frustration with what I call “mainstream” enterprise architecture (EA).

• Is mainstream EA perhaps losing momentum and influence?
• Does EA have a problem of scope and perspective?
• Or is there a lack of relevance to practical business problems?

So what’s the alternative? Can emerging approaches to EA help to re-establish practical business

relevance?

There are many ideas within Systems Thinking (ST) that could be relevant. So among other things, I shall

be looking at possible cross-fertilization between EA and ST.

• What practical lessons can EA learn from ST, and what are the opportunities and challenges for collaboration between the two disciplines?
• What practical benefits can a systems thinking perspective bring to enterprise architecture?
• Which of the tools and techniques of systems practice can usefully be added to the enterprise architecture toolbox?
• How can enterprise architects, systems thinkers and others work together in multi-disciplinary teams?

This book doesn’t claim to provide a full set of answers to these questions, but represents a preliminary exploration of what a solution might look like. My hope is to encourage other EA thinkers and practitioners to go beyond fancy diagrams and rhetoric and to work together to develop a properly grounded approach.