Poietical Foundation

Realizing proper ways of organizing is based on the foundation for creating enterprises, which is formed by the enterprise governance competence discussed in the previous chapter and the theories, methodology, and methods of enterprise engineering, which are the topics of this chapter. After summarizing enterprise challenges and resuming the need for holistic, enterprise-wide design, the theoretical basis for the enterprise engineering design science is presented. For avoiding theoretical incompleteness, the enterprise conceptual model introduced in Chap. 2 is taken as the reference for the necessary enterprise-wide perspective, whereby an enterprise is viewed as a system. Based on the system perspective and the fundamental function-construction distinction, our outline of the enterprise engineering design science starts with explaining the essence of a system function as a relationship with the system environment and construction as a system property. The profound implications of this distinction for functional and constructional design are explained and illustrated. Various other concepts for design are introduced, such as functional and constructional decomposition into functional and constructional design domains. These domains are essential for defining functional and constructional requirements and architecture. The difference between these concepts is explained. Through the schematic of the generic requirements and architecture framework, the design concepts are expressed with respect to their mutual relationships. Subsequently, the schematics of the generic system development framework and the generic system development process illustrate the practice of system development.Having discussed the concepts for design from the general system development perspective, these concepts are in turn applied to the design of enterprises. After explaining the notion of a ‘model’ and discussing the concept of essential construction models, the theory of essential enterprise modeling is outlined as the starting point for enterprise design. Subsequently, further enterprise functional and constructional design is discussed. As in the general system case, enterprise functional and constructional decomposition into enterprise functional and constructional design domains is essential for defining enterprise functional and constructional requirements and architecture. Special attention is paid to the publication of requirements and architecture as an important aspect of enterprise governance. Various examples of enterprise requirements and enterprise architecture are provided, and their role in creating coherent and consistent enterprise-wide design is stressed as a critical condition for enterprise operational and strategic performance. In view of the complexity of enterprises, which also includes concepts like behavior and culture, the important distinction between direct and indirect design, and their relationship, is explained. All design concepts and their mutual relationships are expressed by the schematic of the enterprise requirements and architecture framework and the generic enterprise development framework, as well as positioned against the phases of enterprise realization discussed in Chap. 3. Finally, the implications of the poietical foundation for enterprise governance and enterprise engineering are summarized.