General Description
The book is 240 pages long and consists of 8 chapters. Besides text, there are occasional images, diagrams, and tables, but the vast majority of the content is purely text. The reading difficulty level is not high, but it is boring.
Brief Description
Let's look at the list of chapters with brief explanations taken directly from the book.
- About Thinking:
Different types of thinking — Requirements for thinking — The place of systems thinking among other types of thinking — Variants of systems thinking — Systems engineering — Our version of the systems approach — Our ontology of the systems approach — Semantics and descriptions — Terminology — Forms of thinking — Can thinking be taught? — Stages of learning thinking — Features of solving educational problems in systems thinking — Transition to using thinking
- Embodiment of the System, Stakeholders, and Interests:
Embodiment, definition, and description of the system — Abstract objects — 4D extensionalism — Composition relation — Holes — Processes and actions — Computer programs — Functions — Physical and functional objects — Second generation of the systems approach — Stakeholder — Theatrical metaphor — Thinking about people: first and foremost, they are stakeholders — Position — Leadership — External and internal stakeholders — Organizational roles, responsibilities, titles — How many stakeholders are there — Onion diagram — Interests — Who participated in the last meeting?
- Systemic Holarchy:
Not everything called a system is one — The concept of holon and holarchy — Emergence — Five types of systems in holarchy — Recursive application of systems thinking — Needs, requirements, constraints — Examples of using the terminology of system types — Systems of systems — People in systems — State building and government projects — The future — Commonality of thinking as systems become more complex — Complexity and measures of complexity
- Target and Using System 96
First, find the target system — Is the system a product or a service? — You are a team member — Signs of the target system — The postman principle — Typical errors in defining the target system — Naming the system — Using system — Holarchy of human movement — Systems approach: for all types of systems, not just the target one
- Definition and Description of the System:
Interdisciplinarity — Multiplicity: unithinking of the single — Multiplicity of holarchies — Component analysis and modular synthesis — Alphas and work products — Alphas — System description — Models and types of models — Multimodel and interdisciplinarity — Description method and mega-model — Component descriptions: schematic diagrams — Modular descriptions — Platforms and technology stacks — Importance of functional considerations of the target system — Enterprises — The need for good modularity — Combating complexity in thinking — Requirements as part of system definition — Two understandings of requirements — Requirements and holarchy — Goal-oriented requirements engineering — Verification and acceptance — The concept of architecture — The concept of configuration — Enterprise engineering
- The Concept of Life Cycle:
Biological life cycle — The concept of system life cycle 1.0 — Depicting the life cycle as work (1.0) — Problems with life cycle 1.0 — Life cycle 2.0 — Operation as a dedicated stage of the life cycle — Three times of the life cycle — The concept of practice — Discipline as part of practice — Technology as part of practice — Life cycle practices — Example: life cycle practices of systems engineering — Methodologies
- View of the Life Cycle:
V-diagram — Model-oriented approach in the life cycle — V-models as a model of system decomposition — Hybrid life cycle models — Work management and life cycle management — Types of work management practices — Trends in work management practices — Beyond the life cycle — Life cycle as activity architecture
- System Project Scheme and Main Life Cycle:
System project scheme — V-diagram and system project scheme — Alphas — common object of team tracking — Opportunity alpha — Stakeholder alpha — System definition alpha — System embodiment alpha — Work alpha — Team alpha — Technology alpha — What to track in a project — Alpha states and work products — How to work with the system project scheme — Sub-alphas — Main life cycle — Maturity models and technology readiness models — System practices — Final essay — What's next
Opinion
The book is about how to think correctly, keep all ideas in mind for building large projects and systems, and also account for potential problems and difficulties. However, this is described in a very complex and dry language with purely bare theory. Stakeholders, life cycle, and other terms are constantly mentioned without practical examples. I would have liked to see in the book, besides theory, reinforcement with practice using a small project example, so that the author would apply his theory chapter by chapter to building something real. Considering that I already have considerable experience in developing and leading the development of large web projects, and the book lacks any practice from other fields, I cannot call this book useful for myself, as I already knew most of the theory.
