Work systems paradigm and frames for fractal architecture of information systems

Abstract

Contemporary information systems have to satisfy needs of agile and viable enterprises. They shall include mechanisms of business intelligence, business process management, information technology infrastructure management, and alignment between business and computer systems. The mechanisms for business process handling and computer systems handling are similar, and the mechanisms for their continuous integrated improvement also are similar, therefore the architecture of information systems components that support these processes also can have a measure of similarity if considered at a particular level of abstraction. The paper, focusing on aforementioned similarities, uses St. Alter’s work systems paradigm for constructing fractal architecture of information systems that can be used for supporting agile and viable enterprises. The architecture includes predefined frames of processes, a frame for virtual agents, frames of information flows in viable systems, and a frame for information flows in the enterprise architecture that help to derive requirements for introducing continuous changes in information systems.