Science-Base Research for Advanced Interoperability

Studies show that enterprises are severely constrained by their management structures, and that those constraints become more vexing as information technologies are adopted. This is more true as “interoperability engineering” advances; the enterprise is capable of doing simple, ordinary things better, but the form of the enterprise becomes less adaptive, less agile as external firms are integrated in using lowest common denominator standards. The net result is that we are worse off now because of the constraints of integration decisions. A radical advance is required, one based on breakthroughs in the underlying science used by enterprise engineers. This chapter indicates one advanced form of enterprise that current research could make possible and uses it to illustrate desired enterprise engineering tools. It then suggests an agenda for fundamental research to support those goals.