Systems science serves enterprise integration: a tutorial

Enterprise integration is a major global challenge of these times. It is now possible for a new generation of practitioners to engage this challenge selectively by applying a recently articulated version of systems science (WSS). This tutorial paper argues that a half-century of disarray of the systems field can be seen as ending; and that the distillation of WSS to support a wide variety of application areas (in this instance, enterprise integration) can occupy practitioners as they harness the work program of complexity (WPOC) selectively. Carrying out the WPOC yields predictable portfolio components, consisting of a well-defined mix of tangible and intangible products. The three causes of poor intellectual productivity identified by Kenneth Boulding are nullified when appropriate role matching is achieved between WSS and enterprise integration.