Communication in multidisciplinary systems architecting

Systems architecting is multidisciplinary by nature. It is interesting to note that the methods and tools that are developed and presented in literature are mostly based on one or a very limited number of formalisms. This means that an often large part of the stakeholders involved in the architecting process are hindered in the understanding of, and contributing to the architecture. The paper investigates the architecting process and complexity in combination with knowledge and knowledge creation. Communication is identified as essential. It thus follows that tools that base on one formalism limit this communication in a multidisciplinary setting. Based on experiences from architects, literature and the author, ingredients for successful multidisciplinary architecting are listed, and directions for future research in complex systems architecting are given, based on these ingredients.