First World Congress of the International Federation for Systems Research : The New Roles of Systems Sciences For a Knowledge

When conceptualizing a complex system, especially a socalled ’wicked system’, its designers have the problem to make initial architectural decisions without having sufficient in-depth information of the final consequences. Such decisions usually entail a choice between basic alternatives (called here dichotomic architectural patterns) like "centralized versus decentralized architecture", "optimistic versus pessimistic system behavior", etc. These decisions pre-define the basic system architecture and are very difficult to reverse later. Identifying and isolating these dichotomic architectural patterns and describing their basic properties allows to teach these principles. This helps system designers to understand their options and the resulting consequences for the envisioned system. In this paper we describe essential dichotomic architectural patterns and typical examples. We classify them according to underlying principles and discuss their commonalities.