I would very strongly recommend "The Architects Paradox" by Barry O'Reilly - it is really, really good. Very grounded in philosophy and the philosophical assumptions that we often don't even notice when doing software.
Architecture Modernization by Nicholas Tune is insanely practical for everyone that works with legacy systems.
Diagnosing the System for Organizations by Stafford Beer is also really useful - everything by Beer really, but his bigger books can sound quite esoteric.
This may be too much towards sociology, but in terms of looking at the joint human/technology system, Diane Vaughan's "Dead Reckoning," an ethnology of the evolution of air traffic control (inclusive of system architecture), is pretty unique. She puts a lot of focus on the co-evolution of the human organization and the technologies leveraged, in particular how increasing automation is not a guaranteed improvement in safety, as much of the error-reduction in the system comes from the adaptability and expertise of the humans in the loop. I'm only partway through and so can't give you the most relevant sections yet, but their are probably a few chapters that would be on-point.
This is an excellent book. It’s been a while since I read it so I can’t pick out individual chapters or sections either, unfortunately. I do recommend “Taming Hal” (Degani) and “Seeing Like A Rover” (Vertesi) as books that cover similar ground (sociotechnical systems). Not sure either is a good fit for this course but they might at least be interesting supplemental reading.
Taming Hal covers problems with user interface design and automation. Seeing Like A Rover covers how scientists coordinate their efforts and, in some cases, imagining themselves as a rover to figure out how to use the rover to explore Mars.
Wow. I am very very excited about this. For complex systems, I would add Donella Meadows “Thinking In Systems”. I actually gave a lecture on systems in design recently referencing pretty much only Meadows.
For complexity, organization, and design, I would add “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning” by Rittel and Webber. I also think “Artifacts have politics” by Langdon Winner would also be appropriate here in a similar manner. If one is to think about a general theory for engineering architecture, I think it is inevitable that there will be concerns about the intractableness of such problems.
This one is a big of a tangential read but I think you could give it a read as it is highly relevant to the field of Design, and I think it may open up some thoughts about what the purpose behind such engineering architecture should be used for “ Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations,’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology” by Star and Geismar. This is all super exciting! Definitely looking forward to what you are thinking about.
In the realm of legal theory/capitalism, Katherina Pistor writes about how private lawyers "encode" assets - using legal abstractions like contract, property, and debt to form the architecture of capitalism.
She draws explicitly on early 20th century "institutional economists" like Veblen and Polanyi as well as the lesser-known John Commons, who wrote Legal Foundations of Capitalism 100 years ago: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001309692
I would very strongly recommend "The Architects Paradox" by Barry O'Reilly - it is really, really good. Very grounded in philosophy and the philosophical assumptions that we often don't even notice when doing software.
Architecture Modernization by Nicholas Tune is insanely practical for everyone that works with legacy systems.
Diagnosing the System for Organizations by Stafford Beer is also really useful - everything by Beer really, but his bigger books can sound quite esoteric.
I’m not sure any of these are what you’re looking for but they might be of interest:
- The Second Toyota Paradox: How Delaying Decisions Can Make Better Cars Faster (Ward et al.)
- How Do Committees Invent? (Conway)
- Managing as Designing (Bourland)
- How Buildings Learn (Brand)
- Discussion of the Engineering Method (Koen)
- Simple Made Easy (Hickey)
This may be too much towards sociology, but in terms of looking at the joint human/technology system, Diane Vaughan's "Dead Reckoning," an ethnology of the evolution of air traffic control (inclusive of system architecture), is pretty unique. She puts a lot of focus on the co-evolution of the human organization and the technologies leveraged, in particular how increasing automation is not a guaranteed improvement in safety, as much of the error-reduction in the system comes from the adaptability and expertise of the humans in the loop. I'm only partway through and so can't give you the most relevant sections yet, but their are probably a few chapters that would be on-point.
This is an excellent book. It’s been a while since I read it so I can’t pick out individual chapters or sections either, unfortunately. I do recommend “Taming Hal” (Degani) and “Seeing Like A Rover” (Vertesi) as books that cover similar ground (sociotechnical systems). Not sure either is a good fit for this course but they might at least be interesting supplemental reading.
Taming Hal covers problems with user interface design and automation. Seeing Like A Rover covers how scientists coordinate their efforts and, in some cases, imagining themselves as a rover to figure out how to use the rover to explore Mars.
Wow. I am very very excited about this. For complex systems, I would add Donella Meadows “Thinking In Systems”. I actually gave a lecture on systems in design recently referencing pretty much only Meadows.
For complexity, organization, and design, I would add “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning” by Rittel and Webber. I also think “Artifacts have politics” by Langdon Winner would also be appropriate here in a similar manner. If one is to think about a general theory for engineering architecture, I think it is inevitable that there will be concerns about the intractableness of such problems.
This one is a big of a tangential read but I think you could give it a read as it is highly relevant to the field of Design, and I think it may open up some thoughts about what the purpose behind such engineering architecture should be used for “ Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations,’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology” by Star and Geismar. This is all super exciting! Definitely looking forward to what you are thinking about.
In the realm of legal theory/capitalism, Katherina Pistor writes about how private lawyers "encode" assets - using legal abstractions like contract, property, and debt to form the architecture of capitalism.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691178974/the-code-of-capital?srsltid=AfmBOop8okgAJFscbhoYY-Tj1eNuPAGqsKLGR5ZltmPfbYA67Yz2-pnt
She draws explicitly on early 20th century "institutional economists" like Veblen and Polanyi as well as the lesser-known John Commons, who wrote Legal Foundations of Capitalism 100 years ago: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001309692