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Thriving systems theory and metaphor-driven modeling
Waguespack L., Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 2010. 167 pp. Type: Book (978-1-849963-01-5)
Date Reviewed: Apr 19 2011

In a purely formal sense, nothing is wrong with a monograph consisting of 167 pages (at least that is the number of pages of the inspection copy; the publisher’s Web page gives an incorrect number of 229). The fact that it has 14 chapters plus an epilogue and index indicates that the text is structured in a quite granular way. The fact that it has 89 subchapters at the second level, and 44 subchapters at the third level, indicates a serious imbalance in structuring. Having roughly one-and-one-quarter pages per subchapter on average means that many of the subchapters consist of just a few lines. Such an unfortunate approach seriously hampers fluent reading of the text. Chapter 4, for example, consists of 11 pages and 16 subchapters. Most of the subchapters are half a page.

The formal quantitative aspect, however, is the less serious drawback of the text. In the subchapters, the book lists 15 properties, previously identified as important, each accompanied by its supporting properties list. For example, stepwise refinement is supported by cohesion, encapsulation, correctness, and identity. The author, however, not only lists the properties in the corresponding subchapter, but also includes their characterization, such as “Encapsulation: to enclose the essential features of something succinctly by a protective coating or membrane.” In those 15 pages, the author repeats the identical characterization of encapsulation four times, of cohesion eight times, and of stepwise refinement seven times. If the book did not pointlessly repeat the characterizations again and again, the entire chapter would shrink to perhaps one half of its original length.

The entire text is contaminated with too many repeated identical or essentially similar text chunks. Another element that contributes to the relative emptiness of the book is the decision to include separate lists of references at the end of each chapter. As a consequence, the book references the same works, usually by Alexander, Lakoff, or Brooks, several times.

The most important weakness of the text is its emptiness in an absolute sense. It is very difficult for the reader to find some truly innovative scientific idea. The author attempts to build on C. Alexander’s well-known concept of patterns in design, and on his subsequent generalization to living structures as elaborated in his Nature of order book series. Where a scientific method would call for a critical evaluation, the author takes the referenced works as indisputable authoritative ones. He defines an information system as an organized and integrated collection of choices, links Alexander’s conception of centers to the concept of choices, and then attempts to translate Alexander’s 15 properties into the abstract domain of information systems. That, however, is not enough innovation to yield the enlightened context that would allow us to build thriving systems through metaphor-driven modeling.

Reviewer:  P. Navrat Review #: CR139002 (1112-1235)
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Design Tools and Techniques (D.2.2 )
 
 
Design Languages (D.3.2 ... )
 
 
Modeling Methodologies (I.6.5 ... )
 
 
Patterns (D.2.11 ... )
 
 
Language Classifications (D.3.2 )
 
 
Software Architectures (D.2.11 )
 
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