Enterprise Architecture Cybernetics and the Edge of Chaos: Sustaining Enterprises as Complex Systems in Complex Business Environments

The purpose of this paper is primarily theoretical -- to propose and detail a model of system evolution, and show its derivation from the fields of Enterprise Architecture, cybernetics and systems theory. Cybernetic thinking is used to develop a ´Co-evolution Path Model´ to explain how enterprises co-evolve with their environments. The model is re-interpreting Stafford Beer´s Viable System Model, and also uses Conant and Ashby´s theorem of the ´good regulator´, exemplifying how various complexity management theories could be synthesised into a cybernetic theory of Enterprise Architecture -- informing management of mechanisms to maintain harmony between the evolution of the enterprise as a system and the evolution of its environment.