Strengthening MDA by Drawing from the Living Systems Theory

OMGs Model Driven Architecture initiative comes at a time where information system builders and integrators have realized that application design and thus application interoperability is not primarily a technology issue but is about understanding different types of systems, involving different professional and scientific disciplines. Understanding requires thinking and thinking is modeling. Hence, MDA provides a framework for modeling systems, especially those systems that are relevant in the context of IT-system integration within and across company boundaries. However, model correspondence, i.e., relations and transformations among models and views in a consistent way, presents a challenging problem for MDA. Bridging of disciplines was also a key motivation for the systems science communities, and in particular for the life sciences. A widely accepted theory about all living systems was developed by J. G. Miller the Living Systems Theory. His theory is striking because the basic concepts and principles are applicable at all levels, i.e., for all types of livings systems, from a cell to a supranational organization. The Living Systems Theory thus provides a good basis for consistently relating different systems and different views. In this paper, we will show how the living systems theory can be used to go about the problem of model correspondences. In particular, we suggest that MDA explicitly use the notions of a model reality with organizational levels based on a modeling ontology that is derived from the living systems theory.