The design and implementation of modern socio-technical systems requires the cooperative effort of many disciplines and of specialists from many fields. The common denominator is the work on complex systems of an interdisciplinary nature. A common language is largely missing, which often creates severe misunderstandings and unwelcome consequences.
This paper proposes a common framework by bringing together concepts from the various communities involved in systems work. The approach is to create a common language which relates core concepts, principles, and paradigms, allowing specialists from different disciplines to work together more effectively. This vision was captured in a Systems Praxis Framework, a diagram that provided a neutral ‘map’ which each community can use to explain its own narrative, worldview, and belief system, as well as to appreciate how the various worldviews and belief systems complement and reinforce each other within systems praxis.
The framework was developed in April 2012 during a workshop performed according to the IFSR Conversation methodology, with follow-up work afterwards. The paper below was presented at the INCOSE Symposium in June 2013. More information on the SPF can be found at http://systemspraxis.org/.