SYSE.18:0 - Use This When

Use this pattern when one use depends on several actual Systems, but decisions that can change that use—for example, a constituent’s operating condition, configuration, commitment, interface, or later modification—belong to different Agents. The integrating Agent cannot command every change that can defeat the use.

Begin with the shared use and the actual constituent Systems that can defeat it. For each constituent, state how it affects that use, who can decide the relevant change, what authority that Agent has, and which configuration, interface, commitment, evidence, or withdrawal condition the decision relies on. Then compare only the coordination alternatives that the relevant Agents can actually decide.

The first useful result is a bounded constituent-integration decision. It states the selected coordination alternative, the deciding Agent’s authority, decisions required from other Agents, accepted losses, unsupported dependencies, and next Work. If integration Work is later performed, identify that Work, its actual transformation or newly obtaining relation, and the observed-coordination claim separately from the decision episteme.

Use ordinary architecture and integration patterns when one deciding Agent controls every constituent change that can alter the use. Use the neighboring practice that owns a different question—for example, Organization Change when an organization is the System being changed, Corporate Governance for ownership and governing-body decisions, Operations Management for continuing allocation and coordination Work, or a configuration or other specialist pattern for its own subject.