Widening our perspective : can the systems design process be improved by using a pattern language approach?

The field of systems design is – compared to other more firmly estab-lished disciplines - still fairly young and mouldable, and although it contains numerous of methods and approaches for designing a system, there ought to be room for im-provement and development of this field. To consider this field completed and perfected would be nothing but ig-norant. Therefore it is of utmost importance to continue the search for new approaches, methodologies and methods to use in systems design. In this thesis research is being conducted in order to explore the applica- bility of an architectural method - proposed by Professor Christopher Alexander, on systems design. The method is called A Pattern Language and was developed in order to help designing buildings and towns that are beautiful and alive. By making a comparison between Alexander’s work and three theories used in systems design – the Viable Systems Model (VSM), the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and Multi-Modal Systems Thinking (MMST), several similarities were found. However, fur-ther research is needed in order to explore the applicability of the Pattern Language ap-proach on systems design.Validerat; 20101217 (root