Balancing abstraction and implementation constraints when specifying problems

The globalization of enterprise systems is challenging traditional approaches to problem definition. Increasingly, customers are defining their needs with capabilities descriptions and effects based concepts. Their operational systems-of-systems (SoS) perspective often simply aggregates desired information and functionality. This is advantageous, as it does not constrain designers to a pre-conceived solution. However, their conceptual descriptions fail to account for the complexity of combining normally independent systems to achieve the desired emergent behavior. Their capability statements abstractly describe concepts which are interactively complex and often difficult to support. High system interdependencies demands system support structures be properly integrated, often nationally or globally. This situation creates a discontinuity between specifying desired outcomes and functionality with few operational boundaries, but which still have formal organization, ownership and contractual boundaries. Without balancing the two opposing perspectives, abstracted needs are indirectly specifying systems changes that are unrealistic for actual implementation.