Applying Systems Science to Applied Science

Industry-based scientific research has become a critical enabler of business success and digital transformation as corporations have learned to appreciate the value of applied science and its impact on business performance. Yet, the chaotic nature of academic research, with which researchers often feel more comfortable, disrupts the alignment of goals, objectives, plans, and results of industry-based science teams with business objectives and corporate standards. The high costs and high stakes in science-driven technology, product, service, and operation development call for a robust approach to this problem. Surprisingly, the systems approach, a key success factor of enterprise operations, is consistently missing from studies of science team building and industry research, although industry research must be done in close connection with technologies, products, services, and operations because it directly impacts the content and value of such enterprise activities. This chapter introduces a systems approach as a means for creating and running systematic industry-based science enterprises that operate effectively and efficiently at scale, while aligning to stakeholder goals and objectives and interoperating with enterprise architectures. We base our science enterprise architecture on a digital systems engineering enterprise architecture, due to the significant similarities between the two ecosystems.