A briefing at Mitre Corporation about linearity, complexity and Systems Engineering had an interesting paradigm.
Watch Makers versus Gardeners
Watch Markers produce a product where all the parts have to be working in order for the product to work.
Gardeners produce products that pretty much produce themselves. The role of the gardener is to "keep the weeds out, put the right amount of water on the planets, and kill any pests that attack the plants."
In the project management world, the traditional approach looks like the Watch Marker metaphor. In agile the management of the project looks like the Gardener metaphor. In enterprise projects, the Watch Marker has a low probability of success. All the parts have to be working at the same time. The Gardener has a better chance.
In the Systems Engineering domain, this is a System of Systems paradigm. If we are searching for a paradigm in which to apply agile to enterprise class problems, the Mitre background, along with MIT Systems Engineering Division are good places to start.
