Physicists use the word entropy to describe the measures of the disorder of a system. In the 19th century Ludwig Boltzmann, an Austrian physicist, further explained entropy in the terms of distinction between a microstate of an object and a macrostate. For instance if you were to describe a cup of coffee you would most likely refer to the macrostate, in other words, its temperature, pressure and other overall features. On the other hand, a microstate specifies the precise position and velocity of every single atom in the liquid. [1] In any given system, we can move any piece of the microstate, a little bit here little bit there, and it doesn't significantly affect the macrostate. Taking the next logical leap and calling the macrostate an enterprise (the system and the human in total) and observe that small movements (microstates) within the enterprise offer almost no difference in the larger enterprise (macrostate).
Given that entropy is a number of different states (or technically the number of digits of that number) there are much more ways to arrange a system into a high entropy configuration then a low entropy one. For instance using an example of coffee mixed with milk. There are a great many ways the molecules of milk and coffee are completely mixed together, but relatively few ways the milk is segregated from the surrounding coffee. So the mixture has higher entropy from this point of view, it's also not surprising that entropy tends to increase with time. Again going back to our state of the enterprise (or state of the world even) as time moves forward we become more and more fragmented, more and more microstates and higher entropy. It's physically possible for all of the molecules to spontaneously conspire to arrange themselves next to one another -- it is just statistically very unlikely. If you waited for it to happen of its own accord as molecules randomly reshuffled you typically would have to wait much longer than the current age of the observable universe. [1] Again using the same analogy, back to the business, it's highly unlikely that all the systems applications and proliferations of versions of these and microstates are going to magically and spontaneously arrange themselves to function together. To lower the entropy of the system state (microstate) of the enterprise could reduce the high entropy state of most organizations. Any organization with high entropy then, is in a chaotic state and is untenable in the future. So can we then call one of the uses of enterprise architecture “enterprise entropy reduction” to take this analogy one step further?
“When entropy is maximized and gravity is activated we know we get a black hole,” states Stephen Hawking; “So a black hole does not have the highest possible entropy, but just the highest entropy they can be packed into a certain volume.” [2] Those that do not will collapse into black holes, which in turn will evaporate into the surrounding gloom as surely as a puddle dries up on a hot day. [1] Understand the law of entropy applies to closed systems - it does not forbid decreases in entropy in open systems. The enterprise could certainly be described as an open system and thus a candidate for entropy reduction.
A chaotic state usually is a catalyst for change and drives the need for a revolution in science or paradigm shift -- to reduce the entropy for the chaos in this case. Some 20 years ago, a paradigm shift occurred in the realization of using architecture for business enterprises - not just for buildings.
How do we get an enterprise out of this high entropy state? …through “enterprise entropy reduction”, one of the primary reasons to use enterprise architecture. A framework coupled with the methods, back-ended with an environment, can succinctly capture microstates (primitives) for the enterprise. This will facilitate an understanding of the relationships and give the ability to examine the human and the systems microstates and how they relate to the macrostates or enterprise.
In statistical thermodynamics the entropy is defined as (proportional to) the logarithm of the number of microscopic configurations that result in the observed macroscopic description of the thermodynamic system. [3]
Going with this analogy in the enterprise…
In statistical enterprises the entropy is defined as (proportional to) the logarithm of the number of microstate configurations that result in the observed macrostate descriptions of the enterprise:
where
kB is Boltzmann's constant 1.38066×10−23 J K−1 and
is the number of microstates corresponding to the observed enterprise or macrostate.1 Cosmic Origins of Times Arrow, Scientific American, Sean M. Carroll, June 2008
2 A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking, 1988
3 Wikipedia, July 2008
