"Complex" Maturity Models?

In the systems engineering domain, I'm seeing increasing interest in complexity. There seems to be a growing realization that IT (e.g., SOA) is pushing all technology toward a greater intertwining of individuals/groups and technology.

This is a disruptive shift. When tools are largely decoupled from exploration/sensemaking, the designers, implementers, and maintainers of those tools can largely ignore how individuals and groups explore a context to make sense of it. When tools begin to be woven into individual/group exploratory work, they can no longer ignore sensemaking concepts.

It's unclear whether there's much recognition of this need in the mainline systems engineering community. A few recent observations:

• "Modeling and Analysis of Interoperability Risk in Systems of Systems Environments" - This article in the Nov 2008 issue of CrossTalk is one of the few I've seen that seems to understand that interoperability has a significant cognitive component. The basic representations of interoperability reminded me of DSMs...not exactly the same, but a similar concept.
• "Systems Thinking Comes of Age" - This was the editorial by Pat Hale in the Dec 2008 INCOSE Insight magazine. Since you have to be a member INCOSE to read this, I'll refer you to this presention by Pat Hale at a recent conference.
• "SOA Contract Maturity Model" - This article by Kjell-Sverre Jerijærvi provides an approach that seems a bit more appropriate for Complex contexts than the CMMI-centric SOA maturity models that seem to be more at home in the Simple & Complicated domains.
• "Cloud Maturity Models Don't Make Sense" - This post by Roger Smith is one of the few I've seen questioning the limits of maturity models. Since most engineers have little understanding of the Complex domain, I suppose it's understandable that few consider the limits of analytical approaches.

A final note: I'm seeing more interest in Systems Thinking, System Dynamics, etc. ala Senge, Forrester, Beer, Ashby, Weiner, et.al. All engineers should have a good understanding of the tools in this area, since they're part of a good foundation for modeling and simulation. However, my impression is that these tools are more Complicated than Complex. For the truly Complex, you're probably going to need a different approach (e..g, Cynefin).

For those who love taxonomies, here's my favorite diagram of where Systems Thinking fits in the overall scheme of thought...from the International Institute for General Systems Studies. I discussed this topic previously on this blog here. I suspect it won't be the last time.