From Theseus to Conway: Boundary and Orchestration in System Architecture

This work presents a boundary-centered perspective on system architecture, addressing the relationship between system identity, capability, and structure. By connecting foundational perspectives on identity and structural correspondence, the paper proposes that system identity is associated with boundary, while system capability is associated with orchestration of internal interactions. System structure is further interpreted in terms of internal information flow. A minimal structural framework is established through definitions, derivation, and core principles, providing a consistent basis for analyzing systems independent of specific components or organizational forms. This work treats classical perspectives such as the Theseus problem and Conway’s Law as conceptual anchors without extending or modifying their original formulations.