Using a Boundary Object Framework to Analyze Interorganizational Collaboration

The U.S. military is facing a plethora of challenges as a result of tightening procurement budgets and the need to acquire new capabilities to operate in modern war environments. This requires integrating legacy systems with developing technologies in what is loosely defined to be a System of Systems. Most Systems of Systems require some integrator to manage and operate the system interfaces. In addition to technical integration challenges, these system integrators have the difficult undertaking of integrating various organizations. The boundary object framework proposed by this paper provides a tool for systems integrators working in System of Systems or any type of complex system to identify and categorize communication, coordination, and collaboration interfaces and address possible failures. © 2007 The Authors.