IFAC PapersOnLine 50-1 (2017) 12991–12996 ScienceDirect ScienceDirect Available online at www.sciencedirect.com 2405-8963 © 2017, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control. 10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1810 © 2017, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Systems interoperability; Enterprise Interoperability; Learning Support; 1. INTRODUCTION Today’s industrial environment requires agility to meet individual customer demands. Projects are used as general approach to increase adaptive behaviour, in particular when facing rigid hierarchies (Sokhanvar et al., 2014). The increasing importance of projects is visible by the growing need for Project Management (PM) instruments and standards. From a system-science perspective (von Bertalanffy, 1969) any project can be considered as an information-processing, socio-technical, and adaptive system. Part of that system are humans and software, used to process information. In addition, software can be the result of the project itself. Such an overall information system is a distributed system which can be used within several contexts and by vari- ous users (Romero and Vernadat, 2016). Information and knowledge can be exchanged between users and systems, once existing in an articulated form, i.e. explicitly. In fact, explicitly created models are the main form of commu- nication when information or knowledge flows materialise. Software thus is a special form of a model, which is suffi- ciently detailed to be executed on a computing device. Despite several tools and standardized organizational in- struments in place, interoperability of models on a concep- tual as well as operational (technical) level cannot always be achieved or maintained (Weichhart et al., 2017). From an adaptive systems’ point of view, established interoper- ability can easily getlost over time due to moving targets, unexpected intermediate results, or shifting contexts of project partners. This is in particular true in research and in IT projects, since one of the results is a formal, executable model (e.g. software). It also holds for other types of projects, in particular when participants have heterogeneous backgrounds, or (mental) models used for decision making are incompatible, mainly due to underly- ing assumptions in different domains. The paper is organised as follows. First, the concept of enterprise as complex adaptive system and the need for interoperability between systems are introduced. Enter- prise systems need not only be interoperable but also need to be adaptable ensuring their sustainability. Project- based learning is a general approach that supports the adaptation within and across enterprises. Project-based learning and support tools enable the process to achieve interoperability between models. 2. INTEROPERABILITY IN COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS In this section, firstly, systems-of-systems are discussed, followed by theory and implementations of complex ad- aptive systems. A literature overview of enterprise inter- operability approaches is given that build on these models. “A system is a bounded set of inter-connected elements forming a whole that functions for a specific finality in an environment, from which it is dissociable and with which it exchanges through interfaces.” (Naudet et al., 2010, p. 177) In system-of-systems theory, these inter-connected ele- ments are also systems (i.e. sub-systems). A system can be analysed from a structural point of view (network of sub-systems), and from a dynamic point of view. The behaviour of individual elements is as relevant as any flow * Distributed Information Systems, PROFACTOR GmbH, Steyr, Austria (e-mail: georg.weichhart@profactor.at) ** Dep. of Business Informatics - Communications Engineering, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria (e-mail: christian.stary@jku.at) Abstract To maintain adaptive enterprise systems a tight integration of sub-systems is not an option because this implies a rigid structure. Loose interoperability of sub-systems is required to (a) maintain independence and adaptability while (b) being able to effectively and efficiently work jointly to achieve a common goal. Some recent developments in Enterprise Interoperability are not only building on a System Theory approach but rather on a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) approach. By doing so, learning and continuous improvement are assumed to be important change processes. Project-based learning is addressing organisational systems as well as technical systems, and meets the requirements of CASs. We use this general approach to address issues with respect to interoperability in and between IT development and research projects. The introduced project-based learning framework allows supporting adaptation of systems in an enterprise system while maintaining interoperability. Georg Weichhart *,** Christian Stary ** Project-based learning for complex adaptive enterprise systems