Managing Complexity of Information Systems: The Value of Simplicity

Conclusion

 

 

 

Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. Alan Jay Perlis – Epigrams on Programming

 

The last quarter of a century has witnessed different periods in information system (IS) management, based on successive strategies and hopes. The initial blind faith in technological progress was first followed by cost reduction and, not long after, by value-creation strategies. Early in this book, we pointed out that there is really no single, legitimate concept of value for an IS. There are indeed many, from which we singled out three for their relevance and independence, namely the use value, the strategic value, and the particularly important sustainability value. We argued that these three concepts really cover the interest of most IS stakeholders. Acting efficiently on these values cannot be achieved using some sort of “black-box view” of information. What is needed is a more lucid understanding of the underpinnings of value creation or destruction, especially in those areas where technical and human aspects are most entangled. IT professionals and top management should progressively work towards a more lucid, “white-box view” of ISs, rather than relying excessively on mechanical rules and blind procedures. The general idea is that, ultimately, creation of value is creation of appropriate forms of simplicity for different stakeholders.

As a first step to better define simplicity, we tried, somewhat paradoxically, to understand ...