Managing Complexity of Information Systems: The Value of Simplicity

Table of Contents

 

 

 

Foreword

 

Preface

 

Chapter 1. Why Simplicity?

1.1. Solving conflicting requirements

1.2. Three periods in IS management

1.3. And now … simplicity!

1.4. Plan of the book

 

Chapter 2. Complexity, Simplicity,and Abstraction

2.1. What does information theory tell us?

2.2. What does the design tell us?

 

Chapter 3. Value or Values?

3.1. Who is concerned?

3.2. Concepts of value for an IS

3.3. Are these values sufficient and independent?

 

Chapter 4. Promoting Value ThroughSimplicity

4.1. Growing technical heterogeneity

4.2. Changing requirements

4.3. Human factors

 

Chapter 5. Simplicity Best Practices

5.1. Putting simplicity principles into practice

5.2. Defining a generic IS

5.3. A simplicity framework

 

Conclusion

 

APPENDICES

 

Appendix 1. Digging into Information Theory

A1.1. Shannon entropy

A1.2. Shannon entropy in short

A1.3. Kolmogorov complexity

A1.4. Choosing a scale of description

A1.5. Relation to Shannon entropy

A1.6. Computing the Kolmogorov complexity

A1.7. Kolmogorov complexity in short

A1.8. Bennetts logical depth

A1.9. Bennetts logical depth in short

 

Appendix 2. Two Measures of Code Complexity

A2.1. Cyclomatic complexity

A2.2. An example of a scale-invariantcomplexity measure

A2.3. Conclusion

 

Appendix 3. Why Has SOA Failed So Often?

A.3.1. The need for flexibility

A.3.2. First issue: no suitable enterprise architecture

A.3.3. Second issue: no data integration

A.3.4. Identifying the operating model

A.3.5. Which models are compatible with ...