Managing Complexity of Information Systems: The Value of Simplicity

Preface

 

 

 

Many organizations are now reaching the same conclusion: mastering technical and organizational complexity is today the primary difficulty to overcome for their IT departments, much more so than reaching some critical magnitude in IT investments. At best, poorly managed complexity will prevent any reliable predictions for possible future evolutions of the system. At worst, the sustainability of the system as a whole could be put at stake. It would obviously be illusory, if not naive, to attempt to remove complexity altogether from the IS. The aim is rather to master the growth of complexity and to make sure that it stays in reasonable proportion to the actual usefulness of the IS to its various stakeholders. More precisely, the goal is to avoid an uncontrolled proliferation of “useless” complexity to ensure the scalability of the system and to maintain the satisfaction of its users.

This book develops the point of view according to which mastering complexity implies two essential steps: first, we must develop a clear understanding of the real nature of complexity within the IS; second, we must identify the primary causes, which contribute to its uncontrolled growth and organize these into a logical framework, in order to define efficient countermeasures. We also consider that any serious explanation for IT complexity should deal with both technical and psychological causes of complexity.

Two themes make up the main thread of our book: complexity and value. Both themes ...