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Understanding the Vicious Circle of Complexity
 "The number of lines of communications grow exponentially INTRODUCTION In an earlier bulletin, I discussed the various types of information resources found in an information system, the average number of each resource, along with the number of design decisions associated with each; see: No. 10 - Managing Design Complexity The issue of managing complexity is not simple. As our information systems continue to grow in magnitude, so do the costs associated with maintaining and updating them to suit the Compounding the problem of complexity is a vicious circle phenomenon that occurs during development projects. This circle is actually quite simple to understand and explain:
This results in a vicious circle whereby complexity is compounded with every development project. Instead of our systems becoming easier to manage, they are becoming much more complicated. So much so, no one person can visualize the system in its entirety. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATIONS To truly understand how communications compounds complexity, let's begin by understanding the number of lines of communications between people. Interestingly, the number of lines of communications grow exponentially based on the number of people involved. For example: Number of People: 2 Number of People: 3 Number of People: 4 Number of People: 5 As if maintaining the number of lines of communications isn't enough, we must consider the content of the communications. Even if our lines of communications are well maintained, if there are no standards in terms of terminology and work effort, a "Tower of Babel" effect will result whereby developers trip over each other in an uncoordinated manner. Without standardization, systems become more difficult to maintain and modify, thereby compounding the complexity problem. CONCLUSION The failure of the ability of one person to handle the relationships of the entire system is due partially to the complexity of the system and partially to our failure to develop concepts which enables us to impose structure on this complexity. Because of this lack of structure, the designer cannot communicate properly with the user in defining requirements or in relating a solution for these requirements. The designer cannot properly communicate with the programmers and ultimately with the people who will be using, modifying and maintaining the system after it has been developed. In fact, the programmer cannot properly communicate with the computer due to the unstructured nature of requirements and the complexity of the processes needed to implement large systems. Finally, this difficulty in communications manifests itself in the unreliability of each information resource in a system. As we have more and more interconnected resources, so that the failure of any resource results in the failure of the whole system, the reliability of each resource must increase, rather than decrease, in order to prevent the entire system from failing. Needless to say, the more complex the system, the less
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Article Tags: Tim, Bryce, Mba, Irm, Information, Resources, Complexity, Viscious, Circle Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/understanding-the-vicious-circle-of-complexity-33129.html About the Author:
Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida, a management consulting firm specializing in Information Resource Management (IRM). Mr. Bryce has over 30 years of experience in the field. He is available for training and consulting on an international basis. His corporate web page is at: He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com Copyright © 2006 MBA. All rights reserved.
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