Complexity breeds Complexity

One of my teachers used to say, just like success breeds success, complexity breeds complexity.

Computers were introduced in business to handle increased size (in terms of customer reach, volume of market, globalization, voluminous production, etc) and complexity of business (different legal frameworks in different countries, understanding of business with increasing attributes, etc). But with increase in computing power and numerous business applications we have computer systems which are to support computer application and even department (IT department) and whole IT industry. Think about following applications/disciplines which exist to support computerization of business.

1. IT department
2. Identity Management
3. Master Data Management
4. Data ware house
5. Business Intelligence
6. Decision Support System
7. Collaboration Suites ( Email, messaging, Wiki, Document management system)
8. Integration Practice/Suite
9. ETL Suites
10. BPM Suite
11. Versioning System
12. Ticketing Systems
13. Software Licensing Management
14. Intrusion Detection System
15. Enterprise Search


Do you think that my teacher was correct?

IT and Business: A reality check

The conflict in business and IT is a well known fact but least talked subject. Folks at IT side – IT Service providers, product vendors and IT departments always have view that business folks do not understand technology and put unreasonable demands. Some what similar complaints Business folks have with IT folks. IT folks do not understand Business and only think in terms of technology. SOA tries to bridge this gap but again it assumes that both warring sides understand each other.

To depict the picture, I have developed three scenarios. These scenarios are based on famous Theory X, Theory Y by McGregor and Theory Z.

Theory B depicts the world seen by Business folks.



Theory I depicts the world seen by IT folks.



Both Theory B and I depicts the worlds in very biased fashion. The reality resides some where in between which is depicted using Theory R.