The Economist Tackles Complexity in IT

yfnET writes "In recent weeks, The Economist has run a number of articles addressing the ever-increasing complexity of software systems. The magazine, with typical Economist wisdom, casts an eye towards past human endeavors for lessons on how today's IT industry can succeed in dealing with complexity. As part of last month's extensive survey of information technology (see Related Items sidebar), the magazine offers insight on the limits of real-world metaphors, the perils of managing a rat's nest of obsolescent systems, and the need for 'disappearing' technology. And hitting newsstands just today is an overview of development models for increasingly large and unwieldy software projects. Among other things, this article compares the open source model to Microsoft's efforts using a quasi-open license. It also describes the 'agile' programming movement and its potential to keep even the most gigantic of projects under control."

Comments

A Lot of Silliness, and Two Spectacular Points

[Onimaru]

So a lot of this space was spent explaining to Joseph P. Siquespack, Esq. what a "protocol" was and the like, but there were two points in here that I'm really glad my great-grandboss might be reading:

1. A system should be designed to fail in a predictable way. Much like a car body, it should crumple to protect its most valuable assets, and repairs should have obvious beginnings, middles, and ends.
2. Obsolete systems will cause you more downtime in the end than incremental upgrades. And, what's worse, it will be all at once instead of at 4am twice a month on Saturday morning.

Neither of the above are impossible goals! They can be done with a little thought and elbow grease. And the great part is, they're probably already being done! Next time you're reading over your IT department head's recommendations for a project, call them up and ask WHY. You might be amazed at how awesome the answer is, and it might even persuade you to put away the "my way or the highway" stamp.

Just Engineering Taken to its Logical Conclusion

[smug_lisp_weenie]

Engineers love to break things into smaller parts, each part serving one and only one function, like pulleys, shafts, rotors, etc.

For really effective design each part has to serve multiple functions, like evolution is able to do: The human mouth can be used to eat, breathe, talk, etc etc.

That's why a robot can't compete with an animal- In a robot each part usually severs only one function, making the machine inefficient as a whole.

This problem is just magnified in computer software and will only get worse unless engineers start changing their tune. I think the worst offender of this philosophy is object oriented programming: It's the ultimate embodyment of this philosophy- Most big object-oriented software have only about 2-3% of code that performs any real work, with the rest only is window dressing to fulfill the engineer's urge to "modularize".

The best software I see seems to be written either in more pragmatic procedural styles, or uses better mathematical underpinnings for its structure, like you'll find in functional programming languages (Haskell, Lisp, etc.)

My apologies for living up to my user name!

Conrad Barski

Re:Chinese Slave Labor

[tarunthegreat2]

Of course, I'm feeding a troll here, but India has been on a path to "westernization" for about 200 years now, ever since the British East India Company first set foot on the shores of Calcutta. India alreasy has a "western-style" political and economic system, so STFU. Our laws are based on British Common Law - newsflash - so are American laws. We VOTE our leaders in to power. When two companies have a dispute ove a contract they go to court. When we want to make laws, they have to passed by two houses of parliament. Parliament happens to be this big place where elected representatives gather - to pass laws. Oh, and the unofficial offical language of India is ENGLISH. Imposing this system on a culture which has been transforming and transitioning for the past 1900 years going from Hindu - to Buddhist- To Muslim - to British is going to produce results which will be very different from what a pitifully young country like America isn't used to seeing. So just get the fuck over it. Finally this commitment to free trade that you talk about - The developing countries are ready & waiting for it. It is America that can't handle freeing trade in agriculture and industries like steel. It is USA which puts quotas on garments. Look up any textbook: quota != Free Trade. If you think an Indian software engineer is cheap, wait'll you discover the price of an Indian orange, or an Indian T-shirt. But you won't know about those because trade in those items is not "FREE". And it's not free because the EU and America want it that way. Because Billy Bob with-mouth-in-straw living in a redneck county of a red state just voted the current monkey into the white house. Now go back guarding the bridge, trolly-wolly.