The Cost of Complexity

One of my strengths with technology, and systems in general, is that I can fairly quickly map the local to the global, the micro to the macro. As I've mentioned in an earlier article, I have been working part time at a private school taking care of their IT. "Take care" is the operative phrase in as much as I take care of both the equipment and the people. There is a nurturing that goes on I feel, as we make sure 15 year old XP machines and such like can continue to operate.

As in driving a car, relatively few people need or want to "look under the hood". They just need to use the devices and the applications, not caring how, only what. Today's IT software has become far too complex and I recall one of my old dictums, "Complex systems are inherently unstable". It is true today, even more so than before. Simple changes in an enterprise wide system can have potentially unforeseen negative consequences, and add in a pinch of whacky advice found on the web and one can be in trouble faster than a Donald Trump tweet.

Systems are alive and we are constantly adjusting, adding and taking away hardware and software. Teachers come and go, email accounts have to be added, new computers have to be connected to the network, programs need updating and the list goes on and on. Over the past two months I have struggled attempting to get two recent applications up and running correctly to no avail. Hours spent working with the help desks have proved fruitless, them assuming I don't know what I am doing, me getting even more frustrated thinking maybe they are right.

In one case it turns out that a feature of the management software hadn't actually been implemented in the device although the User interface indicated that it had. In the other case a network problem exists whereby an application works in a simple single user environment, but not in an enterprise wide situation. In both situations, I have spent many many hours, checking rechecking, changing, testing, scratching my head, anxious to resolve the problem when time permitted.

As I thought of those fruitless hours spent and the inadequate documentation, the off base suggestions found on line that would only make matters worse, I embraced the magnitude of the cost to the US economy. In 2014 there were over 6 million people working in IT. If each of use could spend even 5% less time on fixing poorly designed software or software released before it was ready the saving would be enormous. It would run into the Billions of dollars saved each year. This does not even include the improved psychological state of the Technical support staff or the increased productivity and efficiencies of business.

Part of the challenge is that the designers and developers are often introverts and "live" in a world which cannot embrace the actual imagined user experience. That requires empathy and a company's desire to understand that today software is all about relationships. The relationship between the app and the user. As the software is pumped out, there are subsequently (and hopefully for a company) thousands of users on a lap top, mobile phone or desktop using the product. Technologists and Management need to be more capable and understanding of the Process of Integration of their products to people and the systems of today.

To do so will have a positive impact upon not only companies across the USA but also upon the technical support people that are tasked with making sure things "run smoothly". It will also improve the bottom line both fiscally and psychologically. - I can only hope!