Information systems and complexity Flashcards
What is the difference between complicates and complex systems?
Complicated: Linear behaviour, total equals to the sum of its parts.
Complex: Non-linear behaviour, system cannot be understood by investigating its parts.
What kind of complexity do we have?
Inherent/Structural complexity: the dynamic relationship between components in the system.
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Epistemic/behavioural complexity: system behaviour dependent on the environment.
According to Hanseth/Lyytinen; What is complexity?
“The dramatic increase in the number and heterogenity of included components, relations and their dynamic and unexpected interactions in IT solutions.”
What does it mean that a system is sosio-technical?
Complex systems consists of digital tech-components, but also humans, institutions, organizations, routines, norms, politics, legal frameworks etc. Complexity grows non-linear when adding a new component. Humans = big part of equation -> errors are made.
What is an information system (IS)?
An IS is not the inf-tech alone, but the system that emerges from the mutually transformational interactions between the inf-tech and the organization (Lee, 2004).
Examples of information systems
Laptops, smartphones, SMS, servers, SW, post its, paper forms, mail, white board etc.
What is the role of standards in IS?
Many user groups, many technologies. E.g. in a hospital, the system must use the same terminonogy (language, semantics) to be able to communicate - the same for technology -> communicating from one layer to another (HTTP).
According to Braa and Sahay (2012), what are the three levels of standardization of the increasing differences and complexities?
Syntactic/technical standards (unique ID etc), semantic standards (shared indicators and metadata) and organisational/political/pragmatic standards (programmes/donors/agencies)
Can you give an example of an organization that does not currently have any IS?
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What do we mean by architectures and governance?
Technological arch is inseparably intertwined with governance of the P-ecosystem, which is commonly described as its business arch. The arch is the blueprint of a systems modules and relations. The two most common system archs are silo based (old) and service oriented (predominent). Arch has two main functions: partitioning and system integration.
What four simple properties does system arch share with city arch?
Simplicity, resilience (robusthet), maintainability & evolvability.
What are the three facets when it comes to governance and who decides what in a P-ecosystem?
- How decisions rights are divided between P-owner and appDevs.
- What types of (in)formal control mechanisms are used by the P-owner.
- Pricing structure, included which side gets substituted.
What is modularization?
Split up system in logical parts. Can be associated with OO-programming. An ecosys is modular if the P and the appDevs can work independently and together in the end to constitute the ecosystem. Req well-defined interfaces to ensure interoperability. There are two mechanisms for modularization: Decoupling and interface standardization.
