The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Complexity and Complex

Our world is complex and becoming more complex all the time. We are connected and in turn driven by a complex web of interacting technology and processes. These interacting technologies and processes are implemented by information and communication technologies that are themselves complex. It is difficult to apply such a broad topic as complexity to the equally broad topic of developing software systems or even broader topic of engineered systems.

Measuring complexity in engineered systems is a highly varying concept.¹

The result of these complex systems many times creates complexity. But care is needed is tossing around words like complex and complexity. If these systems are in fact Engineered, rather than simply left to emerge on their own, we can apply some principles to control the unwanted complexity of these complex systems.

First some definitions. These are not the touchy feely definitions found in places like Cynefin where the units of measure of complex, complexity, and chaos, are no where to be found. Cynefin was developed in the context of management and organizational strategy by David Snowden. We're interested in the system complexity of things, the people who build them, and the environments where they are deployed. But this also means measuring complex and the complexity in units meaningful to the decision makers. These units must somehow be connected to the cost, schedule, and probability of success for those paying for the work.

Complexity has turned out to be very difficult to define. The dozens of definitions that have been offered all fall short in one respect or another, classifying something as complex which we intuitively would see as simple, or denying an obviously complex phenomenon the label of complexity. Moreover, these definitions are either only applicable to a very restricted domain, such as computer algorithms or genomes, or so vague as to be almost meaningless. (From Principia Cybernetica) 

Some more background about complex systems and their complexity⁴

• A System is a set of interacting components - whether human-made, naturally-occurring, or a combination of both.
• By "interact", it means the exchange of physical force, energy, mass flow, or information, such that one component can change the state of another component. Or for software systems, the exchange of information, state knowledge, or impact an outcome of other component.
• The technologies or natures of these systems may be mechanical, chemical, electronic, biological, informational (software), or combinations of these or others.
• The behavior of a system can include "emergent" aspects that are not a characteristic of any individual component, but arise from their combination.
• Emergent properties can be valuable (e.g., delivery of new services) or undesired (e.g., dangerous or unstable).
• The behavior of a system is often not easily predicted from the behavior of its individual components, and may also be more complex.
• The complexity of human-engineered systems is growing, in response to demands for increased sophistication, in response to market or government competition, and enabled by technologies.
• It has become relatively easy to construct systems which cannot be so readily understood. 

What is complexity then?

The words chaos and complexity have been used to mean disorder and complications for centuries. Only in the last thirty years have they been used to refer to mathematical and scientific bodies of knowledge.⁶

Often something is called complex when we can't fully understand its structure or behavior. It is uncertain, unpredictable, complicated, or just difficult to understand.  Complexity is often described as the inability of a human mind to grasp the whole of a complex problem and predict the outcome as Subjective Complexity.⁵

The complex and complexity I'm speaking about are for Engineered Systems, products and services used by organizations, but engineered for their use.  Their use can be considered complex, even create complexity and many times emergent. But the Cynefin approach to complex is ethereal, without the principled basis found in engineering and more importantly Systems Engineering.³ This appears to be why agilest toss around the terms found in Cynefin, since engineering of the software is not a core principle of agile development, rather emergent design and architecture is the basis of the Agile Manifesto.

Here's an example of the engineering side of complex systems, from Dr. Sheard's presentation "Twelve Roles and Three Types of Systems Engineering," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Systems Engineering Seminar, Complexity and Systems Engineering, April 5, 2011,

Before applying these definitions to problems for developing software, there is more work to do.

In complex systems there are entities that participate in the system²

• The technical system being designed and built.
• The socio-technical systems that are building the systems - the project team or production team.
• The technological Environment into which the system will be inserted when the system is complete and deployed. The socio-political system related to the technological environment. This is generally the interaction of the system stakeholders with the resulting system.
• The subjective human experience when thinking about, designing, or using the system, called Cognition.

Cynefin does not make these distinctions, instead separates the system into Complex, Complicated, Chaotic, and Obvious, without distinguishing to which engineered portion of the system these are applicable.

So when we hear about Complex Adaptive Systems in the absence of a domain and the mathematics of such a system, care is needed. It is likely no actionable information will be available in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers to help them make decisions. Just a set words.

References

1 "Complexity Types: from Science to Systems Engineering," Sarah Sheard, ; Mostashari, Ali, Proceedings of the 21th Annual International Symposium of the International Council of Systems Engineering

2 "Systems Engineering in Complexity Context," Sarah Sheard, Proceedings of the 23nd Annual International Symposium of the International Council of Systems Engineering

3 Systems Engineering Principles and Practices, 2^nd Edition, Alexander Kossiakoff William N. Sweet Samuel J. Seymour Steven M. Biemer, John Wiley & Sons.

4 The Challenge of Complex Systems, INCOSE Crossroads of America Chapter.

5 “On Systems architects and systems architecting: some thoughts on explaining the art and science of system architecting” H. G. Sillitto, Proceedings of INCOSE IS 2009, Singapore, 20-23 July. 

6 Practical Applications of Complexity Theory for Systems Engineers, Sarah Sheard, Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering

Related articles

Risk Management is How Adults Manage Projects

Start with Problem, Than Suggest The Solution

I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That