Consultants & "complexity stuff" LO11036

Benjamin B. Compton (bcompton@geocities.com)
Sun, 17 Nov 1996 15:10:08 -0700

Replying to LO11002 --

At wrote:

> But I am intrigued by the possibilty to furnish a methodology in
> about 30 pages which can handel complexity with remarkable
> success. By this I do not mean that I am sceptical about your
> claim. On the contrary, my own experiences point to your claim.
> But each of these experiences had its own conditions which
> necetated a particular methodology. However, what intrigues me,
> is the idea of that complexity methodology which works for any
> set of conditions, even including the availing paradigms.

It was 30 pages long when I was finished, 6 months after I began the
project. A colleague felt bad that it was so short, because management
measure quantity, and so he added a bunch of stuff he had written, which
was largely superfluous to the methodlogy, on the end to make it about
100 pages long. Thus management would feel like they got some bang for
their buck!

I found the whole thing ironic, because management was going to evaluate
me on a project they didn't even understand. Its power, usage, and
implications simply escaped their comprehension.

It is quite an interesting animal, because so many people have used it
so successfully. I got an E-Mail from a woman in the northeast who had
used the methodology to design a 600 server messaging system, with
nearly 300,000 users; and then there are people who have used it to
design a 100 users, 2 server system.

I think the most important idea in the whole methodology is that
designing a large messaging system is really no different than designing
a small one, except that the links between geographical locations must
be adequately accounted for (usually implying that central
administration is not practical). If not, the dog don't hunt.

I'd like to get into what I see as the implications of that, but it's
sunday, and I promised my wife I'd only stop by the office for a minute.

-- 
Ben Compton
The Accidental Learning Group                  Work: (801) 222-6178
Improving Business through Science and Art     bcompton@geocities.com
http://www.e-ad.com/ben/BEN.HTM
 

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