Simple Information Systems

Simplicity: A quality generally lacking in 99 per cent of publications regarding information technology.

Complexity

We can define complexity in a number of ways. It can be the number of pages that need to be read in a specification in order to understand it. It can be the number of tasks or permutations of tasks that need to be resolved before a piece of work can be considered to be complete.

Example and Case Study: INEX 2003 Query Language Using W3 XPATH XML Information Retrieval

A query language used by information systems specialists and professionals is difficult to use, what does this say about the specification of the task?

Richard O'Keefe's University of Otago Page
Richard O'Keefe's Home Page
Richard O'Keefe and Andrew Trotman - (PDF) The Simplest Query Language That Could Possibly Work

Review of complexity due to be published in 2004.

Reduction of Complexity

Technology should be helping us to reduce complexity, not to increase it. If modern specifications, that are meant to be read are longer and more complex than older solution, then we may need to look at what we are doing, because maybe we are tackling problems in the wrong way. Essentially complexity reduction buys us time.

Strategies: Reuse

Maximisation of reuse is one way to reduce complexity.

Strategies: Task Management

Complexity with information gathering and collation comes when the information is disorganised. Information organisation which is inbuilt into the information generation process is likely to generate less complex processes than where the organisation process happens afterwards.