InformationWeek

September 14, 1998

Executive Report: Battle Complexity To Add Profitability

By Karyl Scott

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sk a CIO to name his or her main duties, and chances are "manage complexity" won't make the list. But that's what all CIOs do. New technologies and continually changing business requirements make it increasingly difficult to control information systems. Complex IS processes and technologies increase costs and system-administration requirements, demand specialization among the IT staff, and often impede the quick deployment of new business solutions. Complexity can also lead to rigid systems.

CIOs must deal with two types of complexity: problems in the existing IT environment from poorly managed projects, and the development and integration of new applications and processes. To improve the computing ecosystem and boost profits, CIOs must minimize the problems of current infrastructures and rein in programmers who try to add unnecessary features.

At discount brokerage Charles Schwab & Co., products under consideration are rigorously evaluated by the IT department to ensure they meet corporate and industry standards. "The last thing we want is a proprietary product that requires us to support yet another platform and unnecessary layers of functionality," says James Chong, Schwab's VP of architecture. Schwab also uses the same components and codes in multiple applications. An audit of Schwab's development activities indicated this practice helped save the company more than $1 million in the past three years.

Another tactic is to choose a standard development environment and tools. The key is to pick a tool that has, for example, built-in team development capabilities, rich debugging features, and a repository for storing and indexing objects for future reuse.

CIOs must also demand that vendors adhere to corporate standards for performance and reliability. IT departments can spend inordinate amounts of time fixing bugs in commercial software, says Pallab Chatterjee, CIO of Texas Instruments. This seems to be more of a problem in the newer operating environments than in tried-and-true legacy systems. "The MVS environment is extremely mature and stable because IBM has a formal certification program to ensure reliability," Chatterjee says. That's not true with Unix vendors and Microsoft, he adds.

Controlling complexity is a goal all CIOs must strive for. Doing so can have beneficial effects on the company's bottom line.

Karyl Scott is the features editor for application development coverage.

"Executive Report: IT Innovators"

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