Thursday, May 12, 2011

Theories and Models of Systems Thinking

Think about how paradigms form the structures of systems around you. What are these paradigms, and what assumptions support them? How are they formed, and how do they change over time?


This discussion will focus on the paradigm shift from traditional thinking to systems thinking within Information technology space. As a professional in this industry, understanding and seeing the system around me change over the years has been interesting. One of the topics that have proven to remain interesting in the industry has been the make versus buy decision around software. Traditionally organizations have been quick to develop applications internally rather than purchase packages off the shelf. The ability to have a “home grown” application that has internal developers providing support was primarily the methodology of thinking in the Software sector of IT. Studies show that 90% of applications within an organization are home grown and account for a majority of downtime faced by organizations (Dubie, 2007). This methodology has been resistant to change through time, even though it has proved disastrous to support.


Ledeen (n.d) stated that there is a paradigm shift in the decision-making process on how to acquire these new software packages. The author argues that the ability for an organization to purchase packages that are highly customizable and sophisticated has led to a paradigm shift in the decision-making process. Through the utilization of systems thinking methodologies, organizations now use a set of criteria to measure their decision making process for software acquisition. Two of the five criteria are:


Core versus Context – The ability to understanding what functionalities are parts of your organizations core competencies is leading to a shift in making versus buying. Historically organization’s just built entire application systems and managed all functionalities, with the utilization of outsourcing; there is a shift in the thinking of how organizations manage their core competencies.


TCO – Consideration has now been placed on the cost of ownership of these applications. Traditional thinking placed little emphasis on the cost associated with an in-house developer and the ongoing fee associated with the developer. The change in the decision-making process has lead to the consideration of an outsourced model, which places the cost as a less expensive operational cost (Ledeen, n.d).


Assumptions made historically in the technology field state that homegrown application developers often provide the best solutions. The author argues that the highly customizable packaged applications provide similar or greater features and functionalities. The shift in technology has been continuous in the software application space and as organizations apply systems thinking to their decision making, a steady shift will occur.


References

Dubie, D. (2007). Homegrown applications are prim culprits to downtime. Network world Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/nsm/2007/0702nsm1.html


Leeden, K. (n,d). Build vs. buy. A decision-making paradigm for IT applications. Retrieved from www.nevo.com/our-knowledge/whitepapers/BuildVsBuy.pdf