New technology but old methods Making technology work in complex organizations

by MARLENE BROWN

I n the last 20 years there has been an explosive growth in the number and complexity of computer sys-

tems which highlights some critical

issues. Richard Bender of Bender & Asso-

ciates, a US consultancy, believes these issues fall into three major

categories:

l the current limited degree of sys-

tematic methods of producing soft- ware and identifying their relations

to corporate objectives, l a rapid and explosive change in

technology, l the impact of the increasing inven-

tory of existing systems.

Abstract: The rapid forth in corn~~t~ systems has highlighted several issues. Responsibility for corporate technology is often left to middle management. Many companies are unaware how overloaded the inventory systems are which can cause

compute breakdowns. A more un@ed approach is needed lo create a co.+effective, efficient system.

Keywords: data processing, inventory systems, computing.

Marlene Brown is a technical journalist.

Bender is convinced that the major

stumbling block in integrating DP with the organization is a cultural gap between users and systems people. He says that in most org~izations the

role of the DP group is not fully integrated with the business; it is usually viewed as a staff group, not a line group actively involved in helping

to set direction. He says, ‘I have had to review

numerous strategic business plans and as you read each plan it becomes clear that many aspects of it are dependent

on systems support. Yet the DP group is rarely actively involved.’

Bender sees the heart of the prob- lem as the difference between process and project orientations. ‘Process en- vironments have the characteristic of being predictable. Production capaci- ties are well-known, based on past experience. By contrast, systems people work in a project environment. Projects are research and develop- ment efforts. Accurate estimates can- not be made until the research is done and in complex projects this may take

months. ‘Users, with their predictable pro-

cess orientation, often get frustrated by the lack of specificity in the early stages of a project and this is com- pounded by a feeling of helplessness about having their success depend on an effort outside their control. TO establish a degree of control, and comfort, the users prematurely push for dates because dates are definitive; you either made the date or you did

not. This is very misleading.’

Bender sees three variables in sys- tem building:

l time 0 functionality * resources

There is usually an upper limit on how many resources can effectively be

used. Projects continually cut func- tionality until what is left fits the schedule and/or budget. Unfortu-

nately, what is left may be inadequate to meet the user’s needs.

The problem is complex and to

solve this, a major emphasis must be placed on educating user management on project-related issues.

Recently, Bender gave a one day lecture on the systems development process. Over 100 people attended with half coming from various user departments. ‘At the end, their re- action surprised me,’ he says. His audience voiced their concern by say- ing, ‘We never realised how many things must be considered in doing a project. Why didn’t you people, the systems group, tell us this before? Now, we also understand better what we must do.’

Bender emphasizes his view that chief executive officers, presidents and managing directors, who reach the senior management ranks prior to systems being a major factor in their business, tend to keep technology at arm’s length. They usually delegate technology issues to middle manage-

16 0011~684X/85106001~03$03.00 0 1985 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd. data processing

policy

ment. This removes it as a strategic force and even diminishes it tactically. The computer is reduced to just an operational aid. Yet he says, corporate executives who have risen through the ranks in an environment where tech-

nology was <already a key factor tend to be more proactive and aggressive regarding telchnology.

Bender explains how he was once involved in a vendor evaluation to select the vendor(s) and the computer configurations to support a set of integrated applications. ‘The effort

began by translating the strategic business plan into an applications strategy. An applications architecture was then defined which assumed no technology limitations. It was an architecture which reflected the busi- ness problern only. The architecture was then translated into a set of technology requirements. It was

against these “idealized’ technology requirements that the various vendors were evaluated. As expected, these requirements cannot be totally met today.’

Nevertheless, he adds, it was pos- sible to map technical capabilities and limitations onto the strategic business plan so that adjustments could be made accordingly. The advantage to this approach is that the search for new technology has a focus. The client has also started working with some of the vendors in the definition of the vendors’ future products.

‘This is not a one-time only pro- cess. You have to continually keep the systems strategy in sync with the business strategy which is, of course, subject to change. The systems stra- tegy has got to survive in a changing environment. It would thus be fatal to

over concentrate on the existing busi- ness,’ says Biender.

Inventory of existing systems

From experience, Bender believes that most companies have no idea how large their existing inventory of sys- tems are, yet most have had growing

DP departments which have pro-

duced systems for 20 years. Many of these systems are 10 or even 15 years old. Many are reaching ‘critical mass’, that point when the system’s structure

is so convoluted that every time you fix one bug you create two more.

Bender has already seen situations,

especially in service industries such as banking, where whole divisions have become unprofitable due to systems, which have reached critical mass. The systems could not be enhanced any further to stay competitive, because the risk to existing functions was too great. The result was an erosion of operational efficiency and a loss in

market share as customers moved to those who could supply improved products.

Bender explains how, in each in- stance, this was not necessarily the fault of the maintenance program- mers. The roots of the problem lie in the period immediately following the initial installation of the system and later in the user’s priorities.

‘When a system is first installed it is as well-documented and as well-struc- tured as it will ever be. Immediately after its initial installation, numerous changes are defined for it. These go in

very quickly, due to the knowledge of the staff who built it originally. How- ever, there was no time, or even perceived need, to keep up the docu- mentation or the orderly structure. The result is the documentation be- came more of a verbal tradition passed from generation to generation of pro- grammers. The system structure is a house of cards and the user has been ‘trained’ to expect quick enhance- ments.

Bender puts most emphasis on this last factor, which perpetuates the problem by guaranteeing there will never be time to clean up the system. He adds, ‘So each major system absorbs an increasing staff of main- tenance programmers led by one or two wily old veterans who somehow keep the system alive far longer than one could rationally expect. These

people, who like Sisyphus keep push- ing uphill, are absolutely critical to the business. Yet they are usually

unsung heroes, .underpaid in com- parison to the more glamorous tech- nology/development staff. They are not lesser skilled than the others, they

just have different skills which in some cases are far more critical to the

business and impossible to replace.’ To understand just how severe this

problem is, Bender quantifies it. In a recent audit for a medium-sized bank in Ohio, he found that their existing inventory of applications contained over three million lines of executable code, not counting comments or data definitions. Ninety eight per cent of their transactions, processed by sys- tems over 10 years, required major

enhancements and technology re- quirements. They will also have to be replaced in three to five years.

The problem is severe in large, complex corporations in the USA,

Japan and Australasia, where Bender handles most of his big projects. ‘They have systems inventories in the tens of millions of lines of code representing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. In reality, the problem is compounded by the fact that the only complete definition of

what business functions the systems perform is the code itself. There exists no documentation or user knowledge sufficient to identify every function, every business algorithm and every decision rule.

‘In some industries, like banking and insurance, the new system must be absolutely functionally compatible with the old system. It must, for example, calculate interest the same way or expose the company to legal action based on truth in lending laws. The system’s definition, in effect, represents a contract between the company and its clients. The com- pany cannot unilaterally change that contract without at least informing the client. Similar examples for the need for functional compatibility can be found in all industries.’

~0127 no 6 julyiaugust 1985 17

He describes how, when replacing one automated system with another, the manual system fallback position no longer exists, if certain functions

were incorrect. Since many of these

compatibility problems do not show up for months, it is impractical to fall back to the old automated system.

Thus, it is absolutely necessary to ensure full functional compatibility during the redevelopment process and not wait until surprises occur in production.

On the systems inventory side, some systems with low rates of change and little interaction with other sys-

tems might be maintained indefinite- ly. Other systems with high rates of change and which are deeply inte- grated into the business may need immediate redevelopment. Those

with steady rates of change but re- quiring no major enhancements may be evolved through a series of partial rewrites over a three to five year period.

The use of formal code analysis

techniques to work out the business

functions of the code is key to the success of such projects. Bender lists other major benefits of the code analy- sis techniques. ‘In each project we

have found enough bugs in the exist- ing systems to pay for the entire analysis effort. Some of these bugs have gone undetected for many years, costing companies millions of dollars. Another benefit is that the knowledge of the existing system is greatly in- creased making it possible to change it with little risk. The reduced error rates and accelerated change rate buy time for the system to be redeveloped properly.

Discipline structured thinking

‘The hundreds upon hundreds of millions of computer instructions which exist and operate fairly well

today are more tribute to persever- ance than discipline. Failed projects are still an all too common experi- ence,’ says Bender. He points to the

lack of discipline which manifests itself in many ways.

‘Most project teams focus on what they are building, rarely knowing why it is needed. A few years ago, I was called in to audit a project which the user felt was going to cost too much. The original request from the user asked for a realtime, online, mighty fine database system. For what they were asked to build they were doing at a reasonable cost. Unfortunately, no one stated or asked why the system was needed.’

Bender points to a second area where a lack of discipline shows and this is in the scope of the project. Most projects seem to focus on the definition of the computer system. They identify the computer hardware and software required but not user procedures nor the user facilities such as office space, desks, telephones, etc. These omissions affect the quality of the system, the accuracy of the cost/ benefit analysis and the degree of user

acceptance. cl

Planning the computer Continued from page 15

data in and noise out arrives in its integrity.

It is worth paying

room

so that data

attention to

details like filters on terminals and gold-plating contacts - a minimum of two microns is recommended. When cable is being specified it must be made clear what function it is performing, what length is required, whether it is to be shielded or not and whether it is to have a solder or crimp termination. Often users try to econo- mize by ordering the absolute mini- mum lengths of the lowest possible specification in an assembly. Usually it is false economy, because the chances are that it will soon be modified and in the interval the prob- lem of noise will have intruded. In- deed, it is not surprising to suppliers and installers how often a specifica- tion is changed while an order is being fulfilled. There is, for instance, a move away from RS232 to RS422.

18

The ultimate answer to problems of both speed and interference is fibre optics, the costs of which are coming down.

Data transfer

In the transmission of data, speed and distance are inversely proportional. Higher speeds can be achieved over shorter distances. Nearly all transfers

within the computer, for example, are parallel, as are those within the com- puter room. The theoretical maxi- mum distance for the transmission of parallel data is 3m (loft) but in practice this is often exceeded. There is always the risk of data corruption and it is as well not to take risks.

Communications

The fastest changing area of comput- ing is communications. Installations may need to communicate with the immediate site on a local area network (LAN), offsite on a wide area network (WAN) and a value added network

(VAN). All these networks are grow- ing in importance and the pattern of communications at any one time is often changing. Users therefore need to be able to configure any desired pattern quickly. Where there are more terminal users than ports, for example, contention switches can be used to allocate ports as they become free.

On a larger scale is the private digital exchange (PDE), which can handle the routing of information to and from the computer, taking in dialup services on the private switched telephone network, leased circuits and high speed links for packet switching. The tendency is to integrate the various services avail- able, mixing and matching them with- in the information hierarchy accord- ing to need. It is an area that is still growing and space has to be allowed for it. 0

Electronic Interconnections Ltd, Connector House, Rustington Trading Estate, Rusting- ton, Littlehampton, West Sussex, UK.

data processing