“Complexity Kills” is a maxim that can never be overlooked by organizations that create software. Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, elaborates:

“Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.”

The New York Times recently ran an article focusing on the pitfalls of software systems that have grown too complex. As we demand more from any given software system, it necessarily grows more complex. Paradoxically, this ever more complex system can suffer from these increasing demands, becoming less useful (and perhaps more dangerous) due to problems arising from complexity. These frail applications shut down; travelers then wait for hours at airports, phone systems vanish, vast power outages cripple major metropolitan areas. All the while, our way of life is becoming more dependent on complex software applications.

What are we to do?

The demand for more productive software will never cease. In order for software companies to continue building successful (and profitable) software, they must adhere to processes that mitigate the evils of complexity. Care needs to be applied to how all stakeholders in a project communicate and contribute, from the client to management to development. Developers need to focus on techniques that slice a difficult problem into smaller, more manageable components.

In the second part of this article, I’ll focus on specific ways that complexity can be managed. We’ll examine Google Maps as a case-study of an application that is both complex and successful.