Methodology for Measuring the Complexity of Enterprise Information Systems

Abstract

The complexity of enterprise information systems is currently a challenge faced not only by IT professionals and project managers, but also by the users of such systems. Current methodologies and frameworks used to design and implement information systems do not specifically deal with the issue of their complexity and, apart from few exceptions, do not at all attempt to simplify the complexity. This article presents the author's own methodology for managing complexity, which can be used to complement any other methodology and which helps limit the growth of complexity. It introduces its own definition and metric of complexity, which it defines as the sum of entities of the individual UML models of the given system, which are selected according to the MMDIS methodology so as to consistently describe all relevant content dimensions of the system. The main objective is to propose a methodology to manage information system complexity and to verify it in practice on a real-life SAP implementation project.