Which standards' characteristics increase system flexibility? Comparing ICT and batch processing infrastructures

Abstract

Most large Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems develop in a piece-meal fashion. Their complexity and evolution is difficult to manage. They lack flexibility. This contrasts sharply with system design in the batch-wise processing industry, where flexibility has always had a high priority. In this industry, the S88 standard plays an important flexibilityenhancing role. The paper compares the two fields of technology and explores which standards' characteristics increase system flexibility. It examines whether flexibility objectives in both fields differ, and what constitutes a 'flexible standard'. Four standards' characteristics turn out to be important: degree of specificity, level of abstraction, system level, and degree of simplicity. They seem to be a necessary condition for standards to create flexible systems, but whether they are a sufficient condition cannot yet be said.

Standards and infrastructure flexibility: Literature review

“…With the exception of several studies in our literature analysis (Allen & Boynton, 1991;Bhatt, 2000;Ciborra & Hanseth, 1998;Duncan, 1995;Egyedi, 2001;Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005;Hanseth, Monteiro, & Hatling, 1996), the role of standards in flexibility is almost completely ignored. The studies that deal with the topic of standards can be largely summarized by the following flexibility characteristics of standards (adapted from Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005): degree of specificity, degree of functional inclusiveness, and system level addressed by standards 6 .…”

“…High infrastructure flexibility implies a high degree of reusability and interchangeability among the infrastructure components (Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005;Kayworth, Chatterjee, & Sambamurthy, 2001). Additionally, modularity reduces design complexity of infrastructure (Swafford, Ghosh, & Murthy, 2006).…”

“…The studies that deal with the topic of standards can be largely summarized by the following flexibility characteristics of standards (adapted from Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005): degree of specificity, degree of functional inclusiveness, and system level addressed by standards 6 . Degree of specificity refers to the measures of detail in a standard, which is well seen when comparing product specifications with performance standards.…”

“…Literature suggests that this characteristic is strongly determined by the factors of standard implementation (Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005). The characteristic of the degree of functional inclusiveness falls in both temporal and range dimensions.…”

“…Hughes, 1983), or on the use of standards (e.g. Duncan, 1995;Egyedi, 2001;Egyedi & Verwater-Lukszo, 2005;Fomin, 2003;Fomin & Blechar, 2005;Hanseth, Monteiro, & Hatling, 1996), still others focus on the modularity of systems (e.g. Schilling, 2000).…”