Durrett, John

Konana, Prabhudev

Whinston, Andrew

English

AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information SystemsAIS Electronic Library (AISeL)ICIS 1997 Proceedings International Conference on Information Systems(ICIS)December 1997An Information Processing Approach to theCoordination of Components in DistributedSoftware SystemsJohn DurrettTexas Tech UniversityPrabhudev KonanaThe University of Texas at AustinAndrew WhinstonThe University of Texas at AustinFollow this and additional works at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1997This material is brought to you by the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been acceptedfor inclusion in ICIS 1997 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contactelibrary@aisnet.org.Recommended CitationDurrett, John; Konana, Prabhudev; and Whinston, Andrew, "An Information Processing Approach to the Coordination ofComponents in Distributed Software Systems" (1997). ICIS 1997 Proceedings. 34.http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1997/34449AN INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH TO THECOORDINATION OF COMPONENTS INDISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE SYSTEMSJohn R. DurrettTexas Tech UniversityPrabhudev C. KonanaAndrew B. WhinstonThe University of Texas at AustinThe increasingly dynamic, competitive, and global business environment in which many organizations operate hascreated a need for new business and information systems (IS) models.  These new models must be (1) flexible toenable the rapid redesign of business processes, (2) clearly focused on internal competencies to insure efficiency,and (3) responsive to allow rapid response to changes in customer demand (Wernerfelt 1984).  Technologicalparadigm shifts are enabling the new models through a broadening of what Malone (1997) calls the organizational“design space.”  This design space is the set of all possible organizational configurations given existing conditions.The new technologies are lowering coordination costs and enabling more flexible, coordination-intensive businessmodels (Malone and Rockart 1991).  In many such business models, object technology (OT)-based IS are animportant facet in providing the required flexibility, efficiency, and responsiveness.  However, problems such asdifficulties in conceptualizing business processes and predicting future business practices, inherent difficulties inunderstanding very large applications and their problem domains, and complexity of enterprise-wide coordination(Lewis 1994; Newman 1995) have slowed the acceptance of OT in the business community (Pancake 1995).  Whatis lacking is a theoretical foundation on which to build the OT-based IS that are an integral part of the new businessmodels.  A theoretical foundation is required that will facilitate an u derstanding of the structure of the businessmodel, its information processing requirements, and its business environment.In order to provide the required foundation and to guide IS developers, an enterprise-wide, organizational theory-based IS development model is proposed.  Building on Taylor’s (1994) convergent engineering paradigm, businessprocesses are conceptualized as distributed collections of self-contained interacting business objects.  In this model,IS are developed concurrently with the business process and are composed of interacting sets of empowered, OT-based software teams.  The empowerment of software teams through the incorporation of business rules allowsdecentralized control, enables more flexible “organizational” structures, and allows IS to be easily adapted asbusiness environments shift.  These software teams are conceptually very similar to teams of employees in anorganization.  This similarity allows the use of information processing theory (IPT) (Galbraith 1973), which istraditionally oriented toward understanding the control and coordination requirements in human organizations, toprovide a theoretical background in designing the distributed IS organizations.  IPT is based primarily on theenvironment-structure relationship postulated by contingency theorists (Dess and Beard 1984).  As applied in thedevelopment model, it provides a basis for determining the type of software teams that need to be created, the typeof business rules that must be implemented, and the IS structure that is most appropriate given the businessenvironment.This research investigates the use of IPT in a new, distributed systems design methodology.  Using an example inthe context of electronic commerce, a portfolio management system based on distributed OT utilizing the new designmethodology is created.  While infrastructure improvements such as ubiquitous TCP/IP and distributed objectResearch in Progress450middle-ware facilitate this investigation, they are not the primary focus.  The primary emphasis is on theunderstanding of coordination requirements in flexible, dynamic IS.REFERENCESDess, G. G., and Beard, D. W.  “Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments,” Administrative ScienceQuarterly (29), 1984, pp. 52-73.Galbraith, J. R.  Designing Complex Organizations, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1973.Lewis, T. “The Dark Side of Objects,” IEEE Computer (27:12), 1994, pp. 6-7.Malone, T. W.  “Free on the Range: Tom Malone on the Implications of the Digital Age (an Interview with C. Petrieand M. Wiggins),” IEEE Internet Computing Online (1:3), http://www.computer.organization/internet, June 1997.Malone, T. W., and Rockart, J. F.  “Computers, Networks and the Corporation, “ Scientific American (265:3),September 1991, pp. 128-136.Newman, D. S.  “Transforming Information Systems Organizations Through Class-Based Reengineering,” ObjectMagazine (5:2), 1995, pp. 43-47, 77.Pancake, C. M.  “The Promise and the Cost of Object Technology: A five-year Forecast,” Communications of theACM (38:10), 1995, pp. 33-49.Prahalad, C. K. “Strategic Intent,” Harvard Business Review (89:3), 1989.Taylor, D. A.  Business Engineering with Object Technology, John Williamsons, New York, 1994.Wernerfelt, B.  “A Resource-Based View of the Firm,” Management Journal (5), 1984.

An Information Processing Approach to the Coordination of Components in Distributed Software Systems

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An Information Processing Approach to the Coordination of Components in Distributed Software Systems

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