The Relationship Between Human and Machine-Oriented Standards and the Impact to Enterprise Systems Engineering
Abstract
In this paper, we explore some of the relationships between machine-oriented and human-oriented standards. We wish to make three primary points: 1. Machine and human-oriented standards exist along a spectrum that is characterized by a fundamental trade-off between the amount of detail encoded in the standard and the amount of diversity among the communities of practice that can access or utilize the standard. We refer to this trade off as the "detail/diversity trade space". In particular, we argue that standards efforts that attempt to gain agreement on too much detail by communities that are too diverse enter what we refer to as "the zone of infeasibility" and become likely to fail. We develop this point in sections 2 and 3. 2. Standards and their supporting communities of practice can co-evolve with each other. In particular, we explore two forms of change. In one, standards can change and become more detailed as the communities' practices become more unified. In the other, standards can solidify and become "locked in" as other standards refer to them. In the first case, we draw on the fields of ethnomethodology and structuration. In the latter, we draw on work in the field of socio-technical studies of standards. We explore these issues in Section 4. 3. We assert that the detail/diversity trade space and co-evolution of standards has direct implications for those involved in the development of information systems, particularly those that operate at the enterprise level and that must cross group boundaries. We discuss several of these implications in Section 5.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 24, 2011
- Accession Number
- AD1108476
Entities
People
- David Mann
- Joann Brooks
- Joe Derosa
Organizations
- MITRE Corporation