You know, I have been playing competitive bridge for almost 40 years now (since I was two!), and we talk a lot about the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) principle. Every time I step out and try to do something fancy (read overcomplicated), I get in trouble. All of this has gotten me to think more about the idea of “keep it simple” as it applies to business systems. Let me continue with a few more anecdotes.
In the mid-80s, I had the pleasure of working with a guy named Ed Mahler at DuPont. Ed was a great thinker in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and ran the AI lab at DuPont. One day I asked Ed to describe the kind of software he liked. He then described a term called “inspection usable.” He said that inspection usable systems were just what they sound like – once you start the application, you kind of know what to do.
“Amadeus” is one of my favorite movies. In a scene, someone tells Mozart that his new work has “too many notes.” He replies quite curtly – “this piece has neither too many notes, nor too few notes. It has just the right number of notes.”
So, that’s how I think about business software. It has “just the right number of notes,” and it is inspection usable.
What does it mean for a software module to have the right number of notes? First of all, we need enough notes to solve some pretty complex problems. For example, your company could have 2,000 suppliers, eight factories, 12 warehouses and serve 5,000 customers around the world with a large number of different products (SKUs).
Well, the first observation is that this is a pretty complicated problem. So, keeping it simple has nothing to do with the complexity of the problem. Keeping it simple has to do with simplifying the approach to solving a complex problem.
Let’s go back to the factory problem. One way to keep things simple is to separate different functions. So, there might be separate “symphonies” for production management and advanced planning and scheduling. Keep it simple and have modules do what they really do well. Now, let’s consider a module. The module shouldn’t have “too many notes.” So, keep it to production planning. If you want advanced Monte Carlo Simulation with reverse Fibonacci series, you probably have too many notes.
OK, what about inspection usability to solve complex problems? Well, it means clear intuitive screens, the ability to know the unique values of fields to update transactions, ties to business intelligence, etc. You can tell the user interface is simple when the staff members are smiling when they arrive at work. You can tell the user interface is simple when the department manager is smiling. Why? Because not only are more (and error-free) transactions flowing through the system, but the manager is able to perform the necessary analytic functions to run the department effectively.
Bottom line: It’s all about doing hard things simply.
