Distributed Computer System Complexity Versus Component Simplicity: Their Effects on Software Maintenance

Theissueappearstodependontwodiametricsofinformationsystemarchitectures: componentsimplicityandsystemcomplexity. The smaller (and more n~ous) the systemcomponents, the simpler they are to deal with individually (lower software maintenance costs) but the harder it is to deal with the overall system (higher software maintenance costs). This research seeks empirical quantitative and qualitative data from IS system and application software analysts, designers, programmers, testers, and customer service representatives to determine whether the complexity of a distributed computer system has a greater effect on software maintenance than component simplicity and what the explanatory factors are