This book establishes and communicates a scientific approach to the analysis, design and management of complex information systems enabled services. Case studies illustrate how the techniques described can be employed in large scale, real world examples that are developed to match the theoretical and practical presentation.
The authors reframe the problem of analyzing a complex service system from an `understand the system' view to an `understand it under control' perspective. This fundamental change recognizes that service systems are largely constructed and should be treated differently from natural systems, something that has typically been ignored in the past. By shifting to a view in which the systems dynamics over the full range of significant factors -- people, the economic and physical environments, as well as technology options -- are understood, many of the pitfalls that have sunk large projects in the past can be avoided.