Slide 1 © Carliss Y. Baldwin 2008 The Design of Infrastructure (Design Theory meets Infrastructure) Carliss Y. Baldwin Harvard Business School Infrastructure.

Slide 1 © Carliss Y. Baldwin 2008

The Design of Infrastructure(Design Theory meets Infrastructure)

Carliss Y. BaldwinHarvard Business School

Infrastructure Meets Business: Building New Bridges, Mending Old OnesAcademy of Management PDWChicago, ILAugust 7, 2009

Outline of remarks

What constitutes success for designs? Specific challenges for infrastructure

– Other people’s options

– Stable expectations vs. evolution/efficiency/adaptability

Implied design principles– Simple infrastructure

» End-to-end

» Scalability

– Total immersion infrastructure» Separation of functions



Three levels of design success

Obey the laws of Nature (physics)—become real

Fulfill expectations Evolve gracefully

Success increases at each level, but there is tension between levels



Not real, never real Very real



Does not fulfill expectations

Fulfills expectations


Other designs that did not fulfill expectations

The wings of Icarus RMS Titanic

Global Financial System



Not evolvable Evolvable


The evolvable design much more modular

Changes in one part most likely do not affect other parts

Infrastructure supports other people’s options

What is special about infrastructure?


Infrastructure supports other people’s options

Airports, Highways Travel at MY volition

Electricity MY labor saving devices Telecomm Networks MY messages Education MY thoughts and dreams Prisons ???


Design Principle 1: End-to-end

Design principle of the Internet Provide a simple (as simple as possible)

basic enabling service Move “extra” services to the edges/outside

the core


Design Principle 2: Scalabilty

If infrastructure is successful at creating option value for other, it will be in high demand

Thus—build for changes in scale in the basic end-to-end service

Congestion is the curse of successful infrastructure


End-to-end + Scalability work when infrastructure functions are simple

What if infrastructure functions are complex?– Airports– Oil rigs– Prisons– Hospitals

Total environment infrastructure– Design principles are different


Design Principle 3: Separation of function

A special kind of modularity Divide activities according to function and make

different functions independent Create stable interfaces across functions

– “Differentiation and integration”

– “Weak linkage”

Avoid having one activity incorporate two functions– Although one activity can support multiple clients

(infrastructure within infrastructure)


Modular Task Structure—Open Office v1.0

Database

Write word processor

Calc spreadsheet

Graphics system

Presentations, charts, drawing

Open Office v1.0—Core-Periphery View

Core-Periphery Analysis iterated on the Modules Calc and Write

Separation of function supports evolution/adaptation

Changes in requirements/needs/desires are often function-specific

Change one dimension without changing all the rest

Separation of function is a benefit of scale– Hotel vs. bed-and-breakfast– Hotel can decouple functions


Summary: Design principles for infrastructure

Other people’s options For single-function infrastructure (water,

electricity, Internet)– End-to-end design– Scalability

For multi-function infrastructure (airports, hospitals, oil rigs, prisons)– Separation of functions/functional modularity


Thank you!


Slide 1 © Carliss Y. Baldwin 2008 The Design of Infrastructure (Design Theory meets Infrastructure) Carliss Y. Baldwin Harvard Business School Infrastructure.

Documents

real slide

core slide

different slide

infrastructure carliss

parts slide

evolvable evolvable

infrastructure functions

evolvable design