Complex Decision-Making in Economy and Finance

10Evaluating and Measuring Complexity: The CINSYS Methodology

In the previous chapters, the main focus was on how to describe the complexity embedded in a system and how to highlight its properties. The steps were not to control and steer a complex system directly as this is next to impossible, but to change its structure, organization and operating mode – i.e. its environment – in order to better monitor it and make it “controllable” and “steerable”.

This led us to develop a technology for the design or redesign, of products and procedures, or even processes. As we have seen, this approach has a direct impact on the strategy and management methods to be applied to them.

However, the very important topic of assessing and measuring this complexity has not yet been addressed. The technology that has been developed in this specific field has been applied in organizations and project management. It is the objective of this chapter to introduce the CINSYS method technology and the associated results. We apply it here to innovative projects yet this method remains valid for any organization as the evaluation criteria explained below apply.

10.1. A brief overview of the CINSYS system

This section introduces the methodological system CINSYS (Complexity INspection SYStem). It is a method of assessing the “value in complexity” of a system. This value is appreciated – rather than analyzed – in a perceptive, cohesive and multi-dimensional way. The scales that can express an intensity ...