IS Management by Constraints: Coupling IS Effort to Changes in Business Bottlenecks

Abstract

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) has recently proved successful in focusing industrial and service organizations. This paper applies TOC principles to the Management-of-Information-Systems (MIS) in the organization.

Deming's process of on-going improvement (POOGI) manages the update of IS goals to accommodate changes in the business environment. The process includes the definition of goals for IS; definition of performance metrics; process improvement objectives for the short, medium and long term; and the identification of constraints limiting the quality of the current process design.

We identify three modes of interaction between TOC and information systems: 1) subordination of MIS to elevate strategic business constraints; 2) focused treatment of constraints on the throughput of the IS unit; and, 3) the development of information systems to support the TOC methodology.

We draw a framework and a methodology showing how MIS can be more effective using the TOC way of management. In order to systematically explore the location of the organization's constraints we adapt the Value Chain and Value System models to the identification of organizational constraints.