State of siege: new thinking for the next decade of design

A historical analogy is used to view the transition from using large-scale concentrated technology deployments (such as mainframes, large PBX's, and customer service centers) to more flexible dispersed resource allocations. The conclusion reached is that current systems development efforts need to eliminate building 'siege engines'. By moving to a more flexible and adaptive perspective the goals placed before engineers can better be attained. Discussion of the human structures that are enabled, and leveraged, by technologies provides analysis into the boundaries and interactions between the human and technological domains.