Subject: RE: "The IETF has difficulty solving complex problems"

From: "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 11:50:03 -0700

> This conjecture was disturbing, but calling it a feature was 
> even more disturbing.  After a bit of pondering, and 
> wondering what different groups in the IETF might mean by 
> "complex", my first thought was that the IETF has never, ever 
> solved one.  For example, we do QoS in small pieces that 
> don't fit together well.  Some claim that CIDR was such a 
> solution but imho it was just a tweak on what we already had. 

I think that it is fairly apparent that every institution has great
difficulty solving complex problems.

But what seems to be the real topic of discussion here is the difficulty
of establishing an overaching architectural vision. This is a difficult
challenge in any context, individuals who are capable of articulating
such a vision are very rare, they are the type of people who are in the
running for the Turing award. But even then only some of the Turing
award winners/contenders I have worked with are capable of such an
overarching vision.

Another problem is that in the institutional context past success is
frequently the cause of continuing falure. When Walt Disney ran his
studio the animators never used story boards. This tradition was carried
on for almost 20 years after Disney died but none of the cartoons
produced as a result became classice. One of the first changes Eisner
made was to introduce storyboards. After talking to the old timers he
realized that Walt had always used a story board but he kept it in his
head. 

The problem with continuing the legacy of people like Vint Cerf, Bob
Metcalf, David Clark, Jon Postel is that the problems that we face today
tend to be the very ones that require changes to the original
overarching pronciples to be considered. To take an example from the
security world, the security problems that can be solved through the end
to end principle have already been solved using it. What we now face are
the problems that require exceptions.

The 80/20 rule is a good one, the problem is that when the 80% is solved
the original triage now works against you. If you do not consider a
change of approach when you come to the 20% you will have problems.

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