Complexity

I learned about complexity studying computer science. Complexity was often measured in space and time, denoted by Ω, Θ and Ο. We learned about the fastest algorithms, the “hardest” problems and the methods to solve them or just prove that they are hard. That is what “complexity” meant to me.

And then I started working with real world problems and complexity started meaning something else. It is no longer about NP-completeness, lower-bound running time or even algorithms. I have worked almost for a year on the same project ¹ and throughout this project, the most difficult tasks have been figuring out the requirements of the end-user and transferring these requirements into an actual user interface. The complexity of a task is not measured in upper-bound running time and space requirements but in number of meetings and emails. And while the complexity of algorithms does not change after they have been implemented, the real world task changes its complexity whenever there is a change in requirements.

When I step back and look at the output of the current project, I see nothing else there. All the complexity lies in communication and that is something different.

1. Without going into much detail, I am building a web-based user interface as a front-end for a fairly large webservice API.