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The world is constantly changing. Disruptions have come of age. Their rhythms and frequencies are accelerating, and the perception of the world in which we live continues to evolve towards ever greater sophistication and complexity. Surprisingly, while complexity is found everywhere and remains intrinsic to Nature, various works have led to a curious discovery: that a reduction in the level of complexity is not an advantage in terms of diversity – which leads to the creation of solutions and of co-evolution [BOU 03], for instance for the development of new business processes and information systems.

Complexity is part of the times. Due to nonlinearities and feedback loops, it provides robustness and at the same time adaptability to systems. On the contrary, when too low, it leads to problems in terms of conduct or stability of results. Those can even be “deadly” and hinder the very evolution of Nature’s systems.

The science of complexity is only in its infancy, and we understand scientifically only a tiny part of it. It would therefore be pretentious to want to explain its theory and foundations. Yet, this science has allowed new concepts to emerge. We were confronted with this reality at IBM Europe every time its Advanced Technologies Group – the ATG Competency Center had to deal with issues related to the management and control of complex systems. In the absence of theoretical foundations, it was from experimentation and pragmatism that we built our own “philosophy” on complexity. Furthermore, the Ecole de Mines d’Alès in Southern France enabled us to better develop and control certain aspects of complexity and to consolidate these industrial experiences.

This book discusses some principles and methodologies designed to better understand and control, or even manipulate, these new concepts. The transition from “simple” to “complex” applies to most natural phenomena because they are governed by the same fundamental laws, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large – the cosmos – and whatever the domains of activity we consider; here lies a principle of universality. The results are already far-reaching, and the approaches we have developed, by also using multidisciplinary concepts, can be implemented in most of the complex processes or systems we encounter in the socio-economic world. Today, the contribution of information technologies makes it possible to finally provide efficient solutions to problems that were sometimes known for a long time.