Benefits and costs of structurization: An argument for a closer look

This paper discuses some issues experienced during three cases, where structures were made explicit. There are wanted benefits as well as unwanted costs from these kind of projects. Organizational transparency for participants, testing planned organization by organizational walkthroughs, getting confidence for practice and avoiding conflicts and enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of a designed solution are wanted outcomes of systematic structurization. On the other hand we are aware of several costs like the effort for participation, the effort to keep models alive, problems with violations of presumptions and exceptions to prescribed conditions or possible hindrances of innovation. These issues are arguments for a need for a careful analysis of possible outcomes. In many cases the wanted benefits will outweigh the costs if appropriate actions to reduce costs and avoid negative outcomes are taken.