Dependency Concentration

Concentration is one way dependency can form: much of an organization's activity comes to rest on a small number of platforms, suppliers or control points. It is related to the other lenses in the library — reversibility, governance surface, operational capture and exit complexity — but it is not a prerequisite for them. A process can be captured by a minor tool, and a system can be hard to reverse without being central.

Concentration need not be chosen as a strategy. It can result from a series of individually reasonable decisions, made years apart, that together point to a small number of vendors. The framework is concerned less with any single choice than with the cumulative shape such choices may form, and with how clearly that shape is seen from inside.

Concentration is not, in itself, a failure. It can be the by-product of efficiency. But concentration can change the meaning of later vendor decisions: it can narrow the range of realistic alternatives and widen the consequences of an outage, repricing or roadmap change.

“Concentration describes how much rests on a few systems. It does not, on its own, describe how hard those systems are to leave.”

Concentration is frequently confused with adjacent ideas. The distinctions are worth drawing carefully, because each describes something different about the relationship between an organization and its suppliers.

• Concentrationvs.Scale
  A vendor can be large in the market without being concentrated inside any one organization. Scale describes the vendor; concentration describes the buyer's posture toward it.
• Concentrationvs.Standardization
  Standardizing on one tool is a deliberate choice. Concentration is the cumulative result of many such choices, often made independently, that compound over time.
• Concentrationvs.Lock-in
  Lock-in describes the difficulty of leaving. Concentration describes how much of the operation is exposed. The two are related, but they are not the same property.
• Concentrationvs.Reversibility
  Concentration describes how much activity rests on a small number of providers. Reversibility describes whether that arrangement can realistically be changed while operations continue. A concentrated arrangement can remain reversible, and a minor dependency can be hard to reverse.

Dependency Concentration is one of five lenses System Drift may apply to a subject of research. It is used alongside the other frameworks, not as a required first step.

• ResearchLong-form publications may examine where activity is concentrated, alongside other dependency mechanisms.
• ProfilesDependency Profiles, currently evidence-pending research shells, list concentration as a surface to examine; no concentration findings are published yet.
• ObservatoryThe Observatory records documented changes that have a credible connection to concentration, each traced to a primary source.

The framework is intentionally diagnostic rather than prescriptive. It does not argue that concentration is wrong. It argues that, where concentration exists, it is worth naming clearly. Statements on this page are analytical propositions, not findings from observed organizations; examples and progressions are illustrative scenarios.