Organisation, and information systems between formal and informal continuum, balance, patterns, and anti-patterns

There is no doubt that formalising information systems is of great value to an organisation. This enables, among others, business processes, rules, services and objects models to be standardized, structured, capitalized and reused. A formal information system involves a structured organisation, clearly defined roles and responsibilities and therefore a rational management. However, generalising a formalisation approach to all information system perspectives or all levels of granularity can inversely be fatal to the smooth running of the business, its management, and operation. The aim of this paper is to explore information systems formalinformal continuum, to discover and understand its characteristics, patterns, anti-patterns, and the forces partcipating to its equilibrium, and to propose recommendations to reach right level of formalisation.