Managing entropy in IT

I had dinner with Tony Scott, CIO of Microsoft on Friday night. We had a side conversation about how important it is to control change in applications, services and process. My experience is that this is one of the most significant areas that CIOs must focus. I believe the right definition is really about managing entropy. There is a natural tendency in IT to evolve to chaos. Not out of bad intention, but often out of expediency. Tony said that Steve Balmer thinks the same thing and often describes himselve as the Chief Simplification Officer.