How Many ILITIES Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb
Surely it’s not all 2211
What are ILITES anyway? The concept of ILITIES is fascinating in its complexity, so let’s start with the most general (and the least accurate) description and then narrow down to the core attribute.
Is It a Suffix or a Word?
According to lotsofwords.com, there are currently 2211 words that end with a suffix -ility, ranging from one 24-letter word (“immunohistocompatibility”) to one 5-letter word (“ility” itself), with 419 13-letter words, and other lexical perplexities. The meaning of this suffix is loosely defined as quality, state, or condition. What makes this word fascinating is a suffix-to-word transition: ility, the suffix, has been breaking through to turn into a word in its own right. Ility has been primarily used in mechanical and software engineering but it is emerging within a broader spectrum of fields that address any complex system’s operations. By the way, suffix-to-word transformations are extraordinarily unique, but there is another word, and a very common one, that has evolved its status form a suffix to an independent word: a bus. “Bus” is a Latin suffix: for example, in “omnibus,” which means “for everyone.”
Not All Ilities Are Created Equal
Whereas there are 2211 words ending with an -ility, not all of these words are qualified as ilities. We could say that ilities are defined as quality attributes. But this definition is too abstract. Quality is such a nebulous concept (and not an ility itself).
Let’s approach our attempt at defining ilities from a different perspective. When a drastic change afflicts our company, organization, or institution (any complex system), some of us would like to turn to Uncle Charles. Uncle Charles, if he is back from his voyage on HMS Beagle, and you take him for a hike (he was an avid hiker as a young lad), he will tell you about his book where he discussed survival of the most adaptable beings, or about adaptability — which happens to be one of the defining ilities! Now, let’s look for other ilities that either reinforce or emerge as a by-product of adaptability? Flexibility, Evolvability, Survivability, Agility, Sustainability.
Soft Intents, Harsh Environments
All these attributes are referred to as systems’ non-functional requirements. In fact, if you look for “ility” or “ilities” on Wikipedia, you will be redirected to an article on non-functional requirements, which means there are also functional requirements. Let’s try to tackle this difference in one sentence: Whereas functional requirements define what the system does, non-functional requirements define how the system operates.
But we are still stuck with abstract (and seemingly misleading) terms of non-functionality; what vs. how; to top it off, ilities have also been referred to as “soft intents.” Why misleading? Because the core attribute of ilities is to ensure system’s survival under harsh circumstances — be it internal predictable changes (stakeholders expectations) or external unpredictable threats (pandemic).
