READING REVIEWS:
Introduction to System Analysis
Perspective for System Analysis: The reading defines system analysis as the analysis of activity,
procedure, method, technique, or business to determine what must be accomplished and how the
necessary operations may be best accomplished. This means that finding the best way to address
a problem or optimizing among alternatives. According to Weinberg (1988), system analysis and
design have solved many problems but has also created many problems. The problems are being
created by misapplication of good analysis and design principles. Some of the problems are
created by ignorance of good analysis and design principles. Furthermore, Quade and Miser
(1985 state that the purpose of System Analysis is to help public and private decision and policymakers to solve the problems and resolve the policy issues that they face. The course will pay
close attention to principles that inform good system analysis and to understanding when, where,
and why System Analysis appropriate or inappropriate to address the problem domain. The
varieties of System Analysis consist of Hall Systems Engineering Process, the RAND systems
analysis methodology, Jenkins system analysis methodology, Sage’s system engineering, and the
Gibson systems analysis Methodology.
Gibson Perspective for systems analysis
The Gibson systems analysis for the system engineering study emphasize on the determination of
system goals, establishing alternative ranking criteria, developing alternative system solutions,
screening and ranking of alternatives, Iteration, and development and implementation. Determine
the system goals: One must be able to reframe the problem through the process as one get a good
idea in understanding the system. It is also important to identify the situation and system as they
are currently operating.
Confronting an Identity Crisis-How to “Brand” Systems Engineering.
System Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of
successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the
development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with the sign synthesis and
system validation while considering the complete problem. System Engineering integrates all the
disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that
proceeds from concept to production to operation. System Engineering considers both the
business and the technical needs of all customers with the goa of providing a quality product that
meets the user needs. In this article International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
definition of SE does not include the description of the meaning of a system and has no reference
to engineering and did not make any assumption that SE is relevant only to machines or technical
systems. Wolff (2004) defines system engineering as an evolution of the systems approach that
addresses the challenges imposed by the size, scope and complexity of modern organizations and
their technical solutions.
System Analysis was developed as a technique used for comparing the alternatives facing a
decision maker by the RAND Corporation. This was possible because of the involvement of
scientifically trained civilians in the planning of military operations in World War II. The RAND
system consists of a broad economic appraisal of all the costs and consequences of various
alternative means of meeting a defined end. The system investigates the potential value of future
systems using many of the techniques developed by operations researchers and extending them
with best guess assumption regarding the future. The book also highlights how systems
engineering performing compared to other disciplines. Some of the other disciplines includes
project management, system sciences, system dynamics, Industrial engineering, operations
research, military engineers, automotive engineers, professional engineering.
System Thinking and Systems Theory
System engineering should be based on systems thinking and system theory. The emphasis for
systems engineering is placed upon design, construction, maintenance, and disposal of useful
systems and their associated artifacts. System thinking is how general system theory is put into
motion and as such become the prime mover for all disciplines in the system movement. Peter
Checkland (1999) state that in order to put systems thinking to use, we must develop a holistic
language, a language of systems, interactions, and design that will help us understand and frame
the wide variety of systems problem that we face as a matter of course.
SYSTEMS LAWS and PRINCIPLES:
The systems laws consist of Complementarity, Equifinality, Parkinson’s law, Requisite
Hierarchy, Requisite Parsimony, Requisite Saliency, and Variety. System principles includes
basins for stability, dynamic equilibrium, emergence, feedback, Hierarchy, Homeostasis,
minimum critical specification, multifinality, relaxation time, Pareto, satisficing, selforganization, system darkness, system holism, sub optimization, and viability. The implication of
the system laws and principles is that system engineers can use the language of systems to frame
the wide variety of systems problems encountered during the design, construction, maintenance,
and disposal of useful systems and their associated artifacts.
Solving the Right Problems
Often, the problem or pain point we’re trying to address is a symptom, not the root. So how do
we know if we’re solving the right problem? One way is to stop focusing on the problem and
shift your attention to defining the desired state or outcome. By defining the outcome or change
you’d like to see, you’ve created criteria upon which to bounce your solutions off of, and that
helps to focus your efforts and actions. You may find that the desired state addresses something
different than what was originally stated, but what’s more important is that you’ve scoped the
direction in which to follow.
Smart thinking is necessary in todays world, those who know how to cut through complex issues
ask the right questions and sole the right problems. The ability to spot the right problems frame
them correctly and implement appropriate solutions to them is the true competitive edge that will
separate the successful individuals and organizations. Sometimes it is possible for an
organization to solve the wrong problem. Avoiding solving a wrong problem ask us to look at
the big picture and consider various ways of looking at an issue before we settle on a solution.
The fate of every organization depends less on those who can solve problems and more on
critical thinkers, smart thinkers who can define and redefine the hellishly difficult problem facing
the organization.
Basic idea of general Systems Theory
One of the several methodologies (such as operations research, systems analysis, systems
dynamics) which employ systems approach to understanding complex phenomenon and
problems. GST focuses on the system's structure instead of on the system's function. It proposes
that complex systems share some basic organizing principles irrespective of their purposes, and
that these principles can be modeled mathematically. The work in understanding systems has
evolved to the point that we incorporate many of the concepts into our everyday language. We
speak of a health care system, a family system, body systems, information systems, banking
systems, political systems, etc. One of the reasons we do this is because the amount of
knowledge & information available has increased tremendously during this time period. We
cannot know all there is to know. We seek some way of ordering what we encounter to avoid
being overloaded with information. We focus in on small areas of knowledge rather than trying
to comprehend the whole. Whether we like it or not, nurses are enmeshed in many systems. It is
to our benefit to gain some basic understanding of how systems work. We can more effectively
care for patients, families and communities when we do understand. We can more effectively
bring about desired changes in our workplace if we are able to step back & consider how best to
accomplish this within our workplace system. What is a system? Rapaport defines a system as
an "entity which can maintain some organization in the face of change from within or without.
Philosophies assumption such as Downing Bowler (1981) summarized general system theory as
the universe is a hierarchy of systems, that is simple systems are synthesized into more complex
systems from subatomic particles to civilizations. He also indicates that all systems or forms of
organization have some characteristics in common and it is assumed that statements concerning
these characteristics are universally generalizations. In general, simple systems are characterized
by a small number of elements with few interactions between the elements and the attributes of
the elements are predetermined. The interactions between the elements are highly organized,
well defined laws govern the behavior, the system does not evolve over time, the subsystem does
not pursue their own goals, the system is unaffected by behavioral influences and the system is
largely closed to the environment. In contrast, complex systems are characterized by many
elements in which there is many interactions between the elements and the attribute of the
elements are not predetermined. The interactions between the elements are loosely organized and
are probabilistic in their behavior. The systems evolve over time, subsystems are purposeful and
generate their own goals, the system is subject to behavioral influences and the system is largely
open to the environment.
LAWS, PRINCIPLES AND THEOREMS
System Holism Principle: this is a that has holistic properties possessed by none of its parts. Each
of the system parts has properties not possessed by the system as a whole. Considering
managerial implication with a formal organization that has holistic properties possessed by none
of tis parts. Each of the units of the organization has properties not possessed by the
organization. Understanding of the organization and successful decision making about the
organization requires that the holistic properties and the properties of the parts are both clearly
recognized. The ability of a service organization to provide standardize services at many
locations can be state as an example. Deciding what the system is and which properties belong to
the system and which to the various sub-systems is the foundation upon which all management
must rest. In most formal organizations this has not been explicitly done and this lack is the
source of enormous trouble.
Darkness Principle: this implies that no system can be known completely. The managerial
implication of this is that the organization must be managed effectively without full knowledge
of the parts by the top managers. Managers of effective systems make no attempt to know all
about those systems. Rather, strategies are developed to know about crucial aspects of the system
and to avoid knowing about irrelevant detail
Eighty-Twenty Law: implies that in any large complex system, eighty percent of the output will
be produced by only twenty percent of the system. This is true because I work in an organization
where often time you will see only one or two people working surrounded by eight to ten people.
This book discusses many principle and laws such as hierarchy principle, Godel’s
incompleteness theorem, complementarity law, Entropy, and redundancy of information.
Complexity Science
A complex system can be described as a system comprised of many entities that display a high
level of interactivity. The nature of this interactivity is mostly non-linear, containing manifest
feedback loops.
Complexity science raises some ethical concerns that refer to the inevitability of choices that
cannot be backed up scientifically or objectively. First, because the nature of the system or
organization in question is determined by the collection of choices made in it. These are choices
to be made on all scales, major ones as well as all the seemingly insignificant small ones made
all the time and remember that the scale of the effect is not necessarily related to the scale of the
cause. In a way the history of the organization is nothing else but the collection of all these
decisions. Secondly, since there appears to be no final objective or calculable ground for our
decisions, we cannot shift the responsibility for the decision on to something else. Complexity
science offers an alternative way of legitimizing the current interest in boundary critique,
creativity, and pluralism. Complexity science also raises concerns for how we recognize ethical
behavior.
SYSTEM ENGINEERING IN AN AGE OF COMPLEXITY
In this present age, there is vast increases complexity in modern systems. The world is facing
unprecedented level of integration which are immersed in a complex web of interacting
technologies and processes dominate by the developments in information and communication
technologies. Also, the rapid change of technologies, practices, and introduction of the
organization into a highly integrated web. Engineering design is a problem-solving process that
produces an engineered product. Its effort is focused on achieving objectives in the real world.
The objective may take the form of seeking to solve a real-world problem or of achieving a
useful end product. In modern systems complexity, cause and effect are not obvious and direct,
small causes can have large effect, the implication of design decisions is much less predictable,
risks are dominated by system risks with unforeseen emergent properties, and influences on
decisions are much more difficult to bound and to establish. Modern systems challenge our
ability to successfully design them with desired degree of dependability and confidence in that
dependability.
Formulating the right planning problem
Problem formulation methods will not find widespread use in planning practice unless planners
can use them easily and believe that there are benefits to using the methods. Using these methods
effectively requires a degree of expertise. To the practitioners, burdened with the need to acquire
and maintain substantive expertise and knowledge, the payoff in acquiring this expertise might
be marginal. Tools and procedures for problem formulation could improve the chances of
making decisions that address complete and appropriate formulations of problems. It remains to
be determined, however, whether they truly improve problem-solving effectiveness.
An Overview of Data Collection: Approaches, Methods and Techniques.
Management research project involve some type of data collection. Data collection might be
informed of qualitative or quantitative and must be well planned and managed. Quantitative data
is data in the form of descriptive accounts of observations and qualitative data is data which can
be expressed numerically or classified by some numerical value. There are some other alternative
method of data collections which includes the followings: secondary data collection, cases
studies, experimentation, observation, interviews, and action research.
Application of Complex Systems Science to Systems Engineering.
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management
that focuses on how to design and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core,
systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to organize this body of knowledge. The
individual outcome of such efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of
components that work in synergy to collectively perform a useful function.
Issues such as requirements engineering, reliability, logistics, coordination of different teams,
testing and evaluation, maintainability and many other disciplines necessary for successful
system design, development, implementation, and ultimate decommission become more difficult
when dealing with large or complex projects. Systems engineering deals with work-processes,
optimization methods, and risk management tools in such projects. It overlaps technical and
human-centered disciplines such as industrial engineering, mechanical engineering,
manufacturing engineering, control engineering, software engineering, electrical engineering,
cybernetics, organizational studies, civil engineering and project management. Systems
engineering ensures that all likely aspects of a project or system are considered and integrated
into a whole.
Sociotechnical principles for system design
Sociotechnical perspective explicitly embraces the idea that all aspects of a system are
interconnected, that none should take logical precedence over the other, and that they should be
designed jointly. Sociotechnical perspective encourages one to challenge two related sets of
views: first, that human beings are error-prone, unreliable agents, resistant to change, that ideally
should be designed out of systems as soon as this is technically feasible and can be afforded;
secondly, that when they cannot be designed out, humans need to be managed exclusively
through Tayloristic systems of command and control. Design choices are not independent, they
do influence one another. But, at the other extreme, they are not usually deterministic such that a
choice in one area fully determine a choice in the other.
Design should reflect the needs of the business, its users and their managers. Design is an
extended social process, design is socially shaped, contingent, design entails multiple task
allocation between and amongst humans and machines.
Advancing Sociotechnical systems theory
Sociotechnical systems theory is an organizational redesign methodology intended to provide a
structure approach to redesign of work systems. STS holds that every process has both technical
and social subsystems. The technical subsystem is comprised of the structures, tools, and
knowledge necessary to perform the work that produces products. The social system includes
attitudes and beliefs, contracts between employers and employees, reaction to work
arrangements, and the relationships between individuals and among groups. The strength of the
STS approach lies in the systemic consideration of the technical subsystem, the social subsystem,
and the joint influences of these subsystems on one another.
Socio-technical Disasters: Profile and Prevalence.
Socio-technical disasters are an important source of crisis for modern management strategists.
This article aims to help managers avoid and manage this type of crisis better. Socio-technical
disaster is a disaster which involves a sudden failure in a subsystem, or the system, that damages
more than one unit and in doing so disrupts the ongoing or future output of the system. It has
catastrophic outcomes in that it causes damage to a great many humans. The socio-technical
disaster occurs in at least four types of organizational situations which includes: plant and factory
failures, transport failures, stadia or public place, and production failures. Socio-technical
disasters have common characteristics, for example, they occur when human, organizational and
technological systems, in combination break down. They usually incur massive economic and
social costs and create large-scale damage to human life. Management strategy is based on the
optimistic assumption that we are able to some extent at least shape our futures. A greater
understanding of the nature of the socio-technical disaster type of crisis might lead to managerial
action towards defusing the present socio-technical disaster-threatening run of things around our
organizations and society.
Framing of Complex Systems of System Engineering Problems
Problem framing is an essential activity in any systems engineering effort, past or present.
Experienced systems engineers recognized the importance of problem framing and the
consequences of getting it wrong. Complex SoSE problem framing is burdened with multiple
opportunities to fail. Five areas that lead to poor system problem resolution and result in a type
III error. A type III error results in solving the wrong problem in the most efficient way possible.
This include the following: selecting the wrong stakeholders, too narrow a set of options,
boundaries or scope too narrow, incorrect phrasing of the problem, and failing to engage in
systemic thinking. Three additional issues in complex system problem framing are misalignment
of conceptual perspective, expertise in problem system and approach, and conceptual capacity
for reframing. Framing of complex system problems is an essential skill set for effectiveness in
future systems engineering of complex systems. This skill set must be developed as a way of
thinking and organizing complex systems problems.
The Representation of Systems
System thinking involves the ability to look at a problem as part of an interrelated system.
Systems thinking allows the problem to be solved through modification of the entire system. It is
the ability to view things holistically that ensures a solution will not just be a quick fix, but a
more permanent solution. System thinking relies on having an appreciation of the
interconnectedness of the organization. An understanding of this interconnectedness
contextualizes each individual position and the operation of that position within the organization.
Systems thinking also requires an understanding of the connection between the organization and
the outside world.
Creative Holism: A critical systems approach to complex problem situations
The purpose of creative holism is to learn about and harness the various system methodologies
and models so that they can best be used by managers to respond to the complexity, turbulence
and heterogeneity of the problem situations they face today. It shares with critical systems
thinking, generally a basic philosophy that can be described by three commitments to critical
awareness, pluralism, and improvement. In order to appreciate the complexity and heterogeneity
of problem situations, it is important for the systems practitioner, in pursuing creativity to bring
bear radically different views of the world derived from alternative paradigms. Creative holism,
a new development in systems thinking wants to provide managers with the joint benefits of
holism and creativity so that they can do their jobs better.
Performance measurement: from philosophy to practice
Performance measurement is a complex issue that normally incorporates three different
disciplines which are economics, management, and accounting. In order to select appropriate
performance measures and design a few factors must be considered. Such factors include: the
purpose of the measurement, the level of detail required, the time available for measurement, the
existence of available predetermined data, and the cost of measurement.
A system-based methodology for structural analysis of health care operations
The system-based methodology described in this paper provides health care professionals with
an approach to perform diagnostics on operational structures. Structural issues may manifest
themselves through multiple operational symptoms. Fragmented treatment of structural issues
without the advantage of rigorous analysis decrease the probability of successful resolution of
deep structural problems. A primary advantage of the systems-based approaches rests in a
holistic treatment of structure. The holistic perspective focuses on the informal and formal
aspects of structure as well as the evolving mechanisms that provide for relationships among
people. This perspective departs from a traditional mechanistic perspective of structure by
appreciating the informal, emergent and relationship emphasis in understanding complex
organizational structures. The primary utility of the system-based methodology is the generation
of higher orders of learning through structured inquiry. This type of learning is like Argyris and
Schon’s (1996) concept of double-loop learning. The knowledge generated through double-loop
learning is based on inquiry that questions the continuing legitimacy of system structures
producing inconsistent or deviant outcomes.
Systems of Systems Engineering Methodology
The systems engineering community well understands the shifting nature of complex systems.
Systems engineering is not immune to changing circumstances, acceleration of change,
increasing demands, and higher performance expectations for future systems. The recent top five
issues in systems engineering includes lack of awareness of the importance, accountability, and
organizational structure of systems engineering on programs, adequate, qualified resources are
generally not available within government and industry for allocation on major programs,
insufficient systems engineering tools and environments to effectively execute systems
engineering on programs, requirements definition, development and management is not applied
consistently and effectively, and lastly, poor initial program formulation practices put successful
execution at risk. Limitations in the application of SoSE methodology are not limited to
existence of a systems perspective, fundamental systems knowledge, SoSE methodology
knowledge, SoSE methodology tailoring, systemic application, commitment of conceptual
resources, and compatibility of supporting infrastructure and implementing process
References
Keating, C. Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (ENMA 715). Student Notebook
2 with Readings.