Decision Support & Executive
Information Systems:
Soft Systems Approach
LECTURE 4
Amare Michael Desta
1
Origin of IS Project
• organisations exist and they operate
• people use information and they are part of IS
• use of information & ways of working change
These changes may be large
• may involve many people & new technology
• may require careful though before hand & careful
control during the change
The main issues are therefore:
• in general organisations are a bit messy,
• opaque and inconsistent.
• can be perceived in terms of systems.
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Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
and the question is therefore: can we:
• build new IS systems &
• add technology to this messy situation in org. &
expect good results?
• NO! is a popular answer. Computerise a mess
and you get a bigger mess. First you must sort
out the mess.
• YES! is a popular answer too. Success or even
survival depends on the use of IT - the mess must
be computerised – IS (a big part of) the solution.
3
Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
What are we looking for anyway?
• No mess - a tidy rational organisation
• Less mess - removing elements of disorder that
nobody will miss
• A better mess - new ways of doing things, but
without tidying up too much
• More mess - more diversity/communications and
more special cases?
4
Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
Look at the following SEVEN Scenarios
1. Problems. "It is just not working right", "For the
cost of 1 years maintenance we could have a new
computer", " 50% of orders are taking more than
10 days to be processed"
2. Pressures. "We will have to...", "Under new EU
regulations accounts must be produced for all
national VAT numbers", " The competition will
bury us if we don't do ...".
3. Opportunities. "If we could....", "There is
market opening for a high quality WAP enabled
internet banking service“
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Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
4. User needs. "What I want is a....", "The clerks all
agree that they need a better way of recording
deposits."
5. Strategy and Planning. (IS Planning)
"Company strategy is to...", "The company
strategy calls for an autonomous regionally
managed sales force."
6. Pure Acts of Faith. "We need a corporation
wide integrated network for multimedia."
7. Accidents and Politics. "If we get this project
under way then old Bill will be tied up for
years!!!", "This project was Adam’s idea, but he 6
left 6 months ago"
Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
Such scenarios may triggers the starting point, BUT
1. Before we design a solution we must design a problem
2. There is the danger though that we design a problem
that we like, or that we think will be easy to solve. The
operation was a success, but the patient died.
A solution:
• One solution is given by Peter Checkland's SSM
[Checkland 1981 & 1990. Chapters 6,7 ,8 of the 1981,
and chapter 1 and 2 of the 1990 book
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Origin of IS Project (Contd….)
The basis is systems thinking applied, in particular,
to human activity systems.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
S is a system (a human activity system)
s -> purpose or mission
s -> measure of performance
s -> decision taking process
s -> components that are themselves
s -> has a boundary
s -> has resources physical and abstract at
disposal of decision takers
• See SOFT Systems ideas (Checkland 1981)
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Why Soft?
• to distinguish it from the established traditions of
systems engineering and systems analysis
• to show that it is concerned with finding and
framing problems, as much as with solving them
• to emphasis that the idea of a system is used to
provide a tool for thought about the world
(human activity systems). The world is not made
up of a neat arrangement of such systems, but it
can be perceived in terms of systems.
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Why soft? (Contd…)
• to express the notion of a social process in contrast
to a technical one. SSM provides a type of
structured debate about change with many interests
represented
• just as the problems it addresses are soft, so too is
SSM itself. It is not prescriptive, but a "set of
principles of method which in any particular
situation have to be reduced to a method uniquely
suitable to that particular situation"
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Checkland Methodology
(1979/89)
TAKING ACTION
The problem
situation
unstructured
Action to
solve the
problem or improve
the situation
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1
Definition of
feasible
desirable
changes
FINDING
OUT
6
Comparison
of 4 with 2
The problem
situation:
expressed
5
REAL WORLD
2
Root definitions
of relevant
systems
3
SYSTEMS THINKING
Conceptual
model
SYSTEMS THINKING ABOUT
THE REAL WORLD
4
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SSM - TWO Strands of inquiry
1) Logical-driven stream of enquiry
Considers models of human activity systems and a
comparison of these models is made with an
examination of our views of the real world and the
ensuring debate concerns change (see previous slide).
2) Cultural stream of enquiry
a) Intervention : any situation involving human
beings is changed immediately it is studied, and
continuing attention must be given to the roles
which individuals may play, expectations of the
study’s outcomes & how the study will be carried out
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SSM - TWO Strands of inquiry (Contd..)
b) Situation as a social system:
need to have some grasp of the informal as well as the
formal social process that are operating.
c) Situation as a political system:
need to be alert to questions of power, authority and
influence, the way in which these are exercised and
how they may aid or hinder the study
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SSM APPROACH
• Draw a ‘Rich Picture’
• Extract problem themes
• Name relevant systems ( to relieve problem situation)
Decide on ‘Root Definition’ Using (CATWOE)
Client (beneficiary or victim)
Actor (who makes things happen)
Transformation
World View (Weltanschauung (objective(s))
Owner (sponsor)
Environment
• Construct a ‘conceptual model’ of the key activities
involved in the root definition
• Compare conceptual model with rich picture
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• Discuss differences with the problem owner
SSM APPROACH (Contd…..)
The idea is to agree a statement with the USER
(USER) along the lines of ..
"Who (ACTOR) is doing what
(TRANSFORMATION) for whom (CLIENT), to
whom they are answerable (OWNER), what
assumptions or 'world view'
(WELTANSCHAUUNG) are being made, and in
what context (ENVIRONEMNT)
this is being done."
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SSM Approach – presenting the task
Fa ct find ing
DRAW
RICH
PICTURE
Fa ct find ing
Existing
Syste m
EXTRACT
RELEVANT
SYSTEM
Rele va nt
Syste m
DEFINE
C.A.T.W.O.E.
Existing
Syste m
Fa ct find ing
Existing
Syste m
Existing
Syste m
CATWOE
EXTRACT
PROBLEM
THEMES
Pro blems /
requirements
LEVEL
CONCEPTUAL
MODEL
To p Le ve l
Conc Mod
PRODUCE TOP
LEVEL
CONCEPTUAL
MODEL
Root
Defi niti on
PRODUCE
ROOT
DEFINITION
Conceptual
Mode l
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RICH PICTURE CONSTRUCTION
• Draw a large ‘bubble’ at the
centre of the page to represent
the problem situation.
Problem Situation
• Using real world icon, sketch
people and things that interrelate within and outside the
problem situation.
• Include arrows to show the
relationships.
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RICH PICTURE CONSTRUCTION (Contd…)
• Use crossed-swords (scissors) to
indicate conflict.
• Use ‘think’ bubbles to indicate the
worries of the major characters.
• May not be possible to represent the
problem situation in one rich picture
(show detail on separate sheets).
• Size of the real world icons can be
used to show the perceived relative
importance of people and things.
worries
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RICH PICTURE AUTOMATION OF A UNIVERSITY’S ACCOMMODATION
OFFICE
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Building Conceptual Model
Describe the
situation
Create
New
Ideas
Rich Pictures
Define Systems
System
Definitions
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Example of Conceptual Model
Budgets
Work
Requests
Accounting
reports
Bid
for
projects
Account
for
resourses
Compilation of
project work
lists
Administration
and monitoring of
project
management
Monitor &
Control
Constraints
Criteria:
efficient and
effective
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Understanding the Rich Picture
- is more than just a context diagram. It
represents the 'organisation' in all its
technical and social complexity
- symbols are meant to represent 'people' and
'things' that interrelate with or within the
org. process/structure)
- arrows have a loosely defined meaning,
showing the existence of a 'relationship'.
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Understanding the Rich Picture (Contd…)
- it is a 'picture', include what you like! Symbols,
pictures, comment bubbles, anything to aid
understanding of the organisation.
- the intention is to provide a concise model of the org.
as an aid to understand further modelling & to show
up areas of worry, conflict etc….
- essential uses are to reveal PRIMARY TASKS (Ask
yourself 'What is really central to the problem which
this information system will need to solve) and
ISSUES (topics of concern or dispute, the question
marks hanging over the whole system).
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SUMMARY
Soft Systems approach
• Helps people to visualise and discuss their own role
in the problem situation.
• Can be used to define the aspects of the problem
situation which are intended to be covered by any
IS
• Can be used to show up the worries of individuals,
potential conflicts and political issues.
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Next week:
- further Examples of SSM
- individual task spec. to be given out
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