1

Decision Support & Executive Information Systems:

Soft Systems Approach

LECTURE 4

Amare Michael Desta

2

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.

3

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.

4

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?

5

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“

6

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 left 6 months ago"

7

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

8

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)

9

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.

10

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"

11

FINDINGOUT

Checkland Methodology(1979/89)

The problemsituation

unstructured1

Action tosolve the

problem or improve the situation

7

The problem situation:expressed

2

Comparisonof 4 with 25

Definition offeasible

desirablechanges

6

Root definitionsof relevant

systems3

Conceptual model

4

TAKING ACTION

SYSTEMS THINKING

REAL WORLD

SYSTEMS THINKING ABOUTTHE REAL WORLD

12

SSM - TWO Strands of inquiry1) Logical-driven stream of enquiryConsiders models of human activity systems and acomparison of these models is made with anexamination of our views of the real world and theensuring debate concerns change (see previous slide).

2) Cultural stream of enquirya) Intervention : any situation involving humanbeings is changed immediately it is studied, andcontinuing attention must be given to the roleswhich individuals may play, expectations of thestudy’s outcomes & how the study will be carried out

13

SSM - TWO Strands of inquiry (Contd..)b) Situation as a social system: need to have some grasp of the informal as well as theformal social process that are operating.

c) Situation as a political system: need to be alert to questions of power, authority andinfluence, the way in which these are exercised andhow they may aid or hinder the study

14

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)TransformationWorld 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• Discuss differences with the problem owner

15

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."

16

SSM Approach – presenting the task

DRAW RICH

PICTURE

EXTRACT RELEVANT SYSTEM

DEFINE C.A.T.W.O.E.

EXTRACT PROBLEM THEMES

PRODUCE ROOT

DEFINITION

LEVEL CONCEPTUAL

MODEL

PRODUCE TOP LEVEL

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Fact finding

Fact finding

Fact finding

Existing System

Existing System

Existing System

Existing System

Relevant System

CATWOE

Root Definition

Top Level Conc Mod

Conceptual Model

Problems/ requirements

17

RICH PICTURE CONSTRUCTION

• Draw a large ‘bubble’ at the centre of the page to represent the problem situation.

• Using real world icon, sketch people and things that inter-relate within and outside the problem situation.

• Include arrows to show the relationships.

Problem Situation

18

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

19

RICH PICTURE AUTOMATION OF A UNIVERSITY’S ACCOMMODATION OFFICE

20

Building Conceptual Model

Rich Pictures

Define Systems

Create New Ideas

System Definitions

Describe the situation

21

Example of Conceptual Model

Bidforprojects

Account

for

resourses

Compilation ofproject worklists

Administrationand monitoring ofprojectmanagement

Monitor &Control

Constraints

Budgets

AccountingreportsWork

Requests

Criteria:efficient andeffective

22

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'.

23

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).

24

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.

25

Next week:

- further Examples of SSM

- individual task spec. to be given out