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You assume that there is a definite solution and you can define a number of specific goals that must be accomplished. In essence, with a hard problem you can define what success will look like prior to embarking on implementing the solution. The "WHAT" and the "HOW" of a hard problem can be determined early on in the methodology. Soft problems, on the other hand, are difficult to define. They will have a large social and political component. When we think of soft problems, we don't think of problems but of problem situations. We know that things are not working the way we want them to and we want to find out why and see if there is anything we can do about it. It is the classic situation of it not being a "problem" but an "opportunity". Soft Systems methodology was developed by Peter Checkland for the express purpose of dealing with problems of this type. He had been in industry for a number of years and had been working with a number of hard system methodologies. He saw how these were inadequate for the purpose of dealing with extremely complex problems which had a large social component so in the 1960s he turned to the University of Lancaster, in the UK, in an attempt to research this area and deal with these SOFT problems. His "Soft Systems Methodology" was created through a number of research projects in industry and its application and refinement over a number of years. The methodology, which is pretty much how we know it today, was published in 1981 and by that time he was firmly entrenched in University life and had left industry to pursue a career as a professor and researcher in Software Engineering.
SSM is divided into seven distinct stages. These are; 1. Finding out about the problem situation. This is basic research into the problem area. Who are the key players? How does the process work now? etc. 2. Expressing the problem situation through Rich Pictures. As with any type of diagram, more knowledge can be communicated visually. A picture is worth a 1000 words. 3. Selecting how to view the situation and producing root definitions. From what different perspectives can we look at this problem situation. 4. Building conceptual models of what the system must do for each root definitions. You have basic "Whats" from the root definitions. Now begin to define "Hows". 5. Comparison of the conceptual models with the real world. Compare the results from steps 4 and 2 and see where they differ and are similar. 6. Identify feasible and desirable changes. Are there ways of improving the situation. 7. Recommendations for taking action to improve the problem situation. How would you implement the changes from step 6.
the structure of the organization: those factors that do not change easily (e.g. buildings, locations, environment); processes or transformations which are carried out within the system: many of these are changing constantly; issues that are expressed or felt by organizational members (complaints, criticisms, suggestions, endorsements).
There are many strategies analysts can employ when collecting facts, ranging from very informal, unstructured approaches to very formal, structured tools employed in traditional systems analysis. Some of the techniques are:
Work observation: o identify tasks performed o identify tools employed o establish interactions between people/systems o produce logs o "day-in-the-life-of" descriptions o make drawings of structures/layouts o video recordings o collect samples of tools used to handle information o perform participant observation
Interviews:
o o o o o
unstructured, informal ("tell me what you do") semi-structured (questionnaire with open-ended answers) highly structured (questionnaire with boxes to tick) critical incidents audio recording
Workshops and discussion: o future workshops o review workshops o conflict resolutions workshops o mock-ups, simulations, mind-games
The stage 1 and stage 2 are an 'expression' phase during which an attempt is made to built the richest possible picture, not of 'the problem' but of the situation in which there is perceived to be a problem [1]. It is very important not to narrow our scope of investigation down too early. If we select a very structured approach such as a multiple-choice questionnaire at the beginning of our study, and build a model on the basis of those results only, we probably exclude a lot of information which could be relevant. As a general strategy, therefore, it is better to employ a selection of not too structured techniques at the beginning, and employ more structured techniques after a first impression of the problem has been defined for the purpose of eliciting detailed information or checking assumptions. Specific techniques should always be selected to fit in with work of the organization, and everyone who is providing information should be informed about what the purpose of the analysis is. When an analyst elicits information from the members of an organization, she or he communicates with them using natural language (English). This poses a number of problems and potential pitfalls. The analyst should be prepared to accept that at this stage, the information elicited will be incomplete, and contain contradictions and ambiguities. The system which we are looking at is a soft system, and therefore the information about the system is likely to be qualitative rather than quantitative.
Rich Pictures
Rich pictures are used to provide a model for thinking about the system and to help the analyst to gain an appreciation of the problem situation. It is important to note the difference between rich picture and formal models. The rich picture does not attempt to model the system in any precise way. It provides a representation of how we can look at and think about the system . It can be refined as our understanding of the system becomes clearer, and what we want becomes clearer. The rich picture shown in Figure 4 is based on the case studies on Shell's "Rethinking a service function in the Shell group". The circle represents the boundary of the system, with those small circles which are components of the system, while those outside are the external entities with which the system interacts. The thought bubbles represent the current thinking of the people in that service group. They want to know good is their organization and how to evaluate their current performance because they want make it better.
Rich pictures are artistic and individualistic expressions, and therefore not "right" or "wrong". However, Rich Pictures should represent structure, processes and issues of the organization which could be relevant to the problem definition, and try to give an impression of the organizational climate. Each analyst or team will develop their own style of Rich Picture. You can start with people or locations. You can put objects, items or issues or bits of paper and try to group them, or fit them in the structure. A Rich Picture is not a system model or system map (which is generated at later stages), nor should be an organigram (the sort of management hierarchy maps which organizations often use to describe themselves). Issues elicited can be indexed or grouped according to a themes or causes. With largescale studies, computer-based tools such as a database or hypertext system can be used to store and manage the information elicited. The following analysis need to be performed on a rich picture for problem situation expressed:
Roles of intervention analysis, is an analysis which deliberately identifies the issues that people involved in the situation think are problematical. Social analysis, identifies the roles people fill in the organization, the norms of behavior those people display and the values by which their behavior is judged. Power analysis, is concerned with such issues as 'What are the commodities of power in this situation', 'How is the commodity obtained', and 'How is the commodity passed on'
Do not narrow the scope of investigation down to early. Assembling richest picture without imposing a particular structure and solution on problem situation. People have difficult to interpret the world in the loose way, and often show an over-urgent desire for action. Not to press the analysis in systems terms at all. Should realize that there will be many possible versions of the system.
A root definition is expressed as a transformation process that takes some entity as input, changes or transforms that entity, and produces a new form of the entity as output. A prescription for developing transformation processes is shown in the following table, which shows examples of transformations which are typical of a golf course operation. As you may notice, these transformations will vary greatly, depending on the world view that is applied.
INPUT Unused land Need for tee times. New golf balls.
Used, scuffed up golf Equipment industry. balls. Grass seed Mature grass. Greenskeepers Uncooked food. Quality meals. Kitchen cook. Registered Golfer who completed Pro shop staff. golfer. round in X strokes. Golf lesson Enhanced lesson Club Professional. program. program. Table 1. One to one transformations involving different world views. Producing a root definition is a two step process. 1. An issue or task is chosen from a rich picture 2. A system is defined to carry out the task or address the issue. Each root definition involves two important things. The first is that we must involve a certain view of the world. Definition of the world view is not always trivial. Also, not all world views may be desirable to the definer. Remember that each rich picture will involve a variety of world views. The eyes may come from sources such as government officials, company executive, project managers, employees, customers, competitors, and news media. Each of these world views will be linked to one or more distinct root definitions. It is important to pay attention to the cardinality of the transformation process. Each root definition involves a transformation of one input to one output [3]. Suppose we define a transformation as "golf equipment" plus "golf course" plus "manpower" (three inputs) yields "golf needs met" plus "golf market served" (two outputs). This "three to two" transformation is ambiguous, but can be resolved into many one to one transformations that look much clearer (golf equipment is transformed into used golf equipment).
CATWOE
Root definitions are written as sentences that elaborate a transformation. There are six elements that make up a well formulated root definition, which are summed up in the mnemonic CATWOE.
Customer: everyone who stands to gain benefits from a system is considered as a customer of the system. If the system involves sacrifices such as lay offs, then those victims must also be counted as customers. Actor: The actors perform the activities defined in the system. Transformation process: This is shown as the conversion of input to output. Weltanschauung: The German expression for world view. This world view makes the transformation process meaningful in context. Owner: Every system has some proprietor, who has the power to start up and shut down the system. Environmental constraints: External elements exist outside the system which it takes as given. These constraints include organizational policies as well as legal and ethical matters.
CATWOE is mainly used for the purpose of analysing the analysis of root definition sentences, but may be used as a building block for to derive the root definition sentence if we know the CATWOE elements. We use CATWOE as the backbone for developing root definitions because the use of the transformation itself as a root definition makes it difficult to model. The transformation and world view make the core of CATWOE. The two meld together. Every activity can be expressed in many ways, using different world views. It is a good idea that different world views are used to develop different root definitions. CATWOE also recognizes the need to account for ownership, performance, beneficiaries, victims and external constraints, which are important things to account for in documenting the system.
Systems Thinking
Figure 3. The routing of Systems Thinking. Figure 3 shows that systems thinking is an iterative process that combines three concepts. [3]
The Perceived world: Each one of us has our own views of the world. Ideas: We perceive the world through the framework of ideas that are internal to us. Methodology: There are many of these for thinking about the world, of which SSM is one..
S must have some mission. S must have a measure of performance. S must have a decision making process S must have components which interact with each other such that the effects and actions are transmitted through the system. S must be part of a wider system with which it interacts. S must be bounded from the wider system, based on the area where its decision making process has power to enforce an action. S must have resources at the disposal of its decision making process. S must either have long term stability, or the ability to recover in event of a disturbance. Components of S must be systems having all the properties of S (subsystems).
The conceptual model can be written as a directed graph, similar to a PERT chart. Nodes in the graph are activities to be done. These activities are based on the verbs in the root definition. Structuring of the system is based on the logical dependency. The
logical dependencies are shown as arcs in the graph. An arc in the graph means that the source activity is a prerequisite for the destination activity. The conceptual model for a system consists of an operational system which is covered by - but bounded from - a monitoring process. This operational system consists of a core activity and whatever pre-requisite activities are required such that the core activity can be done. Cognitive psychology suggests the human brain can cope with 7 +/- 2 concepts at the same time. Therefore, we should aim to have 7 +/- 2 activities within each operational system. If this guideline leads to activities that are too high a level, those activities can be expanded to another level. Simply put, each general activity becomes a source for a root definition to be expanded at the next level. Back to Top. Back to Map.
Monitoring a System.
Monitoring the operational system consists of three activities [3]:
Define a measure of performance: We can use any or all of the three E's for measurement of the operational system Efficacy - does it work Efficiency - How much of work completed given consumed resources Effectiveness - Are goals being met. Monitor the activities in the operational system, in accordance with the metrics defined in step 1. Take control action: Use the outcomes of these metrics to determine and execute action to control the operational system.
o o o
However the three E's shown above are not the only metrics that can be used. Many firms will use metrics including economical, ethical, elegant, and other metrics which may be dependent on the context of the work being done. Back to Top. Back to Map.
to indulge in prolonged and elaborate model building. It is fun to work on the modelling and it is not comfortable to bring the model to the reality and engage with the difficulties of the problem situations. In fact, from Checklands experience, it is better to move quickly to the comparison stage. It is allowed to refine the model subsequently when it has to go back to the conceptualization stage again. Before we summarize stage 5 of SSM, we need to understand definition of Comparison. Generally, comparison is an important part of rational, serious thinking which contains perceiving, predicting and comparing. In SSM, Check land defines comparison as the point that intuitive perceptions of the problem are brought together with the systems constructs which the systems thinker asserts provide epistemologically deeper and more general account of the reality beneath surface appearances; it is the comparison stage which embodies the basic systems hypothesis that systems concepts provide a means of testing out the complexity of 'reality'. Four ways of doing comparison can be summarized as follows:
comparison between the two is the formal structure of a discussion about possible changes, a discussion held with concerned people in the problem situation. In order that the discussion shall be rich and wide-ranging, we wish to question whether various activities in the models discernible in the real world, as well as - if they are present - how well they are being done. We also wish to discuss possible alternatives to the real world activities. We will see how this comparison will be carried out in a case study illustrated later. Here wide-ranging comparison other than like with like is emphasized and now we can see why stage 5 is not a straightforward comparison.
4. Model Overlay
The fourth method of doing stage 5 is referred as "model overlay" by Checkland. For the comparison, after completing conceptualization based on the chosen root definition, we made a second model from what exists. The second model has as near as possible the same form as the conceptual model, the aim being to re-draw that model, changing it only where the reality differed from the conceptual model. With this method, direct overlay of one model on the other then revealed the mismatch which is the source of discussion of change. With this method, such questions as what root definition is implied by this system? How does it compare with the one which was the basis of conceptualization in stage 4? All four methods can help ensure the comparison in stage 5 is conscious, coherent and defensible. Depending on the perceived problems, particular method can be used to do the comparison, or all kinds of comparison can be carried out with all these four methods. For the existing system, the comparison can be done with what exists, but for a new system, the comparison cannot be with what exists, only with some redefined expectation. In this case, the previous experience implied that incrementalism and trial and error are the best approach. Back to Top. Back to Map.
changes in structure, which is changes made to those parts of reality which in the short term, in the on-going run of things, do not change.
changes in procedure, which is the changes to the dynamic elements changes in attitude, which is behaviour appropriate to various roles, as well as changes in the readiness to rate certain kinds of behaviour 'good' or 'bad' relative to others.
Changes in structure and procedure are easy to specify and relatively easy to implement. At least, these can be done by the people who have authority or influence. It is relatively difficult to change attitude. It is possible in principle to try to bring about changes of this kind. Whether or not this is attempted, the main essential is continuously to monitor attitude if changes are to be made in situations perceived as problems so that concerned people in the situation agree that improvement has been achieved. One of the important features in SSM is it emphasis on change. Another important feature of SSM is that it is goal-driven, it focuses on a desirable system and how to reach it. Checkland indicated that the changes must be systemically desirable as result of the insight gained from selection of root definitions and conceptual model building, and they must also be culturally feasible given the characteristics of the situation, the people in it, their shared experiences and their prejudices. It is hard to find any changes which do not meet both criteria. Checkland found out from one of his case studies that it is important to move quickly and lightly through all the methodological stages, several times if necessary, in order to engineer a bridgeable gap between 'what is' and 'what might be'. He also suggested that we may have to incorporate 'root constrains' in order to compromise a situation which proposed changes have to be changed due to the power influence. The job at stage 7 is to implement changes and put them into action. When action is taken, it might be a straightforward one. However, other situations may be encountered. The introduction of the action may change the situation so that although the originally perceived problem has been eliminated, new problem emerge. Often it is recommended that a temporary system be used to carry out the task under the supervision of the analyst, followed by a transition to the operation of the new system. Checkland pointed out that this methodology has in fact not emerged as a once-andfor-all approach to something sharply defined as a problem, but perceived as a problem.
Stages 1 and 2.
A service group in Shell, manufacturing function (MF), it provides a lot of service for the other group in Shell to help them to make decision for the future development. The MF has been running for a long time, and the people think it is about the time for them to rethink their role in Shell and how to make their performance better. Thus, the problem situation for them will be how good is our current system be organized and
how to evaluate our system performance? Can we do better? A rich picture was produced for this problem situation in Figure 4.
Figure 5. Shell's MF world view of training. From the eyes of the company executive, two needs are seen: a need for trained personnel with manufacturing expertise as well as having this expertise in other functions. The best way to meet the need was to inject trainees into the normal workflow, training them through real life situations. They come out well trained and can be hired in other functions. A root definition for a system for training in accordance with this concept is as follows: An MF owned and staffed system which, in response to a continuous need for higher quality personnel for servicing and managing the manufacturing operations of the Shell Group, and a need for manufacturing expertise in other functions, develops and trains people and provides experience in a cost effective manner, within constraints imposed by MFs carrying out its core tasks as service provider and technology. The CATWOE analysis for this root definition is as follows:
C: Those trained; through them, the Company A: MF Personnel T: The need for trained experienced people is tranformed to a fulfilled need. W: Training can emerge from careful planning of MF work with a view to providing suitable experience. O: MF E: MF core tasks
Note how the world view of this transformation enforces training through hands on experience.
Back to Top.
Back to Map.
Figure 6. Shell's MF training conceptual model. This model consists of an operational model which is monitored at two different levels. The core activity of this operational system is task 6 (Assign MF personnel to tasks). However to be able to do this task effectively requires a lot of understanding, which is covered in tasks 1 to 5. We need to know about Shell's changing environment and MF's ongoing task requirements. These requirements fill a need for expertise in MF and other functions. We also need to know the experience of existing and new MF personnel. Once those requirements are filled, task assignment is completed. The task assignment also has an output, which is a list of skills and experience received by MF personnel as a result of doing assigned tasks. These must be logged and appreciated in future task assignments. Two levels of monitoring are taken in this model, but note how this process follows the guidelines of "metrics, monitoring, and control action". The operational system is monitored by the MF group, and they are using efficacy and efficiency as their
measures of performance. The second level of monitoring is done at a managment level, whose performance measurement is cost effectiveness. Back to Top. Back to Map.
Activity in Model
Exist?
How?
Who?
Good/Bad Alternatives?
MF Discussion management, and Shell Good management Corporation's action personnel MF/Shell Co. discussion MF and Shell Good in variously Co. people general formalinformal
Contractor
No alternative
Bad
Problem situation:
A local Calgary choral society always has the difficulty in obtaining nominations for its officers and committee and attracting people to participation in choral related works. As it is a performing society a number of non-choral tasks must be managed. How could this difficulty be addressed and examined? Requirement 1: Use a rich picture to address the "Problem Situation Expressed" stage in SSM for this problem situation. Requirement 2: Define a "Root Definition" for this problem situation. Requirement 3: Do a CATWOE analysis on your Root Definition.
Requirement 4: Produce a "Conceptual Model" based on your Root Definition. (activities such as identify needs of local community, attract membership, general funds, attract audiences could be used for this problem situation) Requirement 5: Use the "Tabular Display" comparison method to perform the comparison between the real world and intellectual world. Results for Adi Damian, Danfeng Hong, Quan Li and Dong Pan. Results for Qian Wang, Kim Johnson, Jasper Fai, and Sheng Ouyang Results for Daniela Herlea, Stephen Lam, and Micheal Wu