Lecture Notes

Decision Making Theory

9th Lecture
Soft System Methodology

Compiled from various sources by:

Teaching Team of Decision Making Theory
Department of Management FEUI
 The Method of SSM
The Problem Action
1 Situation 7
Unstructured

The Real Debate about

World 6 change
The Problem
2 Situation
Expressed
5 Comparisons

Relevant Systems Conceptual

3 & 4
Root Definitions
Models
Systems World
("Below the line")
 Finding Out (1)
1 The Problem Situation Unstructured
Undefined
- not a problem, but a situation
Can't say "This is a Sales problem" or
"This is a Production problem"
Objective
- there will be some agreed facts
Subjective
- there will be different interpretations
of the situation
 Finding
2 The Problem Situation Expressed
Out (2)
Capturing the whole situation
- Rich Pictures
- cartoon-like representations
- Guidelines
- look for structure (slow to change)
- look for process (activities in the situation)
- look for interactions between them
- don't look for systems in the problem situation
- include objective & subjective data
- consider social roles & norms
- use terse footnotes if necessary
- include yourself
Stage 2 (cont.): Building Rich Pictures

5.
Relevant Systems & Root Definitions
A relevant system is one which is thought to be
helpful in learning about the situation - for any
situation there may (will) be several possible
relevant systems
A Root Definition is the name of a relevant
system.
The core of a relevant system is the
transformation it performs
Input T Output
 Transformations
- The input must be transformed by the
process and the output must be a
product of the transformation
e.g. for a public library

unread books books read

need for need
knowledge met
unspent spent
budget budget
but not
repository of educated
knowledge public
 Root Definitions
Can express the name of a system as a sentence
e.g. for the Library
A local authority owned and professionally run system
to provide books wanted by the public, by means of
free loans, subject to budgetary constraints, in line
with the council's policy of the right of public access
to information
Can check RDs with X, Y & Z -
 Express the RD as "a system to do X, by Y, in order
to achieve Z"
A system to provide books wanted by the public, by
means of free loans, in order to achieve the aims of
the council's policy (of public access to information)
 Two Types of System
1. Primary Task - a system that does
e.g., a system to provide books on loan to uphold public
right of access to information
2. Issue based - a system that decides
e.g., should there be such a system?
Primary Task are usually operationalised or institutionalised
 Issue Based are usually relevant to mental processes
 Not clear-cut distinction between them (exist as spectrum
and in hierarchy) e.g. Parliament does both (but it can
get confused)
Which implies two types of RD.....
 CATWOE
• How do you know if your RD is “complete”?
• CATWOE is a useful mnemonic for structuring root
definitions
C Customer(s) beneficiary(s)/victim(s) of the system
A Actor(s) those who do T
T Transformation of input to output
W Weltanschauung the specific “world view” that
makes T meaningful
O Owner(s) those who could stop (or change the
nature of) T
E Environment constraints on the system that are
outside its scope
 CATWOE (2)
For the library example:
C the public
A professional library staff
T council policy policy met
public right right upheld
W public access to information is a right
O the local authority
E council policy
budgetary constraints
 Conceptual Models
Using Root Definitions & CATWOE, the system(s) can be
modelled:
The “core” library system

1. Determine 2. Decide limits

needs of Public of provision

7. Lend 3. Reconcile 4. Buy Books,

Books needs with etc.
limits

6. Stock 5. Classify
shelves books
The Need for Monitoring
How do you know if the system is working?

1. Determine 2. Decide limits

needs of Public of provision

7. Lend 3. Reconcile 4. Buy Books,

Books needs with etc.
limits

6. Stock 5. Classify
shelves books

8. Define 10. Take

Performance Controlling
Measures 9. Monitor Action
1-6
 Criteria for Performance
 Performance can be assessed in three main ways (the
3 'E's)
1. Efficacy
– does it work?
2. Efficiency
– does it minimise use of resources?
3. Effectiveness
– does it meet the longer term aim(s)
You could add others, e.g.,
4. Ethics
– should we be doing this? (eg. The Co-operative bank)
 “Complete” Conceptual
Model
1. Determine 2. Decide limits
needs of Public of provision

7. Lend 3. Reconcile 4. Buy Books,

Books needs with etc.
limits

6. Stock 5. Classify
shelves books

8. Define
Performance 10. Take
Measures Controlling
Efficacy Action
Efficiency 9. Monitor
1-6

12. Define measure

of Effectiveness 14. Take
Controlling
13. Action
Monitor 1-8
11. Understand concept
public right of access
to information
 Core Method
of System Modeling
1. Name relevant systems
– both Primary Task & Issue Based
2. Formulate Root Definitions, using CATWOE
structure
– (To do X, by Y, to achieve Z )
3. Build Conceptual Models
– based them on one T each
– include monitoring & control elements,
– design measures for the 3 criteria of efficacy, efficiency &
effectiveness.
4. Indicate Contingent Activities
– (i.e., what activities must logically precede which?)
 Comparisons with Reality
 Use the models as sources of questions about
the real world
 Use a matrix to structure process:
Activity Exist? How done? Measure? Comments

Criteria? New
'what's'

Alternative
'hows'

 Comments give material for debate about

change
 Other methods of
• Overlay
Comparison with Reality
• Draw the conceptual model (on paper)
• Draw the current system (on a transparency)
• Overlay them, literally, and compare
• Historical Reconstruction
• notionally operate a model
• run a scenario, based on a real event, through the model, then
compare what actually happened in the real world with the outcome
of the working model. e.g., the Concorde example
• Important!
The aim is not to 'improve' the models.
– The aim is to use the models to enquire about reality and to help
facilitate an accommodation between different models (views of
reality)
 Debate about Change
Comparisons should generate ideas for change
Any change must be both
 Systematically Desirable
– i.e., it must produce the desired results
 Culturally Feasible
– it must be possible to effect the change in socio-
cultural terms
These are nearly always confused
 This is also where 'hows' should first get considered explicitly - but
they will probably also be considered at the comparison stage

Implementation
The implementation process itself can be thought of as a system -
using SSM, where expectations are the only real-world analogue
SSM does not seek to address specific implementation techniques
 Implementation
 Main types of change
1. Structural
– e.g. organizational groupings

2. Procedural
– i.e. ways of doing things

3. Policy
– goals and strategies

4. Attitudinal/Cultural
 1-3 relatively easy, 4 rather harder.
 Danger in setting out to change attitudes
– should be 'by-product' of the overall process
 Still ultimately based on a rationalist model
of human behavior
 Rules for SSM
Tactical Rules
1. Each stage , 2 - 6, has a defined output.
Stage 2 - Rich pictures, Relevant Systems
Stage 3 - Root Definitions (CATWOE)
Stage 4 - Conceptual Models built from Root Definitions
Stage 5 - Agenda for possible changes derived from
comparisons
Stage 6 - Agreement on desirable and feasible change
2. Conceptual Models should be derived from Root Definitions and from
nothing else
3. Conceptual Models should be checked against Root Definitions
4. Conceptual Models are not descriptions of systems to be engineered
5. Don't look for systems in the problem situation - the systems are created
as (conceptual) tools for learning
 Rules for SSM (2)
Strategic (a few pointers)
1. Resist temptation to impose structure onto
problem situation
2. Annotate Rich Pictures tersely, if necessary
3. Consider social roles & norms in the situation
4. You can have two versions of Rich Pictures -
public & private
5. Relevant Systems can be Primary Task or
Issue Based - consider both (look for them in
the Rich Picture)
6. Develop several Relevant System in parallel
7. Iterate! SSM is not prescriptively linear -
loop around stages 3 to 5.
SSM & Information Systems
- Information Systems are Social Systems
– for some people.....
- SSM is designed to deal with the complexity of social
situations
- SSM should therefore be suited to thinking about
information systems
- Which of the huge possible number of information systems that be
could develop, should we?
 Information = data + meaning in a context
- Why do we need I.S.s?
- to serve real-world action
- The IS must therefore include the action of attributing
meaning to data
SSM & Information Systems (2)
An Information System has a least two parts
- Data manipulation is a machine activity
- Data transformation is a human activity

Transformation
Manipulation
SSM & Information Systems (3)
- Attention must be paid to the purposeful action the IS is supporting
- and the meanings that make those actions meaningful
& relevant
- Need to understand how actors conceptualise the situation (Ws)
- Enables construction of human activity systems for the situation
- Of each activity ask
- what information is needed to support this activity?
- sources, format, frequency?
- what information is generated by this activity?
- to whom, in what form, how often?
- Can then consider data structures to embody information
- Can then design data manipulation processes
SSM & Information Systems (4)
 SSM can enrich and enable Systems analysis
and design
- particularly information requirements
determination
 Gets away from assumption that problems are
trivial
 Future Developments
 An attempt has been made to incorporate SSM
into SSADM
- wrong way round - hard systems are a
special case of soft systems
 Also attempts to use SA tools in conceptual
models, and also to use other models as
'templates'