Craig Standing

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Soft Systems for Business Analysis

• Structured methods came in for some criticism,
  particularly in relation to analysis
• Assumed the problem was always easy to define
• That requirements were clear and straight forward
  to define
• There was little difference of opinion - conflict

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Problem Solving

• Peter Checkland of Lancaster University, UK
  developed a methodology that was not just an IS
  methodology but a more general problem solving
  approach
• It addressed the problems of the structured
  approaches and so has been adopted by some of the
  more structured methods

3
Socio-Political System

• The problems are seen as primarily social in
  nature in SS
• The culture and the politics of the organisation
  are considered and in-built with any attempted
  solution
• Rarely views the problem as a technical problem
  situation

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Techniques and Features

• SSM has seven stages but has at its core the
  development of rich pictures
• Plus the ethos of empowering the users to decide
  upon the acceptability and desirability of any
  changes to be made
• The rich picture is a free form sketch drawn by
  the user

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• It incorporates such things as
• concerns
• challenges,
• issues,
• politics
• competition
• The SSM sessions are facilitated in such a way to
  promote open discussion based on the idea that
  real progress cannot be made until the issues and
  concerns are acknowledged

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SSM - 7 Stages
Stage 7 Action to improve the problem situation
Stage 1 Problem Situation
Stage 6 Systemically desirable culturally
feasible changes
Stage 2 Situation Expressed
Stage 5 Comparison of Conceptual model with Rich
Picture
Real World
Stage 3 Root Definitions
Stage 4 Conceptual Models
Systems Thinking
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Problem Situation Unstructured

• Enter situation with open mind
• Must not jump to conclusions
• Both hard and soft data are needed
• Hard data includes facts on the organisation,
  individuals, products etc
• Soft information includes perceptions,
  judgements, rumours, intuitions

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• Soft information is highly subjective data
• There may be anxiety about offering this
• This information is vital

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Rich Pictures

• The problem situation is now expressed
• A cartoon style diagram is drawn
• This is a rich picture
• Advantages include
• a picture paints a thousand words
• it shows relationships and connections
• provides a full picture of the problem
• provides a good communication tool

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Root Definitions

• A root definition is a concise description of the
  system
• Often one line descriptions of the purpose of the
  system
• A soccer match may be seen as
• recreation
• business
• competition

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• Root definitions should include
• transformation process - input to outputs
• ownership of system
• actors
• customers
• environmental constraints
• world view (Weltanschaung)

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Conceptual Model

• These take the root definitions and incorporate
  them into a model (verbs)
• It can be viewed as an ideal model

Train Staff
Monitor quality
Recruit students
Enrol students
Educate students
Advertise
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Comparison of Rich Picture Conceptual Model

• The rich picture and the conceptual model are
  compared
• The aim is to highlight the differences
• This requires user involvement
• Remember the conceptual model is an abstract view

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Feasible Changes

• A key feature of SSM is making changes that are
  culturally feasible
• Users determine what steps are possible to move
  to a better situation
• These changes could be quite minor
• The point is the users themselves are
  recommending the changes

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Implement Changes

• The changes are made to the system
• The cycle can be iterated again at a later point
• Any changes made are likely to be successful

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Exercise

• Draw a rich picture for the following situation.
  Add extra things in to the situation if you like!
• You are an IT project manager in a large
  organisation and you have been offered a very
  high profile internal project. The project should
  have been undertaken some time ago but has failed
  to get off the ground because of a dispute
  between two user departments - finance and
  distribution - about which department is
  responsible for it. In actual fact the end users
  of the new system will be from distribution, but
  the information produced by the system will be
  important to, and benefit, both departments.

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• The project has now become critical to the
  companys financial success and the chief
  executive has stepped in and told the two
  departments to work things out and get moving. As
  a result both finance and distribution have now
  assigned someone to the project to define the
  business requirements. These two individuals are
  knowledgeable and competent and work well
  together but there is no clearly defined
  key-user, and both department heads want to be in
  a position to blame the other, or the MIS
  department, if things go wrong. Also no other
  user resources have yet been committed to the
  project.
• It is essential to the business for the new
  system to be up and running by year end, which is
  four months time. As well as a lot of new
  development work, several changes to existing
  systems and databases will be necessary as well
  as interfaces. Your current IT team consists of
  two analyst/programmers, a junior programmer and
  a contract programmer. You also have other
  departmental and system maintenance
  responsibilities.

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Exercise

• Work through the Woodsons case study and identify
• the key aspects of the problem - unstructured
• the key features of the rich picture
• the root definitions
• main aspects of the conceptual model
• Feasible changes - why?
• Implemented changes?

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Questions

• Explain the 7 stages of the Soft Systems
  Methodology
• Why is the SSM put forward as a business analysis
  approach?
• Why do you think the rich picture is an informal
  diagrammatic technique?
• Under which conditions do you think Soft Systems
  would be most effective?
• Under which conditions could SS be inappropriate
  as a business analysis methodology?

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Questions

• What skills do you think the facilitator for SS
  sessions requires?