Techniques of soft system methodology

There are mainly three techniques used to represent soft systems. The first choice is using of rich pictures, then conceptual model and expanded conceptual model. Rich pictures use to capture much information as possible relating to the problem situation. Rich pictures can show boundaries, structures, information flows and communication channels. But mainly rich pictures used to illustrate human activities within the system. Rich picture is a simple use of actors and communications. There are no standard notation for rich pictures, but there are some commonly used notations such as cartoon characters, thinking bubble, eyeball, face expressions, etc.

The purpose of rich picture is to get a full view as possible of the factors involved in the problem situation. Especially elements related to environment of the problem. It may be used just by the system analyst or to discuss it with other managers as well. Some top level people may not impressed to see such cartoon characters or simplified drawings because they may expect something more attractive and complex while most of the top level managers will be impressed to discuss complex technical problems in a simplified drawings where none technical people also can understand.

In a rich picture we can root definitions as well. A root definition is individual view of a situation. It is always related to a character. For an example employees in a bank counter may see their main work as serving customers fast while the branch manager see his main role in the organization as maximizing the number of account holders. The marketing people of the bank may see their main role as to achieving sales targets. These are each actor’s root definitions in their own organizational environment. Now consider there is a significant level drop of saving accounts in the branch and the top management wants to find out the reason for the problem situation. In this case each actor in the counter, marketing and branch manager will give their own beliefs for the problem.

Root definitions expressed in short sentences rather using descriptive paragraphs. According to checkland, a root definition should follow CATWOE procedure.

C = customer

A = Actor

T = Transformation. Core activity of the system.

W = Weltanschauung (The underlying belief about the system)

O = Owner

E = Environment

When we apply this process to a customer support system:

Customer is the end user of the software. Actor is the IT support executive. Transformation or the core activity is to give support for the software system. The underlying belief about the system is that the system must be up and running always without errors. Owner of the system may be the IT manager. The environment is relative to the industry and standards. In this situation environment can be define as provide immediate customer support and resolve issue as soon as possible to keep the customer happy.

While the root definition is an important statement that managers can understand, but the most important thing is to eliciting the CATWOE elements from individuals. Compiling the root definition is the first stage in the system thinking strand and understanding human activity system.

Conceptual model

The root definitions represent an individual’s perspective of what the business system is trying to achieve. The next step is to propose an ideal model that is able to realize proposed perspectives. We built a conceptual model to understand what is happening in the real world situation. When drawing a conceptual model we first draw most broader view in then divide it into sub systems and analyze separately. The conceptual model has a very simple notation. A bubble to represent an activity and arrowhead line to link operations between activities. The conceptual model is known as first resolution model which gives high level activity descriptions and later divided in to second resolutions models or low level models.

Once the conceptual models and root definitions are completed, we compare it with the real world situations and propose possible solutions. This comparison could be done in many ways such as interviewing actors, documenting current activities and benchmarking, etc.

After the discrepancies have been identified, possible solutions are explored and their feasibility evaluated. These activities will have information needs, particularly for monitoring success. These are the first steps towards developing an information strategy / system for an organization.