CATWOE

Prashantha A L
092520073
 CATWOE
Customers
Actors
Transformation Process
World View
Owner
Environmental Constraints
 CATWOE
Background / History:
In the 1960s Peter Checkland, a Systems Professor, developed a problem-solving
methodology called Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), which sought to apply the
systems principles of engineering to business problems. As part of this,
Checkland recommended that before you define your problem, you first identify
all of the parties involved. By looking at how people and systems interact to
affect the situation, you can more easily identify the key problems to solve.

He used the mnemonic CATWOE as a checklist for the people and elements that
contribute to a change.
 CATWOE
What is CATWOE ?
CATWOE is a method for expanding your thinking about a problem or situation before
you zero in on a specific problem that you want to solve. It is a analysis to check to
ensure that root definitions contain most of what is important.

Why CATWOE ?
By focusing on one specific problem, you tend to stop looking for other problems. And
that’s when you risk missing something that’s potentially more fundamental than the
problem you first decided to investigate. This is where CATWOE can help you avoid
making a serious mistake.
The idea is that before attempting to resolve a problem, you run through the CATWOE
checklist you’re not fixing one thing but potentially letting something else go wrong.
 CATWOE
C = CUSTOMERS, OR CLIENTS OF THE DECISION
The 'customers of the system'. In this context, 'customers' means those who are on the
receiving end of whatever it is that the system does. Is it clear from your definition of "C"
as to who will gain or lose from your decision?

A = ACTORS, OR AGENTS WHO CARRY OUT THE DECISION

The 'actors', meaning those who would actually carry out the activities envisaged in the
notional system being defined.
T = TRANSFORMATION PROCESS, THE DECISION MAKER
The 'transformation process'. What does the system do to the inputs to convert them
into the outputs?
W = WORLD VIEW PREDOMINATLY HELD

The 'world view' that lies behind the root definition. Putting the system into its wider
context can highlight the consequences of the overall system. For example the system
may be in place to assist in making the world environmentally safer, and the
consequences of system failure could be significant pollution.
what are the wider impacts of the issue ?
 CATWOE
O = OWNERS / OWNERSHIP

Those who have sufficient formal power over the system to stop it existing if they so
wished .

E = ENVIRONMENT / ENVIRONMENTAL IMPOSITIONS

What are the constraints and limitations that will impact the solution and its
success?

The 'environmental constraints'. These include things such as ethical limits,

regulations, financial constraints, resource limitations, limits set by terms of
reference, and so on.
 CATWOE
Example 1] Project Level
C - E-Business Team
A - Internal Creative Team, IT, Business Owners, Product
Owners, Agency
T - Build and launch new website
W - New website will better support business goals
O - CFO, IT
E - Geographic displacement, restrictions to onsite
collaboration, competing business goals
 CATWOE
Example 2] Painting the house

• C - Homeowner
• A - Homeowner
• T - Unpainted house to painted house
• W - Painting house will enhance appearance
• O - Homeowner
• E - Hand painting
Thanks