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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
& 4 Conceptual
3 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 Out (2)
2 The Problem Situation Expressed
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 Comparison with Reality

• Overlay
• 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'

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