:PROJECT MANAGEMENT 641
ASSIGNMENT 1: Projects and Systems Theory
“The most pervasive intellectual tradition to project management is without doubt the systems approach”
Unit Coordinator: David Baccarini
Teaching Staff: Geoff Salm
By Ben Westerberg
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PART I –THEORY
Describe the key fundamentals of systems theory
Just about anything in life can viewed as having systems (Baccarini 2013). They can be found anywhere from within nature to anywhere in society and business. To better understand the principle of systems and the theories associated with them it is important to define what a ‘system’ is. There have been many experts who have helped create and contribute to systems theory and they all have similar thoughts
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As mentioned before a common thought of systems thinking is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and this means that these relationships between systems and subsystems provide synergies that would not otherwise be present if those parts of the system performed individually.
All systems are goal-seeking. In all cases each component in a system has a task or purpose, and each task contributes completing the shared common goal of the system. It is said that if systems lack well-defined goals they tend to go in all directions, when effective systems all tend to move in the direction of the goal achievement (Shoech 2004). The Business Dictionary definition of system mentioned earlier stated that they ‘maintain their activity… in order to achieve the goal of the system.’ It is important to be able to recognise the objectives of a system to ensure that it is working effectively and evaluate whether changes need to be made to increase its capacity to achieve its goals (Systems Theory Overview 2013).
Systems will always have boundaries and these boundaries contain the system which is made up of elements or subsystems. Systems can be broken down and each individual part, or element, can be analysed and will have a purpose. Sometimes these elements can be broken down again into individual parts and analysed further and this is called a subsystem. Systems Theory Overview (2013) states that it is important to be able to recognise
A system is a set of interrelated parts. Systems theory assumes that a system must be understood as a whole, rather than in component parts. It is a way of looking at the world where all the objects are interrelated with one another. Many family systems are addressed in the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
From general system theory perspectives, a system is a whole made from many separate components. According to “Organizational Communication Systems”, Gold Haber and Barnett explained organization was a set of interdependent parts includes individuals, groups, or machines and these parts were interrelated. (Gold Haber and Barnett, P4). For example, in UC systems which called supra, UC Davis is seemed as a system that divided into four colleges and six professional schools. There are many divisions under each college. Each college is a sub system. For examples, in Letters and Sciences College, they have Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, and so on. In Social Sciences, they have many separate departments such as Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Communication, and so on. All these colleges, schools, and departments work together to support UC Davis goal state which is enhancing academic quality, supporting innovation, and providing high quality facilities for professors and students. By dividing UC Davis into many interdependent colleges and departments, it is easier to monitor, control, and maintain all processes in each subsystem to support the goal
These systems can be labelled as the automatic (TASS) system, and the analytic system. In Keith Stanovich’s The Robots Rebellion, he delves into the underlying nature of these two systems and how they shape our instrumental reality (target knowledge). The heuristic system, also known as TASS (the autonomous set of systems), is a modular system that consists of inputs and outputs. It responds automatically to environmental stimuli. Cognitive processes in the TASS system are rapid and compulsory; responding quickly to the limited array of stimuli. As a result of this, TASS sometimes generates outputs that conflict with computations being executed by the analytic processing system. TASS cannot be inhibited by central systems; it cannot be turned off, but can be overridden by the analytic system. The analytic system is a controlled processing system that is serial based and is the focus of our awareness. It deals with conscious problem solving through analytical processing. This system has the ability to override the unconscious responses produced by the TASS
A system consists of elements, interconnections, and a function or goal (Meadows, 2008). External and internal forces affect educational systems and induce change. Educational systems are affected by external and internal forces that induce change. The following will address the goal of the BSN system using general systems theory and explore elements and processes of the system.
Any attempt to solve a problem or improve an outcome needs to deal with both, system and process. Recognizing that we operate within systems requires a different type of thinking to be fully effective. Thinking that fully explores the complexity of the cause and effect relationship between the constituent processes and the behavior of the people that enact them. Systems Thinking is the key capability for describing and understanding problems to optimize outcome.
It is noteworthy that a super imposition of object systems as such into systems theory
In order to understand this theory, we need to firstly understand a word of system. System is any set of different parts that interact to form a complex whole. However it cannot be divided up into independent parts. It linked to each other. Just like a organization, it also is a system. In a organization, it have many departments that joined together such as accounting, marketing, sales and so on. All of this included a lot of employees, asset, resources and information so form a complex system. Every single company also like this. Although this all sets of components that work with specified objective, but it also work together which for better management and outputs.
The basic tenets of systems organization theory include that there are people all working for the common goal. They may not all be in the same field, but there is overlap of how their work should all mesh together. The system is constantly adapting and evolving in order to accommodate to the environment that is surrounding them, and that environment is always changing because of outside factors. Sometimes businesses will need to make sure that their model accommodates to how the outside factors are influencing the internal factors on the business organization. It is also
Systems thinking is the process of seeing ‘the big picture’ instead of focusing on superficial symptoms. It represents a discipline by which we learn to recognize
Ackoff (1974) states taking a systems approach consists of three elements, these make up the whole that can be divided into parts, but must be viewed together.
Discussing theories and types of systems was a process of looking at situation from a distanced and unrelated point of view. Some concepts were easier to understand because I had previously experienced them or realized my part in a specific system. The first part of the course brought up a lot of questions about the application and ways in which these processes occurred. This approach led to many discussions and ideas about why specific situations were classified as they were within the dynamic systems.
2.3.3.1 Systems Thinking Definition. I clarified the ambiguities in systems thinking definitions. I reviewed the historical and philosophical perspectives underlying systems thinking and the categorisation of the systems thinking literature which has led to a proposed systems thinking conceptual framework. I established how systems thinking is influenced by: six influential theoretical approaches (tektology, general systems thinking, cybernetics, systems complexity hierarchy, hard and soft systems and critical systems thinking); three methodological approaches (functionalist, interpretive and emancipatory); and two practical perspectives of systems thinking (methodologies and conceptual application) (see Figure 5). Systems thinking has been applied, with useful results, to a wide variety of practical situations of interest. I concluded that the most important role of the systems thinking literature is as a conceptual understanding. To clarify the ambiguities of systems thinking definitions, I proposed that systems thinking can be defined as a conceptual understanding
Important improvements can be achieved by applying Systems Thinking to the Project Life Cycle Management
Furthermore, Systems Theory also claims that the whole composition is in constant engagement with its environment and continues to find balance with its environment at all times hence any disturbance on elementary level would force the composition to find new balance with its environment through evolution. Although this theory was proposed from the field of biology but its connection with any organization and structure outside biology is apparent.
As we can understand and seen, "system" depends on one’s perspective, and the “integrated set of elements