The Seven Stages Of The Soft Systems Method

The primary errand in comprehension an approach to construct a system is procedure what a system is and seeing anyway it's utilized to encourage a business meet its destinations. A system could be a joined grouping of gadgets and completion frameworks, similar to PCs and servers, which will correspond with each other. Systems convey data in numerous mixed bags of situations, together with homes, minor organizations, and tremendous endeavours.

One of the first steps involved in carrying out a preliminary investigation include understanding the problem or opportunity in sight. The analyst must first identify which department, users and business processes the system request is involved in to evaluate and assess the causes and effects related in the proposed system. Defining the project scope and constraints is the second step. With clear indications of the projects boundaries or extent the project scope is determined, while the requirements or conditions the system must confer to or achieve determine the projects constraints. The third step in a preliminary investigation consists of fact finding techniques, that involve the analyses of charts, interviews with users, managers and review of documents , observing operations and finally user surveys. Followed by the fourth step that includes the process of evaluating feasibility. This step consists of evaluating the feasibility of the proposed projects operational, technical, economical and

This research investigated systems thinking and the use of soft systems methodology to develop a conceptual model of systems change based on strategies in established systems care. Soft in SSM stresses human systems as not fixed entities and the process of thinking as systemic. As a result, change is looked at differently with one focused on evolving systems instead of linear steps or mechanical parts. The conceptual model of this paper presents key components of the system change process in care systems and clarifies the relationship in those components.

This comes to the last step of the system and that is taking action to correct the problems and

The decision making process can also be divided into seven steps, where the first step will basically involve defining the problem. These steps allow for the main issue to be identified, and therefore the manager should make sure that it has been done correctly. After the problem identification stage, we can move forward and identify the limiting factors, and in this the manager should make use of all resources available to do it the best way. Some of the resources include information, time, personnel, equipment and supplies. Using this, managers can be able to identify the factors that might hinder them from achieving their goals.

The next step in the process is system analysis. This second stage involves gathering requirements, such as documenting the strengths and weaknesses of the current system, having discussions with the users to understand their roles and needs. This is an integral part of the life cycle as employees are the most important asset a company has. Baya, Gruman, & Mathaisel state, “information technology

Businesses continually adapt to a changing environment to maintain their market position (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, & Shafiq, 2012; Biedenbacha & Soumlderholma, 2008). Change is inevitable considering the current rate of technological advancement and the growth in global competition (Appelbaum et al., 2012; Armenakis & Harris, 2009; By, 2007). Increasing competition and the need for strategic flexibility and globalization is affecting almost every organization today, regardless of size, market, focus, and so on (Jaros, 2010).

Peter Checkland and Brian Wilson are both systems thinkers who contributed to the development of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). Although both systems thinkers began developing concepts of SSM around the same time, Checkland is considered the pioneer of SSM. Checkland’s SSM was designed for solving general social problems, while Wilson adopted the methodology for business management by developing enterprise model building. The underlying principle for Checkland’s SSM and Wilson’s SSM is that it allows users to structure their thoughts and align them to the real world and thus, help in situations where there are different assumptions, multiple stakeholder, and multiple goals (Ragsdell, West & Wilby 2012). A comparative analysis of Checkland’s SSM and Wilson’s SSM divulges emphasis of specific modeling devices for instance Checkland focuses on three concepts namely rich pictures, root definitions and conceptual model, while Wilson focuses consensus primary task model (CPTM) and maltrese cross analysis, which are suitable for information systems required in new enterprises. Still, Wilson’s SSM borrows heavily from Checkland’s SSM especially on ideas of conceptual model and root definitions. Since, Wilson’s SSM was developed much later after apparent problem with Checkland’s SSM, it is considered the most pertinent in today’s systems applications. The objective of this paper is to compare and contrast both Checkland an Wilson’s models of SSM.

Within the global business environment one thing is constant and inevitable, the need for change and the effort and focus that it requires. The need for change can be attributed to various factors; two that immediately come to mind are globalization and advancements in technology.

The first stage involves decision-making groups where professionals from different agencies work in co-operation to meet, discuss and make decisions. (Coles. B, Britton. L, Hicks. L, 2004, pg4-5).

It’s at this stage that the team develop the formal incident response capability. It’s at this stage where the team create an incident response process defining the organizational structure with roles and responsibilities. It’s on this stage that the team create procedures with detailed guidance in order to respond to an incident. It’s where the team select the right people with the appropriate skill set. It’s where the team define the criteria do declare an incident. It’s where the team define the right tools to handle an incident. It’s where the team define what the team are going to report. To whom are the team going to communicate.

In order to have the best solutions to implement the changes, Soft System Methodology (SSM) and ‘System Thinking’ can propose ways to resolve the problem in the best manner.

Stage 7: Implementation of agreed changes: Soft system methods are based on rationalist approach of

System development can generally be thought of having two major components: systems analysis and systems design. In System Analysis more emphasis is given to understanding the details of an existing system or a proposed one and then deciding whether the proposed system is desirable or not and whether the existing system needs improvements. Thus, system analysis is the process of investigating a system, identifying problems, and using the information to recommend improvements to the system. System design is the process of planning a new business system or one to replace or complement an existing system.

Soft computing methodology can be used for developing a model that can predict autonomic computing based software systems maintainability according to the opinions of experts of this domain. Soft computing is different from conventional hard computing as in hard computing we require full truth but in soft computing we can solve a problem with vague values and with partial truth [11]. Soft computing techniques are more suitable for real world problems and require very less computational time .Soft computing technologies includes neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms etc. Xinghuo and Kaynak [10] explain briefly about soft computing and its technologies. Fuzzy logic works similar to biological systems as it mimics the human body for problem solving [9] so it can be used to generate a model for predicting maintainability of autonomic software system after the system is developed.