Systems-Thinkers ::  Resources :: Category= Soft Systems

Book : Soft Systems Methodology in Action (1990)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Author(s): Checkland, Peter • Scholes, Jim

Published: 1990 ISBN: 0471927686 • 346 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

Soft Systems Methodology was developed in the 1970s. It grew out of the failure of established methods of “systems engineering” (SE) when faced with messy complex problem situations. SE is concerned with creating systems to meet defined objectives, and it works well in those situations in which there is such general agreement on the objectives to be achieved that the problem can be thought of simply as the selection of efficacious and efficient means to achieve them.

SSM was developed expressly to cope with the more normal situation in which the people in a problem situation perceive and interpret the world in their own ways and make judgements about it using standards and values which may not be shared by others. Deciding how a company should make use of information technology, launching a new product, choosing a career, running a sports club, setting about improving care of the elderly in a District of the National Health Service are all problems of the latter type, for which SSM is appropriate.

More information is available on this book. Show content ...

Book : Soft Systems Methodology in Action (1999)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Author(s): Checkland, Peter • Scholes, Jim

Published: 1999 ISBN: 0471986054 • 418 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

Thirty years ago Peter Checkland set out to test whether the Systems Engineering (SE) approach, successful in technical problems, could be used by managers to cope with the unfolding complexities of everyday life.  His findings were revealed in Systems Thinking, Systems Practice.  In this paperback reissue of his second classic of systems literature, again featuring the excerpted new section, Checkland develops his ideas to show how the principles have been extended by use in industry.  Case studies are used to show how SSM can be applied and what lessons can be learned from its application in different areas.

More information is available on this book. Show content ...

Book : Systems Thinking : Managing Chaos and Complexity (1999)

Publisher: Butterworth - Heinemann

Author(s): Gharajedaghi, Jamshid

Published: 1999 ISBN: 0750671637 • 328 pages Delivery Format: Hard Copy - Paperback

Summary

From the publisher:

In a nutshell, this book is about systems. This book is written for those thinkers and practitioners who have come to realize that while the whole is becoming more and more interdependent parts display choice and behave independently, and that paradoxes are the most potent challenge of emergent realities.

With a practical orientation and yet a profound theoretical depth, the book offers an operational handle on the whole by introducing an elaborate scheme called iterative design. The iterative design explicitly recognizes that choice is at the heart of human development. Development is the capacity to choose; design is a vehicle for enhancement of choice and holistic thinking. ‘Designers’, in this book, seek to choose rather than predict the future. They try to understand rational, emotional, and cultural dimensions of choice and to produce a design that satisfies a multitude of functions. They learn how to use what they already know and also about how to learn what they need to know.

More information is available on this book. Show content ...