An Idea Ahead of Its Time: The History and Development of Soft Systems Methodology

This paper, part of the Festschrift for Peter Checkland, provides an outline of the history and development of soft systems methodology. It includes a personal reflection on my experiences of SSM, as well as a more objective evaluation of its achievements and limitations.     

Storying Systems: Managing Everyday Flux Using Mode 2 Soft Systems Methodology

This paper examines work with managers who used a narrative approach to systemic thinking. Storytelling is incorporated within Mode 2 SSM involving a flexible approach to the analysis of complex or "messy" situations at work. Mode 2 SSM is presented as a thinking mode by those within the problem situation, involving the use of various devices of rich pictures, relevant systems, and root definitions, whereby managers and others may make sense of their experiences from within the flux of everyday life. The focus of the approach is learning through reflection on events and activities to consider potential actions and improvements in difficult situations. The findings show the initial difficulty and disappointment of learning to deal with complexity and the unexpected but how quickly the "gain outweighs the pain," as managers learned to attune themselves to the flux of situations, to identify how to work with flows and energies more creatively, and to become conscious of what was happening on the edge of awareness.     

系统方法论研究的现状分析与展望

对目前系统方法论的研究进行分类：硬系统方法论、软系统方法论和批评性系统方法论，分析了不同系统方法的哲学思想、方法步骤及其局限性，探讨了未来系统方法论发展的形式。     

软系统方法论与软科学哲学

软系统方法论是一个非常重要的学科,它与科学哲学相互影响、相互作用和相互促进。本文着重分析软系统方法论的哲学基础,以及从硬系统方法论到软系统方法论的哲学基础的变迁,认为硬 / 软系统方法论之间的关系及其在科学哲学中的表现是互斥互补的关系。软科学哲学一词是库恩在《结构后的路》(2000)一书中提出来的。在我国研究和发展软系统方法论和软科学哲学是十分必要的。     

The Use of Soft Systems Methodology to Enhance Group Creativity

Soft Systems Methodology is especially useful in diagnosing and addressing organizational problems and designing new systems in cultures that are characterised by pluralistic views and values. This paper demonstrates how SSM workshops in a large government agency resulted in a high level of creativity. SSM is then proposed as a methodology that could enhance group creativity in organizational design contexts.     

Soft Systems Methodology and Systems Maintenance

Business systems maintenance represents a large proportion of the work of IT staff in most organizations. Many methodologies relevant to IT concentrate on systems development and give little attention to systems maintenance. In this paper we discuss the relevance and benefits of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to systems maintenance. Payroll administration is then used to provide an outline illustration of the use of SSM for systems maintenance projects. Aspects of the use of SSM for systems maintenance projects are also discussed.     

From East to West- Has the Twain Met? Linkages Between Context Sensitivity and Soft Systems Methodology

This paper links context sensitivity of Indians to mode 2 of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) bringing out the similarities between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and the primary mode and secondary mode of behaviour of context sensitivity respectively. Both SSM and context sensitivity consider the totality of environment before selecting the most appropriate behaviour. In the Indian context, the three dimensions of context sensitivity—person (patra), time (kal) and ecology (the pattern of relationships people have with their social and physical surrounding) (desh) are the three coordinates along which SSM’s standard of facts and values change. The unbundling of the changing standard of SSM along the three dimensions of person, time and ecology and across the two polarities of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft provides a model which is used to explain the recent economic rise of India.An earlier and shorter version of this paper titled ‘Context sensitivity: An Indian version of soft systems’ has been presented at the ALARPM Congress 2006.     

复杂系统多主体仿真方法论

多主体仿真是研究复杂系统的重要方法,但缺乏规范的方法论.总结了多主体仿真的基本假设和技术特点,指出其本质特征是采用多主体视角建立系统的概念模型.根据多主体仿真的目的和特点提出了一种多主体仿真方法论,讨论了在概念模型建立、仿真模型建立、模型校核与验证等环节的特点.最后指出多主体仿真在适用性判据、建立微观-宏观联系、模型有效性验证方面尚存在的问题.     

Modeling Organizational Systems: Banathy's Three Lenses Revisited

The inherent complexity of organizational systems defies full understanding by inquirers. This condition often causes organizational inquirers to become mired in convoluted deliberations, unable to attain the consensus among the inquiring community that is needed to advance the research forward to a meaningful conclusion. Consequently, many practitioners and researchers employ models of organizations to aid in simplifying the system's complexity and to reach shared agreement. Because no single model can fully capture the complexity of an organization, Dr. Bela H. Banathy therefore proposed using three types of interrelated models to give a multidimensional view of a human system under study. Since Banathy first introduced his three lenses approach, the concept has been employed in many educational and organizational settings. This article examines the author's experience using Banathy's three lenses and integrates their usage with some other popular modeling techniques, providing a comprehensive view of how Banathy's three lenses can be effectively employed in contemporary organizational settings.     

Toward a Buddhist Systems Methodology 2: An Exploratory,Questioning Approach

This paper presents a Buddhist systems methodology (BSM) designed for problem prevention and problem solving in Taiwanese Buddhist organisations. Three sets of twelve questions based on Buddhist concepts are offered to (i) support explorations of boundaries and values in problematic situations; (ii) guide the choice of methods for intervention; and (iii) support the evaluation of recommendations for change. The paper argues that the BSM has advantages in Taiwanese contexts compared with Western systems approaches. The latter can appear threatening to organizational harmony and can therefore be regarded negatively. In contrast, the BSM uses Buddhist concepts that are closely associated with the practice of harmonious living. Thus, it reframes systems thinking as the exercise of Buddhist discipline applied to organizational life, and is likely to be viewed as a co-operative and culturally valued endeavour.

Using Soft Systems Methodology to Fight Against Info-Exclusion: The Experience of a Brazilian University

The aim of this paper is to apply a systemic methodology to analyse the concept of info-inclusion which can guide strategic actions of institutions within civil society and within several levels of government. The paper provides a plan of action that, integrated with other tools, aims at fighting the technological and social gap. We apply Soft System Methodology (SSM), because it provides a holistic approach to info-exclusion. SSM is often used to analyse and resolve problems in complex social studies such as info-exclusion. An info-exclusion reduction project, developed by a university in the country region of Sao Paulo will be provided as a case study. This project is one of the several Brazilian initiatives to solve the problem of limited access to information technology tools. We start by contextualising info-exclusion in Brazil and follow with a review of SSM. We then introduce the concept of info-inclusion and apply SSM to it. We end with a discussion of the results obtained and with some suggestions for action and possible improvements.     

A Comparison of Interactive Planning and Soft Systems Methodology: Enhancing the Complementarist Position

Flood and Jackson (1991) explain the diversity of systems-based methods with a pluralistic System of Systems Methodologies by categorizing the various methods according to the problem context for which they are deemed to be best suited. The two methods classified as most appropriate for complex-pluralistic problems, Ackoff's Interactive Planning and Checkland's Soft System Methodology, are compared according to their underlying theory, problem-solving techniques, and outcomes. Despite their shared focus on the same problem context, the two methods are derived from different ontological assumptions which yield different techniques and outcomes. An argument is presented for conducting additional comparisons of methods that address the same problem context.     

面向组件的仿真系统构建方法研究

随着软件组件技术的不断发展,基于组件的软件开发方法在仿真领域逐渐被接受,特别是基于分布式的仿真软件开发。SISO（仿真互操作标准组织）提出的BOM（基本对象模型）通过标准化规范描述面向组件的仿真模型,为构建具有可扩展、可组合和可互操作的仿真系统提供了面向组件的实现技术。首先,描述BOM的模板结构及其体系结构,设计基于BOM的仿真模型组件结构,分析这种结构的仿真模型组件间的互操作性;接着从概念层次、联邦成员层次和联邦层次三个不同层次提出面向组件的仿真系统构建方法;最后讨论一种通用的仿真运行框架,通过组合不同的仿真模型组件实现仿真系统的快速构建。

Abstract：

With the development of the software component technique, the components based software development method is accepted in the simulation domain and specifically in the distributed simulation’s software development. The standard of Base Object Model （BOM） developed by SISO （Simulation Interoperability and Standard Organization） is the component-oriented specification of simulation models which gives a component-oriented technique to construct extensible composable and interoperable simulation systems. Firstly, the template and architecture of BOM were described based on which the structure of simulation model components were designed and the interoperation between them were analyzed; Secondly, the processes for constructing simulation systems were argued from the concept level and the federate level to the federation level; Lastly, by composing various of simulation model components, the general simulation running framework which was argued provided component-oriented capabilities to rapidly building simulation systems.     

Methodology choice in a coercive context

Action research has been conducted into the problem of software usability. Guidance in methodology selection was sought in the work of M. C. Jackson. In the absence of suitable methodology for what was judged to be a systemic-coercive situation, use was made of radical design methods. Both radical design and the theory of Jackson are evaluated in this paper     

Robust Consensus and Soft Control of Multi-Agent Systems with Noises*

This paper considers the problem of robust consensus for a basic class of multi-agent systems with bounded disturbances and with directed information flow. A necessary and sufficient condition on the robust consensus is first presented, which is then applied to the analysis, control and decision making problems in the noise environments. In particular, the authors show how a soft control technique will synchronize a group of autonomous mobile agents without changing the existing local rule of interactions, and without assuming any kind of connectivity conditions on the system trajectories.     

系统方法论与唯物辩证法

唯物辩证法在当代的持续发展 ,不断得到系统论研究成果的有力支持。当代系统论丰富了唯物辩证法的诸多基本观点     

A Systems Study for a European Community Program on Inspection and Accreditation of Blood Collection Establishments

This paper reports on an action research study for the development of a common program on inspection and accreditation of blood collection establishments in the European Union member states. Using soft systems methodology to guide the study, we have developed the systems required and arrived at the actions that are necessary to realize and maintain them.     

Elicitation of Tacit Knowledge Using Soft Systems Methodology

Systemic Practice and Action Research - Elicitation of tacit knowledge is of paramount importance in organizations for novice people’s use of experts’ knowledge. One of the shortcomings...     

Evaluating organizations: A systems and contingency approach

It has become increasingly difficult to keep pace with the amount of information being generated about how to evaluate organizations. If it were not enough that the situation is made difficult by the sheer mass of material on evaluation, clarity is further hindered by many of the publications on the subject failing to make explicit the principles and assumptions upon which they are based. This was the situation confronting the authors when they began a national project with the National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service on the evaluation of the performance of Councils for Voluntary Service. In an attempt to bring some order to the field, this paper adopts a systems and contingency approach to elucidate the nature and practical usefulness of the different methods of evaluation. It first seeks, using some tools of Checkland's soft systems methodology, to present a systematic analysis of the subject of evaluation. Then, in the light of the analysis, an attempt is made to formulate a simple classification of approaches to evaluation which serves to match the different forms of evaluation to the contexts in which they are most appropriate for use.     

On Methodology of Fuzzy Systems

1.INTRODUCTIONFuzzinessisoneoftheuniversalattributesofhumanthinkingandobjectivethings.Fuzzysystemsaretheproductsoffuzzysetstheoryandinformationtechniques.Fuzzysystemsgenerallyincludeseveralimportantlinkssuchasfuzzification,fuzzytransformation,defuzzificationandsoon.Whilefuzzyknowledgebaseisanimportantcomponentinfuzzysystems.Inordertoconstructpracticalfuzzysystemssuchasfuzzytemperatureregulatorsystem,fuzzydecisionmakingsupportsystem,fuzzydatabasesystem,fuzzyearthquakeforecastingsystem,many…