Multiple perspectives: Concept,applications, and user guidelines

The evolution of the multiple perspective approach and its range of applications over the past decade are reviewed. The traditional technical perspective of systems analysis is augmented with organizational and personal perspectives. The three types of perspectives have inherently different characteristics and properties. The applications show that each perspective yields insights on a system that are not attainable with the others. The organizational and personal perspectives also focus more attention on problems of implementation. The concept is serving as an effective and practical vehicle to overcome the limitations of systems analysis in dealing with complex real-world situations.