Business Analysis Methodology (MM543)

Session 8: System of System Methodologies

Andreas U Kuswara(akuswara@binus.ac.id)

Class Announcements

• Mr. Dana’s last assignment can be submitted through me in today’s session

• Please submit my first assignment (hard copy) about Singapore Case today

Readings• SSM In Action:

– Retrospective– Chapter 1– Chapter 2– Case Study - Rethinking a Service Function in the Shell

Group (conducted by Checkland and organized by Shell management)

• Internet Keywords:– “Soft System Methodology”– //www.geography.otago.ac.nz/CIART/annaiaia99.html– //www.rri.org/gparchive/nz4page.html

The 7-Stages Model of SSM

Real World & System Thinking• The upper side (1, 2, 5, 6,

7) are activities done in the Real World involving people from within the problem situation

• The lower side (3, 4) are System Thinking carried out with or without people from the problem situation

Stages 1 and 2 ‘the problem situation’

• An attempt to build the richest possible picture, not of the ‘problem’ but of the situation in which there is perceived to be a problem– By collecting as many perceptions of the

problem situation as possible from a wide range of people with roles in the problem situation

– Attempt to identify elements of what are referred to in everyday language as social and political systems

Getting the problem expressed (1) – Easier said than done

• Many strategies can be used when collecting facts, (very informal, unstructured approaches to very formal, structured tools)

• Work observation: – identify tasks performed – identify tools employed – establish interactions

between people/systems – produce logs – "day-in-the-life-of"

descriptions – make drawings of

structures/layouts – video recordings – collect samples of tools

used to handle information – perform participant

observation

Getting the problem expressed (2) – Easier said than done

• Interviews: – unstructured, informal

("tell me what you do")

– semi-structured (questionnaire with open-ended answers)

– highly structured (questionnaire with boxes to tick)

– critical incidents

– audio recording

• Workshops and discussion: – future workshops

– review workshops

– conflict resolutions workshops

– mock-ups, simulations, mind-games

Pitfalls during the initial stage of SSM

• Do not narrow the scope of investigation down to early

• Assembling richest picture without imposing a particular structure and solution on problem situation

• People have difficult to interpret the world in the loose way, and often show an over-urgent desire for action

• Not to press the analysis in systems terms at all• Should realize that there will be many possible

versions of the system

Stage 3 ‘developing a root definition’

• A root definition (RD) is formulated by choosing a particular view(s) on the situation and then writing a concise explicit statement which describes the nature of the situation in the language of a system, ‘what the system is’– Explore several possibilities & based on the

perspectives of the main roles in the situation either expressed by the people in the situation or supplied by the analyst

Formulating Root Definition (RD)• Consider CATWOE

– Customer (victim/beneficiary of T)– Actors (who do the T)– Transformation Process (the conversion of

input to output)– Weltanschauung (the worldview, the context of

T that gives meaning)– Owner (who can stop T)– Environmental Constraints (element outside the

system that is given)

Stage 4 ‘building a conceptual model’

• Conceptual model is made of the activities that must exist in the system defined in the RD (root definition)– In what sequence does the activities have to be

done?– How is the information flow needed for

effective activities?

Stage 5 ‘comparison conceptual models with real world’

• The model from stage 4 is compared against the perceptions of what exist in the real world (stage 2)– Are the activities already presence in the real

world? How well have they been done? Why not? Any alternatives way of doing it?

– Questions and challenges the “How” and introducing the new “What”

Stage 6 ‘define desirable and feasible changes’ (1)

• Identify and argue what are the possible changes that can be done by considering the situation in the problem situation and with the given prevailing attitudes and power structures– Should be done as a debate among participants

Stage 6 ‘define desirable and feasible changes’ (2)

• The form of changes can either be:– Procedural Changes, changing how things are

done – the easiest– Structural Changes, changing the organizational

groupings and/or redefining responsibilities– Attitude Changes, changing the influences

structure, learning process, values and norms accepted – the most difficult

Stage 7 ‘action to improve the problem situation’

• Based on the result of stage 6, action is selected and taken

Success in using SSM

• When people in problem situation feel that the situation has been improved or that insight have been gained

Rich pictures (1) – What is

• To provide a model for thinking about the system and to help the analyst to gain an appreciation of the problem situation– Does not attempt to model the system in any

precise way– A representation of how we can look at and

think about the system– Can be refined later as our understanding of the

system becomes clearer

Rich pictures (2) – Shell • A service group in Shell,

manufacturing function (MF), provides services for other group to help them make decision for future development

• The MF think it is time for them to rethink their role and how to make performance better

• Thus, the problem situation is how good our current system is organized and how to evaluate our system performance? Can we do better?

Rich pictures (3) – Shell • Shell's "Rethinking a

service function in the Shell group“– Circle - boundary of

the system– Small circles are

components of the system

– Those outside are the external entities with which the system interacts

Rich pictures (4) – University of California, Irvine

Rich pictures (5) – Characteristics• Artistic & individualistic expressions, no

"right" or "wrong“• Should represent structure, processes and

issues of the organization which could be relevant to the problem definition

• Try to give an impression of the organizational climate

• Each analyst or team will develop their own style of Rich Picture

Rich pictures (6) – Doing it Right (Best Practices)

• Start with people or locations

• Put objects, items or issues or bits of paper and try to group them (or fit them in the structure)

• Issues elicited can be indexed or grouped according to a themes or causes

• Use IT to help

Rich pictures (7) – Analysis• Roles of intervention analysis, deliberately

identifies the issues that people involved in the situation think are problematical

• Social analysis, identifies roles people fill in the organization, norms of behavior people display and values by which their behavior is judged

• Power analysis, concerned with issues such as 'What are the commodities of power in this situation', 'How is the commodity obtained', and 'How is the commodity passed on'

Weltanschauung (the worldview) (1) - Shell

• Shell's MF (manufacturing function) world view of training

Weltanschauung (the worldview) (2) - Shell

• From the eyes of the company executive, two needs are seen:– A need for trained

personnel with manufacturing expertise

– Having this expertise in other functions

Weltanschauung (the worldview) (3) - Shell

• The best way to meet the need was to inject trainees into the normal workflow, training them through real life situations. They come out well trained and can be hired in other functions

Root Definition - Shell• An MF owned and staffed system which, in

response to a continuous need for higher quality personnel for servicing and managing the manufacturing operations of the Shell Group, and a need for manufacturing expertise in other functions, develops and trains people and provides experience in a cost effective manner, within constraints imposed by MF’s carrying out its core tasks as service provider and technology.

The CATWOE analysis - Shell• Consider CATWOE

– Customer – Actors– Transformation

Process– Weltanschauung– Owner– Environmental

Constraints

• C: Those trained, the Company

• A: MF Personnel • T: The need for trained

experienced people is transformed to a fulfilled need

• W: Training can emerge from careful planning of MF work to provide suitable experience

• O: MF • E: MF core tasks

Your Turn: The Case (Environmental)

• Public Involvement in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (1991)– A study is set forward to evaluate how well the

process of resource consents were being carried out from various perspective and what implications of this for public involvement

Resource Management Act (RMA)

• To promote sustainable management of natural and physical resources

• Applications for resource consent that are determined to have significant effects, the public are required by law to be part of the process for decision-making of that consent

Perspectives on EIA Objective

• To achieve more environmentally sensitive development thus can minimized negative effects and maximized positive effects

• To gather information on environmental effects to meet the requirements of planning legislation

The Questions

• Assume you are a member of an expert employed by the DPR in an effort to implement such legislation in Indonesia due to the increase public pressure and the fact that level of pollution is escalating in Jakarta

• Execute Stage 1 and 2 of the SSM to expressed the problem situation