Analysis Fundamental

Analysis Fundamental
Lecturer: Srihanto A. Nugroho, PhD
0818110898 sanugroho@gmail.com

Reference:
Checkland, P. and Scholes, J., Soft Systems Methodology in Action, -, Wiley, 1999

Assesment
ASSIGNMENT CLASS PARTICIPATION MID TERM EXAM PROJECT FINAL EXAM 20% 10% 20% 20% 30%

Course Outline
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Introduction Systems Hard and Soft System Methodology of SSM SSM in Industry SSM in NHS SSM in Civil Service Part II - SSM Case study 9 10 11 12 Mid term SSM Case study 2 SSM in Org Change SSM in the establishment of Business Center 13 SSM in Shell group 14 Part III - Gathering and Learning the lessons 15 Group Presentation

What is a system ?
System means a grouping of parts that operate together for a common purpose. (Watson, 1994). A system is An assemblage or combination of elements or parts forming a complex or unitary whole, such as a river system or a transportation system; Any assemblage or set of correlated members, such as a system of currency; an ordered and comprehensive assemblage of facts, principles, or doctrines in a particular field of knowledge or thought, such as a system of philosophy; (Random House Dictionary). A system is an entity that maintains its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of its parts. The behavior of systems depends on how the parts are related, rather than on the parts themselves. Therefore you can understand many different systems using the same principles. Each part of the system may influence the whole system, and changes to any part of the system will always have side effects. Joseph OConnor & Ian McDermott, The Art of System Thinking.

Example
Mechanical System
Car: Engine, Transmission, Drive Train (brakes, differentials, tires), Accessories

Electronic System
Computer hardware: CPU, Memory, Peripherals, Power supply, Storage

Operating System

Example
Biological System
Human body: Brain, digestion, respiratory, blood circulation, etc

Environmental System Climate

Studying and Controlling a system

If you wish to understand a system, and so be in a position to predict its behavior, it is necessary to study the system as a whole. Cutting it up into bits for study is likely to destroy the systems connectedness, and hence the system itself. (Sherwood, 2002) If you wish to influence or control the behavior of a system, you must act on the system as a whole. Tweaking it in one place in the hope that nothing will happen in another is doomed to failurethats what connectedness is all about. (Sherwood, 2002).

Viewing a system
Open loop Closed loop
Example:
biological, robotics, human-mechanical (braking a car)

Problematic feedback can lead up to disaster

Soft System Methodology

Hard System vs Soft System Hard systems:
Suitable for problems that can be quantified but not for problems with unquantifiable variables such as opinions, culture and politics and does not take into account complex people motivation. Involve simulations often with computers and the technique of operations research. Do the thing right

Soft Systems:
Developed as a way of dealing with problems that cannot easily be quantified. Soft Systems is useful for understanding motivations, viewpoints and interactions and addressing both qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the situation. Do the right thing

Methodology: Carpenter tools that can be used in different ways to make different tools

Hard System
Hard systems approaches (systems analysis (structured methods), systems engineering, operations research) assume:
Objective reality of systems in the world Well-defined problem to be solved Technical factors foremost Scientific approach to problem-solving An ideal solution

More traditional way of viewing systems in Computing Science

Example of Hardsystem
Example of Hard System A carpenter makes tables and chairs. Each table can be sold for a profit of $30 and each chair for a profit of $10. The carpenter can afford to spend up to 40 hours per week working and takes six hours to make a table and three hours to make a chair. Customer demand requires that he makes at least three times as many chairs as tables. Tables take up four times as much storage space as chairs and there is room for at most four tables each week.

Solution
Variables
xT = number of tables made per week xC = number of chairs made per week

Constraints
total work time
6xT + 3xC <= 40 xC >= 3xT (xC/4) + xT <= 4

customer demand

Storage space
all variables >= 0

Objective
maximise 30xT + 10xC

The graphical representation of the problem is given below and from that we have that the solution lies at the intersection of
(xC/4) + xT = 4 and 6xT + 3xC = 40

Solving these two equations simultaneously we get xC = 10.667, xT = 1.333 and the corresponding profit = USD 146.667

Soft System
Engineering approach can be inappropriate for soft problems (with fuzzy requirements). Soft systems approaches (Soft Systems Methodology) assume:
organisational problems are messy or poorly dened stakeholders interpret problems differently (no objective reality) human factors important creative, intuitive approach to problem-solving outcomes are learning, better understanding, rather than a solution

Soft System Example

Case:
Subscriber Equipment Installation and Maintenance in Pay TV Operation

Concern raised by customers

Installation time is not fast enough Bad aesthetic installation Picture easily disturbed by rain Not punctual appointment Too much additional material -> additional charge Bad manner False promise

Parties involved: Customer, Installers, Sales, Customer Service

Learning Experience

Management situation we worked in were always too complex for straightforward application of system engineering approach. Difficulties in answering these simple questions
What is the system we are concerned with? What are its objectives? was usually a reason why the situation to be regarded as problematical.

Consider the following objectives of

The Common Agricultural Policy
To increase productivity of the agricultural industry, and To safeguard jobs in the industry, and To provide the best possible service to the customer

vs Increase as much as possible the productivity of this phthalic anhydride plant, or Make a device to produce radio waves with a 10 cm wavelength

Which is is more OBJECTIVE?

Objective of the CAP is constantly to maintain and adjust a balance between the three incompatible objectives which is POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE but not for ENGINEERING PURPOSE.

Soft System Methodology

Consider management task Project manager in a company Doctor running clinic Single parent having small children

The manager tries to improve the situation but it is never done because any improvement will create new aspects calling for attention. Yesterday solutions may now be todays problem.
Soft System Methodology tries to address the problems so that managers can cope with their task.

Hard or Soft System?

Design a virtual resource management system where resources are held in staff offices but are made available via a web based interface. Resources will be booked out via the on-line management system which will also send reminders when items are due for return. Identify any obvious requirements via nouns & verbs
Web Based Booking System Users Resources

Expand Requirements Web Based

Web Server - Platform? Web Client - Browser / Applet

Booking System
Flow control Event manager Data Base

Users
Staff Students Administrators

Resources
Books Journals Rooms? CDs?

Analysis
Once we have a proper set of requirements, the next step is the analysis of the problem.
This involves understanding the scope of the problem Identifying the parts in the requirements that will be part of the eventual solution

For example, is the web server component part of our solution?

Connect them together in an appropriate manner

Design
Analysis of the problem indicates what the major components in the system are, it will not tell us how these components work. Design involves
Identification of major component boundaries Decomposition of the major components into smaller semiindependent sub-systems Design of the interfaces between these major components & sub-systems Identification of new components necessary to bridge the gap between objects in the problem domain and the solution domain. Flow of control within the system Flow of data within the system

Implementation and Testing

Implementation - The translation of the Design into Source Code
For each identified component and interface in the design phase, create the source code that will implement it Integration of code components such that they perform as one system

Testing
Check that each element / sub-system /component does what it is required to do by the design Check system meets the requirements specification Check system meets the clients expectations Check system meets the users expectations

Design Example

Hard system or soft system?

Hard System vs Soft System

Hard System Problem has a definite solution They answer the how questions Has a deterministic complexity Likely to have defined parameters for failure Soft System There are many problems to be solved Emphasis is placed on what as well as how Has a unpredictable, nondeterministic, non-definable complexity Less easily dealt with Problem has a number of achievable goals Goals cannot be measured

Organized purposeful action

Human being always attribute meaning to what they observe and experience and they can not abide meaninglessness. Example: Religion. (to answer ultimate questions). Given the creation of an interpreted, not merely an experienced world, we can form INTENTIONS, we can decide to do one thing rather than another based on how we interpret the situations. This is human characteristic. Cuckoos has no intention of purposely surrogating their eggs to other bird, but human has intention in every thing they do. Human being always attributes meaning to their experienced world; and they can then decide to do something and not do others. They can take PURPOSEFUL ACTION in response to their experience world, meaning deliberate, decided, willed actions; whether by individual or group.

Organized purposeful action

Purposeful actions deriving from intentions were also based on knowledge rather than random actions. The most respectful knowledge is scientific investigation. Natural science is unimpeachable but social science is less sure. In social science, repeatable experiments are difficult to achieve. Perhaps what we seek in human affairs is wisdombased knowledge, but wisdom can be biased. The most neutral expression will be experience based knowledge. Since repeatable experiments is difficult to achieve, we place the knowledge acquisition in a cycle -> Figure 1.1.

The experience-action (knowledge acquisition) cycle

Yield

Experience-based knowledge

Leads to

Experience of the world of affairs, public and personal

Purposeful action in relation to our perceived situation

Creates new

System Thinking
Particular kind of language that can be very helpful in understanding and articulating the operating cycle of the Figure 1.1 is SYSTEM THINKING System is a set of elements mutually related such that the set constitutes a whole having properties as an entity. The whole may be able to survive in a changing environment by taking control action in response to shocks from the environment. What is System Thinking? Everything and everyone is interconnected in an infinitely complex network of systems. Systems thinking involves thinking about the connections between parts of a system.

Basic of Soft System Methodology (SSM)

An Emblematic model of purposeful activity F
No!

A Purposeful activity

B Constraints E A is a purposeful activity as expression of the intention of B. C is the one that take the action. The action has an impact to D. E is the constraints to the action. F is a group of people that can stop the action

Cont (example)
A: the purposeful act of you, reading this book B: is you C: you D: you F: someone whom you have borrowed the book and want it back E: The book has to be returned within a week

Principle of the SSM

Principle of the SSM find out about the situation in the real world; select some relevant human activity systems; make models of them; use the model to question the real world situation in a comparison phase; use the debate initiated by the comparison to define purposeful action which would improve the original problem situation.

The Basic Shape Of SSM

Yields Choices of A real-world situation of concern Relevant systems Of purposeful activity

Comparison of models With perceived real situation

Action needed to improve the situation

Summary
Summary: 1. Human being attributes meaning to their perception of the world 2. Those meaning are the interpretations of the world (deriving from experience-base knowledge of the world) 3. The interpretations -> intention -> purposeful action to improve situation 4. Purposeful action when taken changes the world as experienced (1,2,3, 4 is a cycle). 5. The cycle can be expressed and operated by making use of system thinking. 6. SSM does that in a coherent process which it self an enquiring or learning system 7. SSM articulates and operates the learning cycle from MEANING -> INTENTIONS -> PURPOSEFUL ACTION