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 20%– CLASS PARTICIPATION 10%– MID TERM EXAM 20%– PROJECT 20%– FINAL EXAM 30%

Course Outline

1 Introduction2 Systems3 Hard and Soft System4 Methodology of SSM5 SSM in Industry6 SSM in NHS7 SSM in Civil Service8 Part II - SSM Case

study

9 Mid term10 SSM Case study 211 SSM in Org Change12 SSM in the

establishment of Business Center

13 SSM in Shell group14 Part III - Gathering and

Learning the lessons15 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 O’Connor & 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 system’s 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 failure—that’s 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 MethodologyHard 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

– customer demand• xC >= 3xT

– Storage space• (xC/4) + xT <= 4

– 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 defined– 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 today’s 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 semi-

independent 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 SystemHard System Soft System

Problem has a definite solution There are many ‘problems’ to be solved

Problem has a number of achievable goals Goals cannot be measured

They answer the ‘how’ questions Emphasis is placed on ‘what’ as well as ‘how’

Has a deterministic complexity Has a unpredictable, nondeterministic,non-definable complexity

Likely to have defined parameters for failure

Less easily dealt with

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 “wisdom-based 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

Experience of the world of affairs, public and personal

Experience-basedknowledge

Purposeful action in relation to our

perceived situation

Yield Leads to

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)

APurposefulactivity

No!F

C

B

D

Constraints EA 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

An Emblematic model of purposeful activity

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

A real-world situation of

concern

YieldsChoices of

Relevant systemsOf purposeful activity

Comparison of modelsWith perceived real situation

Action needed to improve the situation

SummarySummary:1. Human being attributes meaning to their perception of the world2. Those meaning are the interpretations of the world (deriving from

experience-base knowledge of the world)3. The interpretations -> intention -> purposeful action to improve situation4. 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 system7. SSM articulates and operates the learning cycle from MEANING ->

INTENTIONS -> PURPOSEFUL ACTION