in problem solving what is used to analyze a hard system

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Systems engineering: Challenging complexity

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3.8 Systems methodologies for managing change: hard systems approach

The stages of the hard systems approach are illustrated in Figure 34 and simplified in Figure 35 . The model shown in these figures was developed by the Open Systems Group from earlier work by de Neufville and Stafford (1974). The stages ‘problem/opportunity’ and ‘implementation’ are shown in solid boxes because they occur in the real world. The other stages are in dashed boxes to indicate that they are thought processes.

Figure 34

For the sake of diagrammatic simplicity, two features of the hard systems approach are missing from Figures 32 and 33 . First, iteration between stages is not shown. The stages of the approach are shown occurring in a logical sequence – this orderliness is the essence of the methodology. Jumping from one stage to another in a haphazard sequence is to be avoided. But there is always the possibility, and in some cases the necessity, of referring back to an earlier stage and then repeating subsequent steps. This iteration can occur for two reasons:

subsequent work has uncovered a mistake in earlier reasoning or an area of uncertainty

something happens in the environment of the investigation that makes previous assumptions invalid.

The second feature missing from the diagram is agreement . After each stage, it is essential that all stakeholders:

agree that the work has been carried out correctly

agree with the aims, content, timescale and people involved in the next stage.

Each stage is described briefly below.

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Hard Systems Thinking

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in problem solving what is used to analyze a hard system

  • Michael C. Jackson 3  

Part of the book series: Contemporary Systems Thinking ((CST))

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At about the same time as Parsons and the general system theorists were perfecting their approaches to gaining understanding of social systems, other groups of systems thinkers were using systems ideas in a much more applied fashion to develop methodologies for problem solving in real-world problem situations. The work of these systems thinkers gave birth to what has come to be known, following Checkland (1978, 1981a), as hard systems thinking. Checkland originally included in this category only systems engineering and systems analysis (this incorporating additionally cost-benefit analysis and planning-programming-budgeting systems). It has become clear, however, that we can add to the list other approaches such as operational research (insofar as it embraces systems ideas at all), decision science, and management cybernetics (distinguished from organizational cybernetics in the next chapter). All these share the basic orientation, identified by Checkland (1978), as “the assumption that the problem task they tackle is to select an efficient means of achieving a known and defined end.”

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Michael C. Jackson

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Jackson, M.C. (1991). Hard Systems Thinking. In: Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences. Contemporary Systems Thinking. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2632-6_4

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