An Analysis-Form of Soft Systems Methodology for Information Systems Maintenance

Author(s):  
Ivan Ka-Wai Lai ◽  
Joseph M. Mula

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) has been employed to increase the effectiveness of organizational requirement analysis in Information Systems (IS) development in recent years. Various forms of SSM for IS development have been developed and examined in different environments by different researchers. There appears to be little research or application that can be identified of the use of SSM in IS maintenance. The objective of this chapter is to develop a conceptual “analysis-form” of SSM for IS maintenance, so that further research can be undertaken in the application of this conceptual model.

Any organization needs information technologies (IT) to attain efficient process and make effective decisions. The main discussion of this study is focused on IT as a reason of change in an organization. Besides providing a definition for information systems (IS), this chapter aims at explaining soft systems methodology (SSM) as an IS development methodology. Considering seven elements of philosophy, model, techniques and tools, scope, output, practice, and product, it clarified the SSM position in other methodologies. In this concern, it revealed the main concern of using SSM in the development of information systems (i.e., meeting the real needs of the organization through generating meaningful information based on the available data) as represented in five case studies of SSM in IT-related organizational change.


10.28945/2779 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho-Leung Tsoi

Business Information Systems education-such as majoring in Business Computing, E-Commerce and Business Computing, and Information Systems--is the basic foundation of all Information Systems professionals. So good planning of these programmes is an indispensable element in the development of computing disciplines. The traditional ways of planning an education programme are mainly based on understanding the goals and including appropriate teaching modules to fulfil the requirements. The major drawback of this development methodology is that the importance of different (though relevant) modules in the development process may be undermined. For instance, human and environmental factors are fundamental to planning an education programme and must be taken into account. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is a well-known model for information system design. This paper proposes to see an education programme as a system and adopts the soft systems concept to represent the design of the programme. Based on the soft systems concept, a new methodology, named Soft Systems Programme Planning Methodology (SSPPM), for programme planning is proposed to support designing and planning a new postsecondary programme. The SSPPM not only considers all relevant facets, but it also helps the school management to clarify the connectivity of the elements in the design of a programme.


2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-192
Author(s):  
Simon Bell ◽  
Gilroy Coleman ◽  
Jian Qiang Guo ◽  
Martin Sewell

Developing Information Systems is a process fraught with danger and often resulting in failure. Failure rates now run at 80% and there is no sign of decline [16,17,18,20,21,30,31,35,36,40]. If Information Systems (IS) projects are high risk even in industrialised societies, then projects in developing countries and newly emerging economies are even more prone to failure. Putting IS projects together with the developing economies would appear to be a recipe for disaster but this paper describes an IS project developed between the UK and China which has got to beta testing stage and shows early signs of success. The paper describes the process whereby the project was developed, the methodology applied and the problems and difficulties encountered. Taking as its point of reference the autumn 1999 review mission, the paper describes the situation for the Feasibility and Appraisal Information System (FAIS) at that time and draws out some policy and methodology learning issues relevant to others planning IS in similar contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-581
Author(s):  
Rahmat Fadhil ◽  
Zuraida Hanum ◽  
Muhammad Yunus

Cow/buffalo-business insurance (AUTS/K) is a form of risk mitigation for livestock businesses run by farmers. Various risks that are often occurred include livestock death, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and livestock theft. If not handled properly, it can threaten the sustainability of this business, especially the small-scale livestock-business sector. This study aimed to formulate a developing system of cattle/buffalo-livestock insurance using the soft-systems methodology (SSM) approach. This research was conducted in Aceh Province from December 2020 to February 2021 using an expert survey by collecting data and information through parties who have competence or expertise in the field being studied. The development of this insurance system can be said to be an effort to improve and a solution to any problems currently being experienced in the implementation of AUTS/K. The result of improvements includes optimizing the roles of each party involved and program innovation to intensify AUTS/K products among breeders. The results showed that the SSM approach could describe the problem well and form a conceptual model for the AUTS/K system in Aceh province. Improvements to policies, assistance, and promotion systems are recommended as solutions to the problems related to livestock-insurance system implemented.   Keywords: breeders, conceptual model, insurance system, soft-systems methodology, syariah insurance


Author(s):  
Hajer Kefi

In this article, we use soft systems methodology and complexity modeling to build an evaluation approach of a data warehouse implemented in a leading European financial institution. This approach consists in building a theoretical model to be used as a purposeful observation lens, producing a clear picture of the problematic situation under study and aimed at providing knowledge to prescribe corrective actions.


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