Soft Systems Methodology in Action - Case Study Example

Case Study Introduction Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is a flexible and organized process through which problems are solved through an informative process that ensures there are no remaining tensions or unanswered questions (Williams & Hummelbrunner 2010). The methodology considers contributions by a variety of expert facilitators to be necessary in the process. The application of research is also crucial as researchers may be used as intermediaries, interviewing the relevant individuals and ensuring that every stakeholder gets exposed to various perspectives (Hasan 2013). To make the resulting change effective, there will be need to integrate every form of judgment through viewing every purposeful action as being a part of a system (Siriram 2012). If well applied, the SSM can effectively generate ways of dealing with challenges through the creation of expert groups. This paper discusses two House of Commons reports and how SSM can be applied in addressing the issues raised. The Reports Government & IT - a Recipe for Rip-offs acknowledges the role of Information Technology (IT), but note that even though reasonably embraced, its implementation is still poor. The main challenges in this regard are scarcity of IT skills and too much contracting of services which has opened an opportunity for loss of government funds through exaggerated pricing. Exploitative cartels have come up to exploit this. Bureaucratic procedures are also too long, hence causing inconveniences, and there are cartels that benefit from all this (Ngai, 2012) to deal with the issues, they suggest that there should be proper documentation of information relating to the government’s IT. More information should also be published to enhance accountability and transparency. Small businesses should be given a chance to be government suppliers to avoid manipulation by the few big businesses. Technologies should always be updated and the current outsourcing reduced. It further recommends the availing of more information, proper benchmarking of IT expenditures and re-evaluation of the current suppliers (House of Commons 2011a). The Landscape Report identifies additional challenges to implementation of the ICT objective in governance. Adoption of the strategies is generally not well-received, with much of the goodwill it receives being due to personal networks and persuasion. Delivery has always been slow due to bureaucratic procedures and government bodies tend to prefer their own agendas and those of individuals within them instead of simply being guided by a central policy (Checkland, 2010) The government is therefore not really getting value for money in relation to its investment in ICT. There should therefore be the gathering of more information relating to the new strategy, specifically feedback and evaluations of its online services and shared services. The main ones especially to be evaluated will be Geographical Information Systems in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Business Intelligence Systems at the Ministry of Defense’s logistics operations (House of Commons 2011b). Application of Soft Systems Methodology on the Case Study The issue of information, its production and dissemination is among the main challenges reported in the two documents. According to Adebowale (2011), information is among the most basic resources that will facilitate any planned change process as suggested in the reports. By use of SSM, it will be possible for the government to improve on, if not rebuild its Information systems. This can be done through converting the Information flow models that will have been generated into Information Flow Models which may then be used as sources of information to be used in traditional approaches to Information System design. As an approach, SSM is unique because it seeks to reveal and explicitly deal with world views of the participants, and these are in the case of government institutions definitely extremely varied. The method effectively tries to cope with the variations (MacVaugh, 2010) It further examines the ways in which the worldviews underlie judgments. Dealing with the challenges involves a process of change, and its implementation will involve investigating each of the challenges identified in the two reports and acting appropriately to it. This will be achieved through an explicit process of organized systems thinking (West & Stansfield 2001). The process could start with the organizing of workshops that will bring together all the concerned people. In such forums, everyone should be encouraged to freely air their views, and in so doing express their views on the situation in an unstructured way. They will then be expected to generate a visual picture of what is happening. This may be done by having some kind of connecting lines and drawings on pieces of paper, in this way establishing a map of the challenges and therefore situation on the ground. According to Georgiou (2013), they will then jointly name the human activity systems that relate to the situation. This will help in establishing a shared agreement and understanding about each of the systems being dealt with. The named features will then be tested in accordance with the CATWOE acronym. Adebowale (2011) explains that in the acronym, C stands for customers. This is made up of all the people who will either be assisted or harmed by a given corrective action. A stands for actors, and this includes all the people across departments and institutions that are definitely responsible for making government operations to work as a system. T refers to the transformation process. This is basically identification of the items that the system will need to handle so as to ensure that there is a desired outcome. W is for worldview, here referring to the worldviews of the individuals who are expected to take part in the transformation that is being pursued. O is for owners. This refers to the people who possess some ability to limit or stop the system’s functioning. E is for environmental constraints. This will comprise of the things which are always present and can therefore be considered to be guaranteed. Every definition, in this case referred to as a root definition, will identify the worldview of the person generating it. CATWOE testing will be followed by the generation of conceptual models for each definition generated. The models will have to comprise of purposeful activities viewed as being relevant to identified problems, and the relationships existing between them will be elaborated (Reynolds & Holwell 2010). According to Rouse & Sage (2007), the next step involves dialogue. The debate on the situation will then be structured through a comparison of real-world perceptions with the models. The debate should at this stage indicate possible changes that will enable implementation of a culturally feasible transformation (Liu, W.B. et al,2012)This is with the realization that even organizations have cultures, and therefore people in different agencies or department in government will have to be considered as coming from a unique background. This will be followed by the crafting of an action plan, which will then be handed over to the implementing authorities for activation. In the dialogue phase, the change agent should be seeking broad acceptability of the adjustments that are to be made (Grigg 1997). For instance, in trying to get information on Geographical Information Systems in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the weaknesses that might be noted might not necessarily have been considered to be challenges or rather a priority area of change. When the government eventually decides to make changes, the agent will therefore not be expecting total consensus as a result of the differences in individual perspectives. Because of the fact that some heartfelt issues are likely to remain unresolved here and end up resurfacing later and limiting progress, proper application of SSM will enable the identification of such issues early and factor them in any later information. According to Cameron & Green (2012), the SSM implementer has to at this stage explore all assumptions and the perspectives that influence them, while also trying to find higher-order solutions which will be agreeable to all. In identifying the challenges to be dealt with, the people-dimension of the issue will have to be carefully examined. There can therefore be, first, identification of who the key players within the situation are and their worldviews. In the case of the Ministry of Defence’s Business Information System for instance, the oversight agency seeking to change the situation will have to also identify the practitioner, probably a consultant, and the owners of the issue being changed, here being the specific employees at the Ministry of Defence’s logistics unit. The cultural environment within which the situation is occurring always has to be noted. For instance, in the case of long procedures in procurement as a challenge, everything happens within the public service sector. Changing the situation might be difficult because no one will like to suddenly stop following regulations even if they are tedious. There are also cases where long procedures may have been accepted as being ‘normal’. According to Paton & McCalman (2008), rushing such people or instructing them to change might result in some resistance. Cultural awareness will enable a greater understanding of the people’s worldview. The issue of power relations and politics will have to be evaluated as part of understanding the problem (Cameron & Green 2012). For instance, in dealing with cartels and overpricing of items, it should be known exactly who has the ability to influence decisions and to what extent they might pose a threat to the success of the change process. Those who are to initiate the process in the relevant departments will therefore have to be distinguished from those who are to execute, so as to know who the responsibility is to be allocated to. According to Grigg (1997), the sources of power within the setting will have to be factored in the solution hence need to examine how power is acquired, applied, challenged, delegated or given up. For example, for the challenge of inadequacy of IT skills, there can be the targeting of one government institution or department at a time. The challenge of shortage of skills to maximize IT utilization can be handled through a complete SSM procedure. For instance, a working committee made up of managerial and supervisory staff can meet and try to identify the exact skills that are lacking and find the best way of bridging the skills gap. According to Georgiou (2013), the SSM should then be communicated to every participant, so that they know exactly how things are going to run. A team to lead the training effort will have to be selected. The facilitator of this group will organize meetings that will fully describe the skills problem. They can be allowed to discuss anything else related to their work informally and thereafter identify the systems that will be required to enable impartation of skills to everyone. All ideas will be put together, and participants will then be asked to pick what they consider the most important. These will be examined in detail by use of CATWOE. The team will then be engaged in whole-system modelling for training, and after this, there will be the conceptual modelling of all possible systems. Participants will then be helped to integrate their differing visions on how training can be implemented, and an action plan developed. This will thereafter be used as the basis for organizing and funding of IT training (Hasan 2013). According to Georgiou (2013), any human activity system must come with ways in which performance can be evaluated. Evaluation is always a useful component of system implementation, because it is the means through which a planner checks whether the objectives that it set out to achieve have been achieved or are likely to be attained. The use of the SSM in dealing with the identified problems can therefore be evaluated, and ways of self-regulation created in case the effort is not reaching the desirable performance. According to Rodrigues (2010), the control and monitoring mechanisms in this case can be presented as a conceptual model, while identifying performance measures. In the SSM, this happens through the 3 Es. These represent Efficiency, Efficacy and Effectiveness. Efficiency is defined as the amount of system’s output when compared to the amount of resources that have gone into producing it. The valuation in this case does not necessarily have to be monetary. If the output is significantly justifiable, then the system is considered to have been a worthwhile venture (Acharia & Shankar 2009). In the case of lack of unification towards policy by leaders as identified in the Landscape Report, efficiency may be gauged by the amount of deviation from a well-communicated government IT policy in identified departments after implementation has been done. Measurement can for instance be done by tracking every activity under the cabinet office and comparing it what was done with what is in the central policy. According to Paton & McCalman (2008), efficacy on its part answers the question of whether the system actually works. In this case, the evaluator will be checking whether the transformation that had been expected has been achieved. In this case, efficacy will involve in-depth assessment and reports that will have to be commissioned on a regular three-month basis to see whether the behavior of concerned staff has changed or not. Feedback from clients or members of the public will greatly facilitate this. Effectiveness is a measure of whether the system has helped in the attainment of long-term goals. This is with the assumption that there was a goal that achieving the short-term goal would ultimately assist in accomplishing something greater in the long-run. According to Cameron & Green (2012), goals they help to guide effort and resource allocation. If everyone works towards the same goals therefore, there is the possibility that in the long-run, there will be better coordination and hence greater performance in the organization as a whole. It is not difficult to check whether outcomes indicate progress towards long-term goals, as greater coordination will definitely increase efficiency and efficacy hence better outcomes for the entire department or agency (Melville, 2010). Conclusion Government & IT - a Recipe for Rip-offs and ICT in Government - Landscape Report both identify shortcomings in the implementation of Information technology in various aspects of its functions. They note that although IT is an essential component of governance, its implementation has been characterized by corruption and wastage, inadequate skill, inadequate information, outdated technologies and lack of coordination towards the same goals. Soft Systems Methodology comprises of a good way through which information that is necessary for implementing change can be acquired, and therefore help in the formulation of solutions and their implementation. In it, the situation is studied in a rather unstructured way, and models of the situation are created and these are compared with real life. Effective application of its various stages therefore greatly assist in acquiring situation-sensitive and therefore lasting solutions to governance challenges such as the ones presented in the report. 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