Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology in Relation to Construction Projects - Essay Example

Tayyab et al (2005) identify that construction projects face challenges that cannot be underestimated due to safety, competition and complexities. This is because the failure of a construction project can potentially lead to unimaginable fatalities that can have far-reaching effects on human lives. Secondly, competition in the building industry requires that all the stakeholders in a given project are satisfied otherwise there would be consequences for a construction company. Additionally, the harmonization of standards around the globe and the desire for high standards by various stakeholders in the world today require critical satisfaction of customer demands.

            Traditional approaches to the management of project systems that are focused on operations and technicalities are therefore not good enough any more (Tayyab et al, 2005). There is the need to satisfy all the needs of the various stakeholders to ensure that a construction project meets its objectives and does so very well.             Soft Systems Methodology ensures that purposeful and deliberate action is undertaken to understand and upgrade the knowledge of the contractors to ensure that the construction project at hand is completed according to the demands of various stakeholders.

The CATWOE model enables all the various stakeholder needs and demands to be put into perspective and honour them as the project is being undertaken.             SSM provides a holistic situation that allow construction project managers to incorporate all needs of the relevant stakeholders in a logical and consistent structure. This ensures that no one is left out in the construction project and ensure that the project proceeds in a logical fashion that yields the support and connection of all the relevant stakeholders in the project.

            Additionally, the incorporation of a world view (weltanschauung) enables contractors to use international and global standards to fashion a given project. SSM therefore ensures that projects come out with features that can be compared to other projects all over the world. This ensures that the project managers and all the stakeholders get a final deliverable that can match similar projects around the world. Again, the use of global standards ensures that tried and tested systems, tools and techniques are used in the project.

This in itself presents SSM as a system with inherent quality assurance structures that ensures that projects come out with high quality.             Another important merit of SSM is that it is a tool for planning in a construction project. This is because through SSM, the various demands and requests for improvements at the various stage of a project can always be identified and assessed for feasibility. This ensures that demands are realistically assessed and where they are not feasible, affected stakeholders can understand why their needs are not incorporated and then appropriate action can be taken before things get out of hand.