Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology, and Its Use Practitioners, Teachers and Students [Paperback]

Features:

· Short and definitive account of SSM containing the practical essentials.

· Written with great clarity and presented in a reader–friendly way.

· Contains examples of SSM in action.

· Includes cases.

Peter Checkland and John Poulter now present a concise, crystal–clear and definitive account of SSM written for anyone who wishes to use, teach, or learn about it. This account also corrects the misunderstandings about the SSM approach, which plague its secondary literature.

Learning for Action first provides an overview of SSM and its use, then gives a detailed account of the techniques used within it. It also crisply summarizes many accounts of SSM in action in real situations in both private and public sectors, using the pattern: the situation; the use of SSM; outcomes, with references given to more detailed accounts.

Also covered are the craft skills which practitioners develop, the theory underlying SSM, and the fundamental shift in thinking away from the systems approaches of the 1960s which its development signalled – namely the transition from ′hard′ to ′soft′ systems thinking.

John Poulter is a practitioner of SSM. He first used SSM formally when working with Peter Checkland in the UK′s National Health Service in 1993. A founder member of the Soft Systems Research Group, he has presented papers and other publications on the use of SSM.