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We are all of us aware of ourselves as beings in the world, and we are aware also of a very complex world outside ourselves, of which we are a part. Read the first page
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Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The founding work for SSM,
By A Customer
This review is from: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30 Year Retrospective (Paperback)
This book is the primary publication for Soft Systems Methodology. In it, Peter Checkland desrines the rise of systems thinking, and argues the case for the soft systems approach. The methodology is explained, and various considerations which arose through it's use explored. SSM, which has been continuously evolving over the last 25 years, is as relevant to problems in social research, management studies and intervention in social systems as it ever was. I also liked the sequel Soft Systems Methodology in Action.
10 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Academic treatise - not for the new Business Analyst,
By Mr Geoffrey Rose (Bushey Heath, Herts United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30 Year Retrospective (Paperback)
This is not a text book for newcomers to Soft Systems Modelling. Checklanduses a large amount of text to explain the history of the development ofSSM and to explain how other academics have misunderstood some of SSM'sbasic thinking. You will learn little that is not already in Soft SystemsMethodology in Action.Leave this book to the academics that enjoy thecut and thrust of debate and the 'meaning of words'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where it all began...,
By Yuri Kuzyk - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30 Year Retrospective (Paperback)
Well, since I've been on a bit of a 'systems' binge lately, I might as well review this old gem...Checkland's book was the first to introduce the differentiation between 'soft' and 'hard' systems analysis. Soft analysis is much more akin to a general, somewhat philosophical approach to the methodology whereas hard analysis is the development of usable engineering models. First off, this book is actually two books - the first is a fairly long paper that neatly sums up the systems approach over the 30 years it has been explored. The consensus? Things looked really promising at the beginning but unfortunately the approach simply got hung up on the very thing it was trying to escape: science's current preoccupation with reductionism. That is, the hard systems approach attracted the most attention and it quickly succumbed to the very trap it sought to escape starting with its use of rigidly-defined symbols right up to the detailed diddling with mathematical models that, similar to earlier approaches, did not model reality at all due to assumptions and oversimplification. Checkland is much more interested in the soft approach and he consistently laments the fact that systems methodology is not being taught even though it holds so much promise to solving many of our pressing problems. The overview presses this point home and should be required reading for anyone in management or engineering. The second section, the original book with a few revisions, is still very relevant. Checkland's focus, soft systems, never was given a chance given our preoccupation with reductionism. Given the recent failures of reductionism, particularly the genome-mapping fiasco, cast systems theory in new light. Checkland starts out with an excellent overview of the history of science from a (mostly) philosophical perspective. This very readable overview leads directly into his discussion of the history and early development of systems theory. He then focuses on systems methodology (soft systems theory) with some general applications. The approach is very readable and should be easily understood by anyone - in fact, Checkland stresses the importance of having a wide base of knowledge to help solve real-world problems and points out that much work has been done by people who 'migrated' from other fields. Smuts, one of the pioneers, was actually a politician and only wrote a systems book after losing an election... It is unfortunate that there are no references to Robert Rosen here since his work, more of a 'hard' approach to systems theory, fully supports Checkland's ideas. In fact, there is a lot of material that should be included as 'backup' for why the systems approach is important as a new direction away from reductionism. Perlovsky's work in cybernetics, Jopling's recent work on self-knowledge, Prigogine's work in thermodynamics and even Kauffman's attempts in biology now point to hypotheses that are only compatible with a systems methodology. This book, as mentioned above, should be required reading these days. Certainly for anyone contemplating management or engineering it is a very important reference. In fact, the book could basically be used in high-school with a bit of help from Weinberg's systems books. For those looking for more application-specific information I recommend von Bertalanffy's original, Rosen's work, and perhaps a side helping of Weinberg and Gharajedaghi for more ideas. 11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Checkland's masterpiece,
By Luke J. Houghton "Hackademic" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice (Hardcover)
When I first read this book I thought it to be revolutionary, ahead of it's time (as others have) and insightful. Despite the fact that Checkland has in large moved away from the ideas and the model of this book - to me it represents the original vision of SSM (soft systems methodology) more so than his later books. Checkland presents a history of systems thinking in the book then goes onto to discuss the need for a new approach - that of SSM. With extreme elegance of style Checkland delivers a long and stinging critique to Hard Systems thinking and presents a coherent and thoughtful argument for his own version SSM. Further he creates a platform for real world problem solving that is useful and interesting. A lot of his ideas have appeared in American texts (like the fifth discipline for example) and rarely are they credited or made use of in that regard. This book is a good place to start exploring the real world of problems with but I would highly recommended that before you go to his two other books you start here. This in my opinion has not been bettered in any systems context to date and I am not sure it ever will or could be. Having said that you really do need to read it and find out for yourself. Be warned it's not for those who want to be challenged in their thinking - especially those of you who don't like the qualitative stuff.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really worthwhile,
By Zeeshan Hasan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30 Year Retrospective (Paperback)
This book is a gem. The basic concepts of systems, hierarchies and emergent properties are developed from the methodologies of physical and social sciences in chapter 3, and makes for fascinating reading. I'm currently writing a master's thesis on it! =)If you're studying management of information systems or something similar, you are probably sick and tired of overly theoretical approaches to the subject which seem to be just excuses for academics to publish rubbish (eg. structuration, actor network theory, etc). This book may save you from a nervous breakdown. |
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