Week 10 – Applying Soft Systems Analysis to the SkillEd scenario: rich picture and CATWOE

Rich picture:

Due to the system crash, I finally found my blog back, where I made up the draft of the rich picture, this is not the final product, but it should not be too bad. Thanks for class talking between Lars and my group members, and then I got this draft.

CATWOE Model 

C = CUSTOMERS OR CLIENTS
A = ACTORS OR AGENTS
T = TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
W =WELTANSCHAUUNG or WORLD VIEW
O = OWNERS
E = ENVIRONMENT

C: The ‘customers of the system’ , clients or System Beneficiaries. In this context ‘customers’ means those who are on the receiving end of whatever it is that the system does. Is it clear from your definition of “C” as to who are the beneficiaries of the system?

A: The ‘actors’, meaning those who would actually carry out the activities envisaged in the notional system being defined. Actors transform inputs into outputs.

T: The ‘transformation process’. What does the system do to the inputs to convert them into the outputs?

W: Weltanschauung – The ‘world view’ that lies behind the Root Definition; the perspective from which the Root Definition if formulated. Putting the system into its wider context can highlight the consequences of the overall system. For example the system may be in place to assist in making the world environmentally safer, and the consequences of system failure could be significant pollution.

O: The ‘owner(s)’ – The person(s) who has commissioned the system and who has sufficient formal power over the system to stop it existing if they so wished (though they won’t usually want to do this).

E: The ‘environmental constraints’. These include things such as ethical limits, regulations, financial constraints, resource limitations, limits set by terms of reference, and so on.

(Karve, 2010)

Root definition:

The first step in Soft Systems Methodology ( SSM ) is to formulate the Root Definition of the System you are studying, analysing or designing.

A Root Definition is a structured description of a system. It is a clear statement of activities which take place (or might take place) in the organisation being studied. (Karve, 2010)

A properly structured root definition comprises three elements:

A System to do X, by (means of) Y, in order to achieve Z.

X – What the System does
Y – How it does it
Z – Why it is being done

The ‘what’ is the immediate aim of the system,
The ‘how’ is the means of achieving that aim,
The ‘why’ is the longer term aim of the purposeful activity.

(Karve, 2010)

All of the above is quoted from the Internet because I don’t know too much about the root definition. When I quoted this information, I tried to combine my understanding and information to apply to this scenario.

The system was developed to spread knowledge. The audience is people in remote areas (Gana), as well as people who have been poisoned by war.
This system is different from the traditional way of education. This system is not restricted by the Internet, which means that the Skilled platform can be offline. All knowledge can be downloaded in advance and extracted when you need it.
The Gana’s government needs knowledge to change their current dilemma, so it is a hit with ERIC, which has this idea, and technology changes life.

Reference:

Karve, V. W. (2010, October 18). ROOT DEFINITION & CATWOE MODEL – Ethics Based Soft Systems Approach. Retrieved 4 June 2019, from http://karvediat.blogspot.com/2010/10/root-definition-catwoe-model-ethics.html

Week9 – Skilled presentation, Erik

Erik had a presentation about SkillEd, describing his operation and coordination with other elements in the system.

SkillEd is a development-oriented knowledge sharing platform that can be provided to people in remote areas. It differs from traditional educational methods and is not restricted by the Internet, which means that the Skilled platform can be offline. Through this platform, some agricultural knowledge, business knowledge and medical knowledge can be quickly and widely disseminated. The tool used can be a mobile device, but at least the network needs to download the platform. By creating new high-quality technologies, changing the boundaries of knowledge dissemination, and making the user audience more broad, such as covering children in poor areas, to achieve the spread and spread of knowledge. You can use the interactive feature to send a message or picture, just like WeChat, when the device is connected to the network again, the background will send the message in time.

For some reason, I didn’t capture all the key points and I can only do this simple narrative.

Week 8 – Presentation

Introduction of ZumeSoft

In 2008, Zumeforms began a simple task of creating a platform that automates paper forms and documents. Because automating paper forms and documents is a very expensive and time-consuming process, many people can’t afford this cost, and it requires professional maintenance and technical support. The new platform was built to allow novices to use the platform to publish some complex forms and documents online.(‘About Us – ZumeForms’, 2019)

What are they doing at Zumesoft?

They use agile development and run their business with agile development. For example, he explains the goals of their products (for what they need to develop) and the total development time (2 weeks) for product submissions. Only a two-week cycle to complete the task and complete what the customer wants, this is what the waterfall model can’t do.

How are they doing it?

Because it only takes 2 weeks to complete the task and complete the product that the customer wants. So he detailed the two parts of the task, 70% of the planned time and 30% of the unplanned time. That is, the development is completed within 70% of the two weeks, and 30% of the two weeks are used to test the product, in order to detect and improve the final product (there is no perfect product, the product may have loopholes).

Why do they do it this way?

Due to the short time required by customers to complete the product, this means that the development time period must also be shortened. Under the same conditions, agile development is more suitable for this short development cycle. Use agile development to solve problems that may arise at each stage and solve the problem plan through the next development cycle. Compared to other software development under the same conditions, agile development can systematically process a large number of files, thereby saving a lot of time and labour consumption, and enabling the development team to provide customers with the best products.

Reference:

About Us – ZumeForms. (2019, May 12). Retrieved 12 May 2019, from http://zumeforms.com/about-us/