The task
This assignment involves the completion of comparison and discussion on various hard and soft business system analysis and design methodologies in an organizational context. The purpose is to enable students to demonstrate their understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies, when and in what circumstances, these methodologies should be adopted. You can use the case study (Clinical Healthcare Inc.) which we used for assignments 1 & 3 as an example. This will require a critical analysis of established and emerging perspectives in the literature, and a synthesis which explains the current and likely emergent scenario for system thinking. It will also require both in-depth research using a range of resources (mainly, but not necessarily secondary in nature) and careful reflection of the findings.
You should do the following:
1. Read and summarize the key points of the following paper. You can find the full text via Swinburne database system:
Bednar, P & Sadok, M 2015. 'A Socio-technical toolbox for business systems analysis and design'. 1st International Workshop on Socio-Technical Perspective in IS Development (STPIS 2015), Stockholm, Sweden, June 9, 2015, In S. Kowalski, P. Bednar, & I. Bider (Eds.), Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1374, pp. 29-31). CEUR.
2. You should summarizing methodologies we covered each week (from week 4).
3. Critique each of these business systems analysis and design methodologies in the context of an evolving organizational environments. To complete this task you should:
a. Provide a brief summary of what hard and soft system thinking means, and how to define hard and soft system problems/issues;
b. Discuss how each methodology relates to solving hard or soft system problems/issues. To do this, you need to firstly read all relevant learning materials, then conduct a search to identify some relevant papers. You should list strengths and weaknesses of each methodology and discuss in which kind of situations these methodologies can be adopted.
c. You should link to the case we used in assignments 1 & 3 and discuss which methodology or methodologies are best suited for the case situation.
d. You should also link back to the above paper, the points made in the paper and provide some of your thoughts.
4. Select the most relevant resources to complete the assignment.
Present the review paper with suitable findings in standard academic format.