Systems analysis: exploring the spectrum of diversity
Författare
Redaktör
- Hubert Österle
- Joachim Schelp
- Robert Winter
Summary, in English
Complex problem spaces, such as those addressed by knowledge management or systems analysis projects, call for complex methods of inquiry. A phenomenon in contextual analysis means that there is a need to go beyond consensus and recognized ‘best practice’. As part of a complex method, for contextual analysis, inter-analysis may be conducted, in which individuals explore one another’s perspectives by discussing individually-created narratives. The purpose is not to seek consensus, but to focus on diversity in viewpoints among participants. In this paper, the authors present an approach in which multiple modelling of problem experiences can bring about shifts of perspectives, create new insights and help deepened understandings to emerge. Techniques are presented that support participants to keep an overview of diversity of in-depth inquiries, while not suffocating under information overload due to the large number of narratives. Participants identify clusters of similar/dissimilar narratives in order to limit the number, but not the range of alternative perspectives. The techniques presented are formally described to promote development of decision support systems.
Publiceringsår
2007
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
647-657
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
[Host publication title missing]
Fulltext
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Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag
Förlag
University of St Gallen
Ämne
- Information Systems, Social aspects
Nyckelord
- Multiple Modelling
- Complex Methods
- Narratives
- Systems Analysis
- Emergence
- Contextual dependency
Conference name
15th European Conference on Information Systems, 2007
Conference date
2007-06-07 - 2007-06-09
Conference place
St. Gallen, Switzerland
Status
Published