Linking SSM with VSM for Information System Management

Abstract

Wilson (1990) describes a number of years spent grappling with the problem of defining and designing what we commonly refer to now as “information systems”. Strictly speaking of course since both “information” and “system” are intellectual constructs we can’t really build a physical “information system”. This linguistic tantalogical nicety doesn’t stop us trying however and therein lies the focus of our difficulties in managing the process. But more of that later. Wilson has described the systems movement as rather like an extensive flat country with the odd isolated hill. Now it seems to this observer that within this ‘country’ there are two particularly high points of especial significance. These are Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and Peter Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). This paper describes one way in which these too high points can be linked to facilitate the management of information systems. the very idea of linking a methodology with a model may seem perverse but it is hoped that what follows will justify such a link and provide a rationale for it.