Systems Thinking

1. Systems Thinking • Why it matters to human factors • Why it’s hard • Strategies for supporting it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGxNyaXfJsA

2. But first… • What is a system? • What is systems thinking?

3. A system is a collection of parts that interact with each other to function as a whole. - Draper Kauffman, Jr.

4. “Systems thinking is a unique perspective…that sharpens our awareness of wholes and how the parts within those wholes interrelate. A systems thinker knows how systems fit into the larger context of day-to-day life, how they behave, and how to manage them. Systems thinking recognizes circular causation, where a variable is both the cause and the effect of another and recognizes the primacy of interrelationships and non-linear and organic thinking—a way of thinking where the primacy of the whole is acknowledged.” - INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook 3.1, p. 2.1

5. - Draper Kauffman’s Rule of Thumb #7 By Alex Couture, U of Michigan

7. Why Systems Thinking Matters to Human Factors • We want engineers to be systems thinkers so they’ll treat the human as part of the system. • HF should have a significant role in system development. • We need to be systems thinkers and consider the broader implications of our design recommendations. • “Every solution creates new problems.” • Draper Kauffman’s Rule of Thumb #18

8. “It is entirely possible to do an outstanding job of micro ergonomically designing…yet fail to reach relevant system effectiveness goals or criteria because of inattention to the macroergonomics design of the system.” - Hal Hendrick, 1991

9. Systems Thinking Goes Against Our Tendency to Simplify • We divide complex things into pieces. • We describe complex nonlinear processes as linear steps. • We try to describe abstract things using concrete analogies. • We overgeneralize and ignore the context. • Fundamental Attribution Bias • Goguen’s criticism of software system development • Even when “systems thinking”, we tend to focus on the parts instead of on the whole and the ways the parts come together to create the whole. • The whole is greater than the sum of the parts!

10. We distortthings so they match our expectations and views.

11. Goguen’s criticism of software engineering Experience shows that many failures are due to a mismatch between the social and technical aspects of a supposed solution. It is understandable that software engineering has been biased towards a formal view of engineering, because computer programs… and this is what software engineers are trained to deal with, as opposed to relatively messy social situations. But we now know that ignoring the situated, social aspect of information can be fatal in designing and building software systems. Goguen 1999, Tossing algebraic flowers down the great divide, p. 97

12. Strategies in Human Factors • Research strategies for minimizing influence of bias (coming later in semester) • Frameworks for specifying categories of factors to consider • Analysis tools for laying out system elements, their relationships, and influences • Your own cognizance and attention to the problem of “reductionism”

13. Vicente and Rasmussen’sAbstraction Hierarchy

14. Abstraction-Decomposition Analysis Levels of Decomposition  Levels of Abstraction 

15. http://cmapskm.ihmc.us/rid=1103742096094_1471347763_7963/Local%20Forecasting%20Knowledge.cmaphttp://cmapskm.ihmc.us/rid=1103742096094_1471347763_7963/Local%20Forecasting%20Knowledge.cmap

16. Organization Technology and Tools Person Tasks Environment Looking at the entire system…(Smith & Carayon-Sainfort, 1989; Carayon & Smith, 2000)

17. Balance Theory of Job Design Organization Purposes Policies Procedures Reward Structure Supervision Environment Physical Social Cultural Political Person Attributes Needs Skills Motivations Intelligence Knowledge Tools/Technology Functions, Capabilities Capacities Usability Friendliness Integration Tasks (Activities) Content Difficulty Control Demands Interrelationships

19. Strategies in S ystems Development • System Architecting • Costing • System Development Management • a brief history • Your own cognizance and attention to the problem of reductionism.

21. Factors Affecting Systems Development By ArjunVijayanarayananan

22. Once upon a time….

25. Back Up Slides

26. Balance Theory of Job Design - Carayon & Smith, 2000 Organizational Group Permeable boundaries work systems Macro-level issues Structure Strategy Rewards People Processes change Micro-level factors Tradeoffs among elements; Positives should counter the negatives Tasks The Individual Tools & Technologies Physical & Social Environments Organizational Conditions