Peter Checkland

Last updated

Peter Checkland (born 18 December 1930, in Birmingham, UK) is a British management scientist and emeritus professor of systems at Lancaster University. He is the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM): a methodology based on a way of systems thinking systems practice. Systems practice is the idea of uncovering an optimal solution within complex environments, thus leading to a thorough understanding of the system, analysing and adapting to change in the environment. In an important way his work preceded data science and change management disciplines in the next century. [1]

Contents

Biography

Checkland attended George Dixon's Grammar School, and in 1954 received a M.A. degree in chemistry at St John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with 1st class honours. [2]

He worked in the industry for 15 years as a manager in ICI's chemicals business. At the end of the 1960s he joined the pioneering department of Systems Engineering at Lancaster University, where he became professor of Systems. At Lancaster he led a programme of action research. This research team developed a new way of tackling problem situations faced by managers – Soft Systems Methodology. The SSM approach is now used and taught worldwide. [3] Since the 1990s he is Professor Emeritus of Systems in Lancaster University Management School.

Peter Checkland worked on the editorial board of journals such as European Journal of Information Systems; the International Journal of Information Management; the International Journal of General Systems; the Systems Practice; and the Systems Research journal.

In 1986 Peter Checkland was president of the Society for General Systems Research, now International Society for the Systems Sciences. In May 1996 he was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.[ citation needed ] In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Economics, Prague. [3] In 2007 he was awarded the Beale Medal by the OR Society, in recognition of his sustained and significant contribution to the philosophy, theory and practice of operational research. [2] In 2008 he received the INCOSE Pioneer Award.

See also

Publications

Checkland wrote four books on Soft Systems Methodology and several articles and papers:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems engineering</span> Interdisciplinary field of engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to organize this body of knowledge. The individual outcome of such efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of components that work in synergy to collectively perform a useful function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems science</span> Study of the nature of systems

Systems science, also referred to as systems research, or, simply, systems, is an interdisciplinary field concerned with understanding systems—from simple to complex—in nature, society, cognition, engineering, technology and science itself. The field is diverse, spanning the formal, natural, social, and applied sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell L. Ackoff</span> American organizational theorist, consultant and management scientist

Russell Lincoln Ackoff was an American organizational theorist, consultant, and Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ackoff was a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science.

Soft systems methodology (SSM) is an approach to organizational process modelling and it can be used both for general problem solving and in the management of change. It was developed in England by academics at the Lancaster University Systems Department through a ten-year action research program.

Peter Whittle was a mathematician and statistician from New Zealand, working in the fields of stochastic nets, optimal control, time series analysis, stochastic optimisation and stochastic dynamics. From 1967 to 1994, he was the Churchill Professor of Mathematics for Operational Research at the University of Cambridge.

A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning. Systems are the subjects of study of systems theory and other systems sciences.

Gerard de Zeeuw is a Dutch scientist and Emeritus professor Mathematical modelling of complex social systems at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is known for his work on the theory and practice of action research, particularly on the "Problems of increasing competence", "Second order organisational research" and "Three phases of science: A methodological exploration".

Kyoichi Jim Kijima is a Japanese systems scientist and professor of Decision Systems Science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Michael Christopher Jackson OBE is a British systems scientist, consultant and Emeritus Professor of Management Systems and former Dean of Hull University Business School, known for his work in the field of systems thinking and management.

Brian Wilson is a British systems scientist and honorary professor at Cardiff University, known for his development of soft systems methodology (SSM) and enterprise modelling.

Robert Louis (Bob) Flood is British organizational scientist, former Professor of Management Sciences at the University of Hull, specialized in applied systemic thinking, particularly in the areas of strategic management, organizational behavior and organizational improvement.

Critical systems thinking (CST) is a systems thinking multimethodology that seeks to combine methods and practices from various systems thinking schools, such as system dynamics, soft systems methodology, hard systems, sociotechnical system, and others, into a problem situation to better understand and design interventions to address the needs of stakeholders.

Logico-linguistic modeling is a method for building knowledge-based systems with a learning capability using conceptual models from soft systems methodology, modal predicate logic, and logic programming languages such as Prolog.

Systems-oriented design (S.O.D.) uses system thinking in order to capture the complexity of systems addressed in design practice. The main mission of S.O.D. is to build the designers' own interpretation and implementation of systems thinking. S.O.D. aims at enabling systems thinking to fully benefit from design thinking and practice, and design thinking and practice to fully benefit from systems thinking. S.O.D. addresses design for human activity systems, and can be applied to any kind of design problem ranging from product design and interaction design, through architecture to decision making processes and policy design.

Gerald Robert Midgley is a British organizational theorist, professor of systems thinking, director of the Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull, and past president (2013-2014) of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. He is known for his work on "Systemic Intervention;" which he defined as "purposeful action by an agent to create change in relation to reflection upon boundaries."

Nigel Cross is a British academic, a design researcher and educator, Emeritus Professor of Design Studies at The Open University, United Kingdom, where he was responsible for developing the first distance-learning courses in design in the early 1970s. He was an editor of the journal Design Studies since its inception in 1979 and is now Emeritus Editor in Chief. Cross helped clarify and develop the concept of design thinking related to the development of design as an academic discipline. He is one of the key people of the Design Research Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Beven</span>

Keith John Beven is a British hydrologist and distinguished Emeritus Professor in Hydrology at Lancaster University. According to Lancaster University he is the most highly cited hydrologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Problem structuring methods</span>

Problem structuring methods (PSMs) are a group of techniques used to model or to map the nature or structure of a situation or state of affairs that some people want to change. PSMs are usually used by a group of people in collaboration to create a consensus about, or at least to facilitate negotiations about, what needs to change. Some widely adopted PSMs include soft systems methodology, the strategic choice approach, and strategic options development and analysis (SODA).

References

  1. ↑ Checkland, Peter (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Wiley. p. 16.
  2. 1 2 David Brown, Peter Checkland honoured by OR Society Archived 18 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine , LUMS News 28 January 2007.
  3. 1 2 Professor Checkland honoured Archived 18 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine , LUMS News, 2 June 2004
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.