Problem Structuring Methods: Brief overview with some examples

Planning and management is increasingly problematic in the real-world environment of spiraling change and uncertainty. Knowledge is incomplete, values are in dispute and the decisions of others are often unpredictable. Problem structuring methods (PSMs) are now a fundamental management skill. It is the process of retrieving information from long-term memory and external memory and using it to construct the problem space, i.e. to specify goals, operators and evaluation functions etc. The methods which have …

…next phase was to examine each possible new IT systems in more detail, for which the task force members learned to use SSM. The evaluation of these possible systems was conducted using the 'comparing' mode of the SCA. The final stage involved converting the priority portfolio of systems into a smaller number of larger projects. New systems were developed and introduced over a five year period, and were found to result in substantial, measured benefits.