Peter Checkland

Peter Checkland (1930 Birmingham, UK) is a British management scientist and professor of Systems at Lancaster University. He is the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM): a methodology based on a way of systems thinking.

Biography

Peter Checkland was born in 1930 in Birmingham, where he attended George Dixon’s Grammar School. In 1954 he received a M.A. degree in chemistry at St John’s College in Oxford, where he graduated with 1st class honours. David Brown, [http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/news/9575/ Peter Checkland honoured by OR Society] , LUMS News 28 January 2007.]

He worked in 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. [http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/news/3343/ Professor Checkland honoured] , LUMS News, 2 June 2004] 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 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Czech University of Economics. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Beale Medal by the OR Society, in recognition of his sustained and significant contribution to the philosophy, theory and practice of operational research.

Work

Checkland became interested in applying systems ideas to messy management problems while working as a manager in industry. His ideas for Soft Systems Methodology emerged from the failure of the application of, what he called, "hard" systems engineering in messy management problems. SSM developed from this continuous cycle of intervention in ill-structured management problems and learning from the results.

Soft Systems is a branch of systems thinking specifically designed for use and application in a variety of real-world contexts. David Brown stated that a key factor in its development was the recognition that purposeful human activity can be modelled systemically. "Rather than SSM models attempting to map the real world – impossible because there are multiple candidates for what counts as the real world in complex situations – the models are devices for learning about the real world. In short, SSM becomes a process of inquiry, a learning system."

Peter Checkland's work has influenced the development of "soft" Operations research, which joins optimisation, mathematical programming and simulation as part of the OR topography.

Systems thinking

Just like R.J. Boland (1985) brought phenomenology in the field of information systems, to critically examine this field of endeavour, raise consciousness, and clarify its path, so has Checkland (1981) done in the field of systems thinking. In so doing, sense-making and the social construction of reality have become central notions in their respective fields. With regard to systems thinking, phenomenology has allowed systems thinkers to understand that systems thinking is not about a reality considered independent from the observer and by interconnected cybernetic processes or elements, or about emergent processes. Rather, systems thinking is about how we attribute meaning to the world and construct the unity of our reality. This is an important lesson Checkland's systems thinking teaches us. [ Jeimy J. Cano (2002), "Critical Reflections on Information Systems: A Systemic Approach", p.52. ]

Literature

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

* 1981, "Systems Thinking, Systems Practice", Wiley [rev 1999 ed]
* 1990, "Soft Systems in Action", Wiley (with Jim Scholes) [rev 1999 ed]
* 1998, "Information, Systems and Information Systems", Wiley (with Sue Holwell)
* 2006, "Learning For Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology, and its use Practitioners, Teachers and Students", Wiley (with John Poulter)

References

External links

* [http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/peter-checkland/ Homepage] Peter Checkland at Lancaster University, UK.
* [http://www.open2.net/systems/practice/pet.html Peter Checkland] introduction by the Open University UK.
* [http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/news/9575/ Peter Checkland honoured by OR Society] , LUMS News 28 January 2007.
* [http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/news/3343/ Professor Checkland honoured] , LUMS News, 2 June 2004.