System Thinking

“Systems Thinking is at the foundation of the traditional approach to systems development. A deep knowledge of systems thinking is critical to the building of good information systems which are not only technically sound but which also meets the needs of the business.” Explain what is systems thinking, then discuss why you agree or disagree with this statement.

Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing whole. That is, it focuses on the whole, not parts, of a complex system. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static ‘snap shots.’ Basically, systems thinking helps a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events in the system.

Systems thinking has a number of concepts, principles, tools and techniques. One of the most important principles of systems thinking is feedback.

The heart of Systems thinking is the principal of interconnectedness. Systems thinking enables individuals or an organization to study and understand interaction between individuals, departments, or business units within an organization. These elements, in turn, produce behaviors that feed back into the overall output and processes of the organization.

I would disagree with the statement

Traditional approach focuses on the separating the individual pieces of what is being studied. Systems thinking, in contrast, focuses on how the thing being studied interacts with the other constituents of the system—a set of elements that interact to produce behavior—of which it is a part. This means that instead of isolating smaller and smaller parts of the system being studied, systems thinking works by expanding its view to take into account larger and larger numbers of interactions as an issue is being studied. This results in sometimes strikingly different conclusions than those generated by...