User experience design thinking – an exercise

Design thinking brings structure and a systematic process to envision options for a predictable and prescriptive journey with insights and recommendations on any endeavor for various stakeholders. 

It works and is effective as there are established and popular design methods to capture the needs and translate them into actionable items. 

In the book,101 Design Methods, Prof Vijay Kumar discusses example design projects and methods used to arrive at optimal design solutions. 

I summarize below the themes and methods discussed in chapter 6 (Frame solutions) methods. 

While sensing the needs can be the seed for new and innovative solutions, not all solutions are viable. A framework to connect the concepts, envision the value for the user and the provider is the foundation for the design to materialize into feasible action. 

Changes in perceived value with possible new solutions must be understood. The effects of the changes on various stakeholders due to the new design and changed value must be clearly stated and communicated. The language for clearly communicating the intent to translate the insights to products or experiences is rooted in design thinking and methods. 

Connecting Concepts - Morphological synthesis comes to rescue here. For example, under the theme of user experiences, several ideas or concepts can be connected to arrive at new solutions or systems. 

The main concepts can be broken down into smaller components. Contextual interaction is a core concept in the journey of a tech savvy customer/ user for the business. Preparing for the journey, finding the customer, connecting with the customer in various avenues and following up to make the match for the needs of the customer can be the main categories in the user experience journey. These categories can be organized in the form of a table to start with. Several related concepts can be listed for each of the categories. Elaborate the solutions with descriptions to evaluate further. 

Rate the concepts for evaluating further, show the value flow for stakeholders. Foresight scenarios are built to facilitate discussion and focus to the process.

The solutions can be arrived at combining the concepts from each of these categories balancing business and customer needs.

Prepare	Find	Connect	Follow up

Demonstrating value to stakeholders with the new solutions is the purpose behind this exercise.
Several such design thinking exercises can be taken up.

In order to explore the impact and convey the new insights for stakeholders I found the HBR article “Elements of Value” very useful. 

Remember the Maslov model for the hierarchy of needs you studied in psychology in high school? In this article, the author adopts this basic model to today's businesses for fulfilling their customers' needs and desires. Know your customer enough that you address his needs rather than promote impossible to attain goals (and probably the business' goals). In the global business - the developing countries customers and their conceptual framework of benefits and risks are different from those of advanced countries. Businesses addressing several elements of value (services?) achieve loyal customers. Companies can strategically and gradually introduce services balancing the emotional and functional benefits to their consumers. 

Prof Kumar shows how organizing the stakeholders as nodes in a network diagram, indicate how the elements of value flow among stakeholders. 

Envision

On digital customer engagement:

 The objective is to create user experiences, create value at every step, and compete on customer journeys.

Contextual interaction is one of the powerful concepts discussed in the article - "Competing on customer journeys".
As a business, you take your customers' journeys into your hands shaping their journeys and experiences at a very personal level. A tech savvy customer is already ahead of the journey, his insights about his purchasing power can overturn any business if not vigilant. 

Several examples are discussed in this article. Find how Loreal goes a step further, beyond recommendations. It lets its customers try on makeup virtually. 

Think about how proactive businesses are expanding their Apps - for example, Starwood hotels check-in experiences, Delta (any) airlines app - the  travel management tool for the users are some of the examples.  

The article goes further in discussing the customer journey management and experience management roles for an organization.  

Here, I must mention a related, earlier HBR article - "The Truth about customer experience". In this article, the authors urge businesses to make efforts to address broader perspectives and root causes of a customer call by engaging in deeper quests by creating feedback loops of interactions. The quest depends on how far the business is willing to go on whether to invest in transformational customer experiences or to address some glaring problems on the outset. 

References:

Kumar, Vijay. 101 Design Methods:  A Structured Approach for driving innovation in your organization; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Almquist, E., Senior, J., & Bloch, N. (2016). The Elements of Value. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 94(9),

46–92. 

Rawson, A., Duncan, E., & Jones, C. (2013). The Truth about Customer Experience. Harvard Business

Review, 91(9), 90–98.

Edelman Marc, D. C. (2015). Competing on Customer Journeys. Harvard Business Review, 93(11), 88–7.

Accelerated Digital Daily Routines

More of the daily habits for many are going digital..  There is no doubt, Moore's law for computing, Metcalf'e's law on connectivity are showing their effect on people! 

The examples are just glimpses into how things are changing forming a digital universe, how one's personal wake up and sleep routines, belongings, home, surroundings are changing.

Where are we in terms of this digital universe where things can communicate with each other? 

Sensors, RFID tags are enabling one way communication and are setting themselves up for two way/ multi sided communication. The magic of devices talking to devices to run the household or a business supply chain network managing itself is not far off!

What could be the benefits and challenges of inter connectivity for societies - philosophically, realistically?

Digital learner centered environment in Education

Learner centered environments

Role of technologies is growing for knowledge management, self and team organization, process and project management, communication and several of the social media as informal learning tools. The facilitator facilitates the learner to self learn and collaborate, participates in all these areas on the side as a guide.

The “one tablet per child”, “AkashTablet” initiatives are indicating how important it is to learn by doing – especially using technologies. Standards are key to conformity.  Encouraging entrepreneurial mindset is to break the conformity where change is much needed.

Khan Academy is one of the many ventures that is changing the way children do homework and classwork. NIIT Delhi’s Mitra’s experiments with educating children with no formal background in the subject, Nicholas Negropante (one laptop per child initiatives of MIT Media Lab), Hans Rosling ( his famous global population bubble map, experiments with statistics are changing the way statistics can be taught using massive data of the world) are just a few ventures happening.

 The MIT opencourseware is useful as a “go to place” for searching and finding how experts in the field think on the subject you are exploring. I registered with Coursera to find out more about how a topic like Entrepreneurship is being taught in other universities. How to learn, how to incorporate such great, high quality, freely available resources in the curriculum is becoming a challenge for the educators.

Glimpses into Emerging Trends - power of the smart phone

Glimpses into Emerging trends – power of the smart phone

Activities with mobile phone is becoming part of daily life for many.

Accessing the phone for the daily activities could start from browsing the social media networks, watching for weather and news, email, traffic conditions and maps, playing games, listening to music and searching for places and things.

The smart phone is clearly taking over even the tablet.

This raises questions as to how to utilize the power of the smart phone in business.

Consider the Moble, Apps, Cloud  infrastructure for a small business.

 

Mobile – has the potential to integrate everything to do with the traditional media - all that is necessary to ship and deliver your products.

Apps don’t require software license, they connect people and business processes to wherever you are. It does n’t matter where the worker is, the technology comes in handy to manage the workflow connecting with colleagues, customers, suppliers.

Think Apps such as skype, Square, Quickbooks, Desk.com, Google Translate.

Try doing an internet search – “small business apps” for more insights on this topic.

Cloud digital storage, pay as you go approach are popular with small businesses for transmitting files and documents. These new ways are forcing businesses to rethink how to conduct business. Concerns of fraud, privacy and security issues are prevalent, requiring caution. 

Reference:

Delaney, Laurel J.( © 2013). Exporting: the definitive guide to selling abroad profitably

Chapter 9: The Mobile World at Work

Cliché Advice to the entrepreneur

The opportunities to take on new ventures happen to anyone who is open to evaluate and identify the potential to grow the idea. School projects, ideas and needs in and around the neighborhood, voices  and concerns of consumers and customers,  people in news are just some of the sources for  opportunities. An entrepreneurial mind assesses the benefits and risks carefully and takes the first step to progress with what he/ she believes it as an opportunity.

Opportunity analysis, business plan development and implementation keep the process going. The progress with the initial phases starts to demand more resources from the individuals involved. It is during this time that the doubts arise about seeing through the process towards the finish line. However, the finish line is really not an end of the project. It is just the beginning of the next step. Addressing the issues that gave rise to the doubts is key to progress with enthusiasm. Friends and family, collaborative teams play a crucial role in keeping the rhythm of the process to progress.

I like to treat a business venture (or for that matter any project) as a science experiment. Study, method, discipline and documentation go a long way to give the necessary support for any venture to progress. While it appears to take time on the onset, the preparation culture brings about a maturity to handle tough problems, and take up unforeseen challenges more naturally. No project or problem will appear chaotic to the disciplined individual.  

Google experienced an astounding growth in the very first year that Larry Page and Sergey Brin joined hands to work on the search engine they teamed up at School. This story may be unique to talk about, but the opportunity for a search engine to grow at the rate Google did is filling a need at that time – with the assets on the Internet waiting to be found.

Consider the Yelp app. I am not bringing up Yelp to compare it with Google. Yelp is a specialized service in the search arena. Yelp is a handy app on your mobile phone, to use it for a very specific purpose. You just search for a restaurant at the middle of a new city you are touring around. You get the restaurant list beckoning you to pick your choice and have a good evening.

A search engine like Google is working in the background for Yelp. You get the point – don’t mix up the timings – Yelp is what you need today – but you can’t get to it without the Search engine in the background. Sometimes, one may be too way ahead of  ideas to make them happen in reality. Hence, the study, method, analysis, people to support.

Entrepreneur in a nutshell

Entrepreneur in a nutshell:

How do entrepreneurs think and behave?

I find entrepreneurs have a great discipline to pursue what they take up. Think Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates for Microsoft, how they started and built their “Accidental Empires”.  They take up what matters and leave the rest. They don’t get on to every bandwagon just to keep their presence felt. They are alert, focused and understand what the emerging trends are in the area of their interest. They are also innovative to come up with something new which can even be a breakthrough and disruptive.

They act on their thoughts and adapt quickly with the feedback they consider valuable.  They create and enable work opportunities for many in their domain.

Think Internet. How many ways is Internet used to breed new business models, find new approaches to solve old problems? Think how portable computing (mobile phones) are used to make a difference in the lives of many as well as for new opportunities in businesses.

Reference:

Accidental Empires: Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date Paperback – September 13, 1996

by Robert X. Cringely  (Author)

McGrath, Rita Gunther & MacMillan, Ian. ( © 2000). The entrepreneurial mindset:

 strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty

Feedback

Accepting and giving feedback is viewed as a measure to reflect on the growth as well as the strengths and weaknesses in an organization. The purpose of feedback remains the same although new approaches and means to collect information and data about the person's performance increased over the years.

Feedback process has undergone transformation from keeping a record of the employee's performance for the year (aka performance review) a one on one contract for performance to a 360 degree viewpoint observing interactions, work ethics of the person on the job over a period of time.
Feedback in both virtual and real world situations is not very different. Tracking and observing the performance online is much easier in a given setting, especially a classroom.

As long as all these measures work towards the progress of the organization and the individual, everything is taken in the lighter spirit of things. It is an enjoyable and encouraging conversation, with much to look forward to whether it is cash or comfort. Friction arises when feedback process is used as a means for any other purpose where the emotional, behavioral and several other relationship dimensions figure in the process beyond the tolerance levels of the individuals involved.

In order to get work done, anyone undergoes certain amount of pleasure and pain along with said and unsaid motivations and brickbats. While every piece of work may not result in praise and recognition, taking criticism is not usually welcome even though it is well intended. Underlying theme for criticism should be constructive towards achieving the work ahead and nothing else. Unfortunately, people dynamics vary in every situation. Feedback of peers or superiors varies to some extent on their own perceptions and understanding at a given point of time.

I doubt if  collecting more data along with involving more people in soliciting feedback material helps the person's growth or the health of the organization. When feedback promises are not kept or followed up from either side focusing on the purpose of feedback, it is just a piece of paper to be cherished or put aside by the individuals. Healthy organizations must invest time in allowance for deeper insights with the motivations and talent of the individual. Compromises made are tolerable until the tension and stretch are in balance for the greater good of the individual and the organization. Otherwise, the process can lead to leaks and breaks.

It is up to the individual to keep it in perspective that the feedback has its due place and value. To use it for constructive growth for one's own sake is always beneficial. Key to this is to be able to put aside the obstacles and barriers of words and deeds that happen as part of the process.

References:

Heen, S., & Stone, D. (2014). Find the Coaching in Criticism. Harvard Business Review, 92(1/2), 108-111.

 

Open to possibilities with an "abundance" perspective

The key to growth of societies anywhere in the world has been adapting to new trends and innovative technologies. This is the theme of the book Abundance by Diamandis and Kotler. The journey is about the past, present and possible future on a wide range of needs and issues for the survival as well as progress of mankind. It is also about a viewpoint that keeps sanity and allows to lay foundations for dreams far beyond the daily grind for the average spectator (and commenter) of current state of affairs of the world.

The authors assure the reader that even though there is pessimism on the surface, there is more to celebrate for! The challenge is about "seeing the forest through the trees" (title of chapter three). It lays the path for how to think beyond and better on whatever might be happening around. The book lets the grownups view the world through the lens of “youthful spirit". It is a catalyst to dust off negative thinking due to the uncertainties people face in day to day lives, and act on issues that matter.

Part III of the book is about the basics of survival as anyone learns in elementary school - clean and clear water to drink and food and shelter for everyone of the world. The difference is about the stories told by the authors such as the one about Ethos (bottled water project) and how a McKinsey consultant made great strides of progress to bring water and sanitation to several people in South Africa.

People can look forward to as well as be prepared for exponential growth in every walk of life. Supercomputing, cloud computing, AI, and natural language processing seem to be yet another set of alphabet soup to the consumer of today's technologies on the surface. Imagine the convergence of these technologies with the personalization and localization privileges that mobile devices get - the stories of possibilities can go beyond current debates on health care and experiences. The advances with accurate medical diagnosis and increase in life spans with the help of cheap and affordable medical data products ranging from x-ray machines to the DNA detection are just an introduction to the topics to think on healthcare. The future of education has endless possibilities with technologies. In the chapter, the authors cover Khan Academy,  Mitra's granny cloud and provide glimpses into the possibilities. Grand vision of quality education on a massive scale to create generations of enthusiastic learners for life seems to be possible with all the necessary ingredients.

The authors have given due importance to the "Dangers of the exponentials", a chapter in the Appendix. The grave dangers in every area are touched upon which include what we hear in the news often on cyber crime, bioterrorism, unemployment due to advancement of technologies. The emphasis of the book is on abundance. This perspective makes it different than the style adopted by Scott Snyder in "The new world of wireless" where the positive and negative scenarios are discussed side by side, stressing the need to make the right choices.

On a personal note, I come from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Osman Ali Khan was the last Nizam of Hyderabad. He established the Osmania University as well as the several monuments and museums of Hyderabad. Every day the tourists of Hyderabad start off their visit to the College of Arts, Osmania University. When the tourist guide explains the greatness of Hyderabad, we are reminded that this last king was the wealthiest man of the world in 1937 (according to the Times magazine) and that he gave away considerable portions of his wealth back to his city (city of the people, since 1947).  It caught my attention in the book on the perspective of the authors that he gave away a major portion of his wealth to his city which is local. I could see how the authors connected with their extensive research spanning over a long period of time when I read this and found how the paragraphs that followed, lead to Bill Gates. Gates decided to fight for vaccines and his impact is certainly global. It is more than just global. The ways of the fight for vaccines is what made a huge difference. This is just an example of the reach of "technophilanthropists" (chapter 11) the authors want us to remember and appreciate how far we have come as mankind in distributing wealth and the types of charity that is happening around us.

A note on the references - most of the sources are from worldwide, large scale organizations such as United Nations (UNDP, WHO, FAO), governments and universities as expected. There are also graphs retrieved from blogs, Wikipedia and Hans Rosling's Gapminder - reminding us that it is both big and small that contribute towards knowledge and growth. My vote goes to Moore's law  projected over the next century showing the exponential growth of computing. This is one of the several graphs that the authors refer to from Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near.

My favorite topics have always centered on data and information. Whether it is about Data Science or Data journalism there is much to look forward to and expect in all walks of life with the help of data transformed to information that allows us to visualize at a glance the greatness around us with the help of technologies. In my view, this is the spiritual (high order thinking) approach to be taken by everyone to enjoy and participate in the "abundance" around us. This is a history book retold and is a "how to develop thinking and action that matters" book for everyone. I follow the news on technology developments and understand that we are at cross roads, not sure of which direction things take shape with technologies, say in the next decade or two decades. No single perspective resolves the matters that are of concern and affairs of the world today. However, recognizing that it takes preparation to assimilate good news and maintain a positive outlook for long term is as important as it is to handle the daily routines. Desire to find the center of gravity amid chaos and confusion is important. This book serves the purpose.

Analytical or holistic thinking?

Breaking the system into its constituent parts and understanding how they behave is the basis for analytical  thinking. The drawback in this is that the behavior of parts is different by themselves and it is not identical when it is put together as a whole.

With holistic thinking, the system is understood in a larger context about breaking down into its constituent parts. This is the basis for understanding how the system behaves as a whole and why it behaves so. 

Both the thinking skills are required to understanding the system as a whole to make informed decisions.  Why?

Conflicts that arise with multiple viewpoints and priorities can be effectively resolved with holistic thinking. The manager/ professional would be able to appreciate one's own portion of work and still not loose holistic insight into a situation. Such a professional will be able to contribute working in teams as well as effectively lead teams.

Points to ponder:

What kind of thinking helps execution overcoming obstacles when decisions are made?

Are revisions to decisions a hindrance to execution?  

How do different approaches to thinking affect in the short and long term?

What is the effect of different ways of thinking in technology related (change is often and constant) management and decision making?

Reference:
Cultivating systemic thinking in the next generation of business leaders

Thinking

One of the most fundamental responsibilities of an aspiring professional is thinking with preparation.

Preparation is about a genuine quest with inquiry, research, writing, story telling, achieving clarity at the minimum. There is more to the list of traits that allow sound preparation.

Some of them are:
- understanding the tone and culture of people one interacts with,
- questioning critically and systematically,
- dealing with riks, challenges, uncertainty and beliefs,
- dealing with change and being flexible understanding the influences of bias and heuristics
- being able to dream and visualise.

Points to ponder:

Is the curriculum at the high school, undergraduate level adequately preparing students emphasising the importance of thinking? Does the preparation from schools enable growth of self sufficient professionals?

Does the early training at organizations provide the building blocks for thinking thru situations that are specific to the organizations for new hires?

A must read for anyone interested in building researching skills with systematic thinking avoiding common pitfalls is the book titled "The craft of Research" by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams.

Years of Experience versus Figuring out issues

It is quite normal for a novice to think that experience and knowledge of issues can lead to less time spent on "figuring out issues". However, a true confession from an experienced and matured professional from the industry would be quite the opposite. He/ she would not advocate this argument as a rule of thumb. The reason is quite simple. The experience and maturity warns the seasoned professional about several inherent risks involved in adopting the seemingly simple solution, possible conflicting interests of the stakeholders and many issues which never surface at a meeting table most of the times. It is an accepted practice that the value that a professional gets to the table is seen on the outcomes and not on his/ her fears of adopting the solution.

Yet, not everything should be seen from a negative angle here. Fortunately, things are happening for the better for novice professionals. Knowledge is not confined to the walls of the organizations or institutions they may be working in. Several resources, opinions and experiences can be found on the web.

References can be searched in some standard order of preference.

a) look for open projects/ community models / wikis for further information.

b) look for SEI/ computer society/ other peer reviewed literature/ technical reports

c) look for case studies from information shared from organizations

d) personal/ organizational experiences

Developers usually need not build debugging tools from scratch. They too can benefit from the research and references and options and choices in tools available. They can use agile methodologies as a natural approach to thinking deeper. Extreme programming techniques are proven methodologies for keeping the deeper levels of debugging and thinking focused in the right direction. They are helpful in "figuring out grey areas".

Once issues are figured out, experiences can be documented, preserved and used for future references and researh as a best practice.

Figuring out Issues & Systems Analysis

Systems thinking and analysis comes in handy while figuring out issues.

Take an example of designing a Security solution for an Information system. Let's assume it is an architectural task for now.

For starters, the architect is expected to analyse what the task is about and figure out how to resolve the issue on hand.

What are the objectives of the task, what are the inputs, outputs, who are interested (stakeholders) in this, what are their requirements, why is the task important to the stakeholders, what is the knowledge required to accomplish the tasks, what components of the Information System could address this are just a few of the high level questions facing the architect. Questions seeking answers go deeper and deeper depending on the knowledge and experience of the architect.

Then the architect will have to compare and contrast the pros and cons of possible solutions. Elimination of risky options and adoption of optimal solutions is the goal of the knowledge activities here. This process can go on to any level of depth desired. The security solution development has a life cycle very closely tied to the Information Systems development life cycle.

Taking it to the code level is a transition that the architect could continue with or leave it for others to fill in. Either way, analysing the issue on hand to deeper levels continues. Several design and development methodologies will have to be adopted. Fitting in with existing software, developing the solution, testing the implementation and then refining for acceptance by the stakeholders are the major steps usually seen as a developer's work areas. Analysing at every stage, researching and reflecting on the right solution requires deep thinking with the right approaches.

I am sure IS professionals have these experiences from time to time.


Points to ponder:

1. How would the right approaches occur at the first instant to a professional?

2. How many trials and errors will get the solution seeker be confident that the solution is in the right direction?

3. Is the time spent on deeper analysis and thinking considered as a "waste of time" for achieving fast cycles?

Feasibility study

Evaluating the feasibility of the Information system under consideration is critical. It is usually done during the analysis phase of the SDLC.
A Feasibility study is a thorough analysis of the technical, operational, economic, schedule and legal issues related to the proposed Information system. Possible risks and failures can be addressed and planned for pro-actively with the help of a feasibility study.

A technical feasibility study is usually the first to be undertaken. The input of stakeholders (customers, technology/ engineering subject matter experts, users and the analysts at a minimum) based on their familiarity with the application is the number one consideration here. Issues such as whether the company has sufficient expertise in the technology to be used and whether to build or buy the technologies are addressed during this study.

Operational feasibility is about acceptance of the system by both internal and external customers if built. Stakeholder analysis is the way to go to conduct this study. This is usually undertaken as a final step in the feasibility study. Understanding organizational politics, championing the cause of the system, overcoming obstacles are all part of this study.

Cost and benefit analysis, return on investment comprise the economic feasibility area.

Determining how long it will take to build the system, what resources will be required and training users and developers to meet the needs of the system comprise the schedule feasibility at a minimum.

Legal, ethical and social issues get quite tricky when dealing with global distributed systems or even systems operating in different states.

Probing into the areas described in the paragraphs above can help determine whether to GO or not with the system under consideration. Any systems analysis and design course material provides information in this area.

Figuring out issues

Information Systems professionals are expected to figure out grey areas before and during resolving issues. It is not far from reality that the level of expectation is a grey area too!

The IS professionals are expected to resolve all issues in a professional manner by handling them themselves if appropriate, discussing with a colleage or in a meeting, assembling in a group to work on it etc to ensure that the requirements of the project they are working on are met.
However, it does not mean things are clear and issues are transparent. Individuals and teams overcome several obstacles before resolving issues.

The focus of this post is to view the expectation as an area of concern. The intention is to look into the possibilities of streamlining the process of "figuring out" to help novice and even experienced professionals when dealing with yet another grey area.

All this depends on the type of tasks and the depth of information to figure out. Project Leaders, decision makers, project task schedulers , developers, teachers and students - everyone experiences this issue of "figuring out". There are no exceptions! Every area in the Information Systems field requires time and considerable thought before any implementation can be started. If anyone is struggling to "figure out", it is rather a norm than an exception. Yet, everyone expects others to "figure out" and resolve issues like magic!

Points to ponder:

1. Does "figuring out an issue" depend on the experience and knowledge of the professional?

2. Is it possible to lose the big picture when figuring out deeper level code related issues? Can it be avoided?

3. Is documenting the "figuring out experiences" useful?

4. How are best practices shared in this area?

5. How do individuals or teams overcome obstacles during the "figuring out" times?

6. What is an effective process to follow for "figuring out issues"?

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving#Characteristics_of_difficult_problems

Information Systems Thinking

It is useful and meaningful to view anything under this world as a "system". Any system has a source or input. There is some processing with the input to produce an output. Feedback loop is the mechanism to ensure corrections that enables a dynamic system which evolves and changes with some variable.

Any computer information system is dynamic and falls under this umbrella. Complex Information systems are often systems of systems. Consider software products and applications used in the daily work as Systems of systems.

Computer Systems components consist of input, output, process and feedback loop.

I used to see it as an idea borrowed from the classic engineering control theory [Reference 1]. That was when I was still a student of engineering. The more I started to think, nature, economics or any complex system adheres to the systems approach. It helps analyse any system with this approach. System is a very powerful word - we can't afford to underestimate its potential.

There are just two or three very powerful analytical tools that come in handy for the Information Systems professional in addition to Systems thinking. I would place modeling, feasibility study and proposal writing and critical thinking on the same pedastal as Systems thinking. These are the foundations necessary for any aspiring professional in this industry.

A model is the language to describe the system. Feasibility study explains the need and enables a justified basis to build the system. Critical thinking allows one to question systematically with seriousness to understand the scope, barriers and the potential of the system.



The references below are not complete. They will certainly help to get started on the seemingly simple words used in this blog.

References:

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_model

3. http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.html

4. http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/what_is_uml.htm

5. http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=26807

6. http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/business/startingbusiness/feasibilitystudyoutline.htm

7. http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?CategoryID=68&endnav=1