A holistic multi-methodology for sustainable renovation

A review of the barriers for building renovation has revealed a lack of methodologies, which can promote sustainability objectives and assist various stakeholders during the design stage of building renovation/retrofitting projects. The purpose of this paper is to develop a Holistic Multi-methodology for Sustainable Renovation, which aims to deal with complexity of renovation projects. It provides a framework through which to involve the different stakeholders in the design process to improve group learning and group decision-making, and hence make the building renovation design process more robust and efficient. Therefore, the paper discusses the essence of multifaceted barriers in building renovation regarding cultural changes and technological/physical changes. The outcome is a proposal for a multi-methodology framework, which is developed by introducing, evaluating and mixing methods from Soft Systems Methodologies (SSM) with Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). The potential of applying the proposed methodology in renovation projects is demonstrated through a case study

Systemic intervention

This paper describes the practice of systemic intervention, emphasizing (1) the need to explore stakeholder values and boundaries for analysis; (2) responses to the challenges of marginalization processes; and (3) a wide, pluralistic range of methods from the systems literature and beyond to create a flexible and responsive systemic action research practice. After presenting an outline of systemic intervention, the author discusses several other well-tested systems approaches with a view to identifying their potential for further supporting systemic intervention practice, and action research more generally. Two practical examples of systemic intervention are provided to illustrate the arguments

The Work System Method And Soft Systems Methodology – Some Comparisons

This paper provides a brief comparison between Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and the Work System Method (WSM) by S. Alter. The latter is a relatively recent systems approach specifically developed with the needs of the Information Systems field. It focuses on previous criticisms towards SSM and suggests how WSM might compare against them. The insights in the paper might be useful for planning and justifying the use of SSM and WSM in an Information Systems project

A Conceptual Framework For Evaluating An Academic Department: A Systems Approach

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of a conceptual framework for the evaluation of an academic department as a service provider at a university of technology.  A multi-methodological approach using action research, which involved a cyclical process between action and critical reflection, continuous refinement and understanding, was implemented. Critical to the study was the concept of emergence as a consequence of the interactions in the system.  An analysis of systems methodologies and their applicability to evaluation signified a possible complementarity in their strengths with respect to their application in complex situations.  A theoretical contribution of the study involved a unique combination of several existing techniques from different paradigms, which are mutually complementary into one intervention.  Although the techniques and paradigms utilised in the study are not innovative, the combination and application thereof at a relatively new type of university in South Africa is, to the best of our knowledge, original

Unpacking multimethodology: impacts of a community development intervention

Multimethodology interventions are being increasingly employed by operational researchers to cope with the complexity of real-world problems. In keeping with recent calls for more research into the ‘realised’ impacts of multimethodology, we present a detailed account of an intervention to support the planning of business ideas by a management team working in a community development context. Drawing on the rich steam of data gathered during the intervention, we identify a range of cognitive, task and relational impacts experienced by the management team during the intervention. These impacts are the basis for developing a process model that accounts for the personal, social and material changes reported by those involved in the intervention. The model explains how the intervention's analytic and relational capabilities incentivise the interplay of participants’ decision making efforts and integrative behaviours underpinning reported intervention impacts and change. Our findings add much needed empirical case material to enrich further our understanding of the realised impacts of operational research interventions in general, and of multimethodology interventions in particular

Systemic Planning (SP): A Generic Framework for Complex Decision Making

The generic framework for planning and decision support presented in this paper and referred to as systemic planning (SP) is the result of research work carried out by the Decision Modelling Group at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). More specifically, SP theory and methodology development has interchanged with practical application and testing of SP in a number of cases. SP is based on combining and operationalising five different systems thinking approaches: functional, interpretive, emancipatory, post-modern and complexity-oriented that are seen to span current systems thinking. These approaches are behind five formulated modes of enquiry (MOEs) that make up some of the iteratively interwoven steps in a formulated SP process, which is assisted by a study-specific subset of methods. These are selected from a toolbox of seven soft (qualitative) and seven hard (quantitative) operations research (OR) methods. The paper is disposed as follows: After an introduction that outlines the five systems thinking approaches and their MOEs, the paper presents SP in an overview as concerns process and tools and SP as a group proces. Then follows an application example where the potential of SP is demonstrated on the planning of a large transport infrastructure case concerning the Rail Baltica transport project, which is part of the EU’s North Sea - Baltic TEN-T corridor. The case shows how issues around growth and sustainability need to be explicitly considered in the planning of large new transport infrastructure. Finally, following a discussion of the main features of SP, some findings and a perspective are stated

The uses of qualitative data in multimethodology:Developing causal loop diagrams during the coding process

In this research note we describe a method for exploring the creation of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) from the coding trees developed through a grounded theory approach and using computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The theoretical background to the approach is multimethodology, in line with Minger’s description of paradigm crossing and is appropriately situated within the Appreciate and Analyse phases of PSM intervention. The practical use of this method has been explored and three case studies are presented from the domains of organisational change and entrepreneurial studies. The value of this method is twofold; (i) it has the potential to improve dynamic sensibility in the process of qualitative data analysis, and (ii) it can provide a more rigorous approach to developing CLDs in the formation stage of system dynamics modelling. We propose that the further development of this method requires its implementation within CAQDAS packages so that CLD creation, as a precursor to full system dynamics modelling, is contemporaneous with coding and consistent with a bridging strategy of paradigm crossing

Problem structuring: A study on the available methods and their integration and effective proposition for successful interventions

Several critical elements (such as uncertainty, complexity and lack of structure) limit the use of analytical models and methods in problem solving and decision-aid in practice. In an effort to solve these problems, the initial representation or conceptualization of a problem is so crucial to its subsequent treatment that one is tempted to say that the most important as well as most difficult issue underlying the subject of problem solving is precisely ‘how to structure the problem’. The purpose of study is to review concepts related to the problems that require structuring (ill-structured or unstructured problems), the methods that are available in order to deal with these problems (problem structuring methods) and to study the use of these methods in interventions. The research involved creation of a community with the aim of integrating competences on how different methods may be used and integrated to face complex and unstructured decision situations, in order to develop methodological skills that could effectively facilitate the analyst’s work. Each member of this community was involved, at the start in relation to a specific old intervention, in an investigation project, in relation to some cases and their modeling processes, which have been developed in real organizations, by means of a specific technical approach or with the support of a multimethodology with formal tools that propose a limited quantification within a systematic framework. Therefore the operational idea for the investigation was a procedure at two phases, the first for the creation of a knowledge base for the second phase and the second of interaction with the author of the paper that describes an intervention case. The information gathered from the community provided important insights into the problem structuring interventions and the results aim to facilitate the analysts to have an idea about the competences that need to be developed for a successful intervention