31247 Chap.3 Systems Thinking and Wicked Problems
Systems Thinking and Wicked Problems
Looking at the whole
Week 2 treats a problem as part of a system: connected parts working towards a shared purpose, with inputs, a process, outputs, a boundary and an environment outside its control.
Describing those parts is the first step to seeing why a fix in one place can fail.
Why the problem is wicked
The same lecture lists the properties that make a problem wicked: it is unique, has no stopping rule, needs iterative formulation, has many causes and effects, and admits only better or worse solutions.
The project depends on choosing a problem that really has them.
From systems to stakeholders
Every input and output of a system belongs to someone, so describing the system also starts the stakeholder list for Chapter 5. The tutorial asks whether climate change fits the wicked-problem properties, and the reading for that tutorial traces the idea to Rittel and Webber’s work on city planning and public policy, where they listed ten properties.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The definition of a system
- 02
Inputs, process and outputs
- 03
Eight system characteristics
- 04
Questions to ask about any system
- 05
The principle of complementarity
- 06
Five properties of a wicked problem
- 07
Tame problems as the contrast
Worked example · free
Describe a library loan service as a system
- 1Purpose and wider system: lending laptops so students can study on campus, inside the library’s wider study-space service.
- 1Inputs: students arriving to borrow, returned laptops, and charging capacity.
- 1Process: booking, checking out, charging and checking returns, carried out by staff and self-service lockers.
- 1Outputs and boundary: laptops on loan and students turned away; students’ own devices sit outside the boundary as part of the environment.
Key terms
- System Boundary
- The line that separates a system from the environment outside it.
- Environment
- Everything outside a system and outside its control that still affects how it performs.
- Tame Problem
- A problem with a clear goal and a solution that can be checked as correct.
Systems Thinking and Wicked Problems FAQ
How do I know if my project problem is wicked?
Test it against the five properties in the Week 2 lecture. It should be unique to its setting, have no point at which it is finished, need repeated reformulation, have several causes and effects, and have solutions that are only better or worse. A problem that fails most of them is probably tame.
Why does the subject teach systems thinking?
Because the problems it studies are complex. Seeing inputs, processes, outputs and feedback helps a team understand why a fix in one place can create a new problem elsewhere, which is a defining feature of wicked problems.
What is the principle of complementarity?
The lecture explains that two perspectives on a complex system reveal truths that are neither fully independent nor fully compatible, and that together they explain more than either does alone. It is one reason the subject insists on collaboration.
Is climate change a wicked problem?
The Week 2 tutorial asks you to judge this, and its reading argues that it is: it has many conflicting inputs and possible outcomes, solutions that create new problems, and no single body able to resolve it. Use the lecture’s five properties to make your own case.
What does a system boundary do in a project?
It separates the part of the world the project will study from the environment outside it. Drawing it clearly tells a reader what the team is responsible for explaining, and what it will treat as given conditions it cannot change.
What questions should I ask about a system?
The Week 2 lecture lists them: why the system exists and which larger system holds it, what enters and leaves it, which parts it has and how they link, and which processes it runs with which parts.
Assessment move
Write your problem as a system on one page: purpose, inputs, process, outputs, boundary and environment. Then check it against the five wicked-problem properties and write one sentence of evidence for each. Discuss the weakest property with your team; if Sia can show you a way the problem has a clear stopping point, consider widening the problem until it does not.
Bring the system page to your tutorial and ask a teammate to point out an input you missed.
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