Multiple perspectives on the musings of systems analysts

This paper presents the findings of research in progress on the analysis of project journals undertaken by systems analysts. The investigation is part of a wider research program into the development of a Multiple Perspective framework called T.O.P² (Hillier 2002).
The intention of the T.O.P² framework (pronounced ‘top squared’) is to allow an analyst to consider a broader range of factors relevant to the systems development effort including the technical, organisational, personal and social, while the journal acts as a recording mechanism for those thoughts.
This research seeks to do two things. Firstly, to show that journals can act as a useful recording mechanism for the perspectives gained via the use of the T.O.P² framework and second, that the T.O.P² framework permits retrospective analysis of the journal content, to ‘uncover’ the perspectives present in the musings of the systems analyst. This retrospective analysis can be performed by the analysts themselves at a later time to enhance their own learning or by others with the aim of assisting them to understand the perspectives and assumptions on which the systems development was based.
The author draws evidence from the pedagogical, soft systems, multiple perspectives and systems development literature to explain the basis of the process. The process outlined in this paper takes particular inspiration from Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) (Checkland 1981, Checkland & Scholes 1999) and Mitroff and Linstone’s (1993) T.O.P. The paper outlines the course of this research within the broader context of the research program on T.O.P² and presents some preliminary findings from one stage of the research program.