Towards computer support of the soft systems methodology: An evaluation of the functionality and usability of an SSM toolkit

In recent years a number of research projects have investigated computer support of the soft systems methodology (SSM). These typically involve the production of prototype computer-based tools supporting some aspects of SSM, although evaluation of these has been unsystematic and anecdotal. There has also been some debate in the literature about whether SSM is amendable to computer support. This paper reports a more systematic investigation of the potential for computer support of SSM and evaluation of the functionality and usability of an SSM support toolkit (SoftCase) developed by one of the authors. Following a brief review of previous research in this area, and the functionality of the SoftCase toolkit, the design of the evaluation and its outcome are described in detail. The paper concludes with a discussion of computer technology to support SSM and some possible directions for evaluating the impact of computer support on the SSM process.