This artefact combines and builds upon theoretical knowledge to describe a real-world instructional situation by looking at its system attributes and environment. Particularly, Checkland's soft systems analysis comprising all 7 Stages, as described in the Naughton (1984) booklet, is applied to a problematic case (also see page 14 in the Artefact 1 file).

I thought an interesting feature of the Checkland methodology is the alternating nature of the analysis. The first phase (Stage 1 and 2) begins in the real world. The second phase (Stage 3 and 4) takes place in the abstract world of systems thinking. The analysis goes back into the real world in the final stages (Stage 5, 6 and 7; see the illustration entitled Method at a Glance). A highlight of the first phase was the rich pictures, which I sketched to illustrate the problem. I also drew a graphical conceptual model at Stage 4 in the second phase (see pages 19 to 25 in the Artefact 1 file). In the soft systems analysis, I constructed a modified rich picture by comparing the real world situation visualized at Stage 2 to the conceptual model of Stage 4. My professor commented¹:

"… you provided a very thorough, interesting and thoughtful analysis …"

and added:

"… My only concern was that you split up your conceptual model into so many pieces. I think it would be difficult to make use of that way. Checkland’s approach of using one or two diagrams is more efficient and concise…"

The complete instructor feedback is included on pages 31 and 32 of the artefact file.

¹:Permission to use this graded assignment as artefact was received by email on 14/10/2010.