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M21804: ADSYS 2023-24; Assessment Brief [100% coursework portfolio / project; ~4000 words]

The assessment in ADSYS is a Research Based Project consisting of a portfolio of parts. All ADSYS submissions should have your name and student ID *in the actual submission*. The overall project document [all submitted parts] *must* follow the same academic standard and instructions as your final year project / dissertation. Recommended word count excludes figures, models, templates, references and appendices. In ADSYS submissions are not penalized if work is over the recommended word count [but be sensible].

FOCUS for 2023 is Step 2d [Knowledge Management] AND 8c [Conclusion of Job Satisfaction Needs]: *The Steps* [from the Sociotechnical Toolbox].

THEME for 2023 is integrating lessons learnt from critical reflection of Chat GPT downsides: To create a method based on Step 2d and 8c; drawing upon SSM techniques and ideas to support Soft Systems Thinking; explicitly incorporating critique regarding issues and downsides of Chat-GPT and similar tools. The method is intended to provide Support for a competitive Knowledge Management practice that is grounded in the organization / business and their local work-system and needs. The purpose is to create a method intended to help people to organizational excellence while explicitly helping change agents [systems analysts and participants] to overcome and avoid hard systems thinking.

Submission deadlines: [please note that these dates are preliminary and there could be changes to them due to administrative reasons]

The ADSYS Project portfolio has stepwise submission. Submission 1 [part 1 & 2] and submission 2 [part 3]; and is marked after the final part of the project portfolio is submitted.

Submission 1 [part 1 Wikipedia Notes & part 2 Methodology]: 17^th November, 2023]

Project Part 1 [compulsory, ~ 50 words]: Wikipedia notes

Your Wikipedia notes should be approximately 50 - 100 words in total, be based on the area that you personally are given as reference and evidence of them being on relevant Wikipedia page need to be included in the submission. You are asked to revise and develop one comment / statement and make a meaningful and appropriate contribution on the relevant Wikipedia page. Mainly your contribution should be saying something appropriate, complementary and fitting to the existing content of the page.

Project Part 2 [~1900 words]: Methodology Portfolio - ADSYS Analysis and Design.

You are required to develop a Method [including requirement specification]. The method you develop is expected to have a small number of steps, and each step is expected to have a template [similar to those in the Sociotechnical Toolbox], each of your steps has to have a justification, description and come with instructions for how to use it. Additionally, it is necessary to include examples of your own content in your own templates. The content in your templates could be based ideas taken from your own second year BSYS project, or your work experiences. All example content should be fully created by yourself [not copied and pasted from other sources]. This demonstrates that you understand your own method.

The method you develop should fulfil your own Requirement Specification (one-page document, which you should have done at the start of the module). Your method must be based on *the steps 2d and 8c* [as mentioned above from the Sociotechnical toolbox] and further developed drawing upon best practices, ideas and techniques from SSM. You should develop your own small method with a small number of steps [three to five steps are expected, detailed instructions, guidelines and advice are in supporting documentation].

You *must* use at least one of the recommended books by Peter Checkland as main source for all references and citations [must have page numbers] and discussions about SSM. You must also select and use some of the texts given to you on Moodle as sources for references regarding all aspects of your project [for example stakeholder analysis, systems thinking, knowledge management etc.]. Texts and references which have not explicitly been recommended to you in the ADSYS module, or given in instructions are not acceptable to be used *instead* of those on Moodle, or recommended books.

You must incorporate explicitly into your method critical insight and reflections on downsides and issues with ChatGPT drawing upon your research and lessons learnt. All issues and pitfalls mentioned must be appropriately referenced and exemplified. For ChatGPT issues and downsides you should use your own references based on your own research.

Must have [minimum to cope with this subject]:

1. Sociotechnical Toolbox, by Peter Bednar: you have been given a copy of this in your second year. If you do not have this anymore there is a pdf version on Moodle available for you to download.

2. Book on SSM by Peter Checkland: There are two possible to choose between which are equally useful and anyone of these will be good. [a] Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. [b] Soft Systems Methodology in Action. These books will help you to understand what SSM is. It does not matter if it is an older edition of any of these two books. The main difference between an older edition is that newer versions include a 30-year retrospective as introduction. If you get an older edition, do not worry as the retrospective is available separately on Moodle (not the rest of the book).

3. Your own Wikipedia statement: Read and use your designated statement for your revised Wikipedia statements as reference.

Should have [on top of must have - to help with appropriate understanding beyond the bare minimum in the subject]:

1. Information, Systems and Information Systems. By Peter Checkland and Sue Holwell. This is a useful book if you have studied and understood the basics of what SSM is about based on your reading of one of the books mentioned above. This book will help you to understand what makes SSM great.

2. You should refer to relevant points made by Enid Mumford, reference explicitly with citations and page numbers from articles available via Moodle.

3. Systematically go through the available texts on ADSYS Moodle and carefully study at least 4 of them and try to explicitly integrate your insights from them in your method [as references].

4. Use your own Wikipedia contribution [with the appropriate references which you have explicitly been asked to use], in your own method description.

Can have [on top of should have - to help with sophisticated understanding when aiming for excellence in the topic]

1. The Manager’s Guide to Systems Practice, by Frank Stowell and Christine Welch. There are three chapters from this book available on Moodle as taster – but not the whole book. The whole book is very helpful to study if you wish to develop excellence in your understanding of the subject. It is not very meaningful to read this book until you have read at least one of the books by Peter Checkland.

2. Carefully read a selection of the texts made available to you on ADSYS Moodle and explicitly integrate what you learnt from them in your Method.

3. It is not OK to have unsolicited references as replacement for any of those recommended without explicit permission. Only recommended references and those available on Moodle should be used.

Submission 2 [part 3a Evaluation and part 3b & 3c Peer Review]: 8^th January, 2024.

Project Part 3 [~2000 words]: Evaluation Portfolio - ADSYS Evaluation Project:

This Evaluation Portfolio consists of two sections.

Project Part 3a [~1800 words]: Method Evaluation - Section [a] is to formally evaluate your own method. For this purpose, you have to explicitly use the framework for evaluation of methodologies as described in the book by Avison and Fitzgerald.

Project Part 3b & 3c [~200-300 words]: Peer Review - Section [b] is to review two methods submitted by two other students to the submission system in Moodle. All students who submit their method on Moodle will have access to all other submissions [after they have submitted their own]. Briefly look at a number of submissions and choose two that are good. One should be an excellent submission that you think looks really great, the second should be a good submission that fulfils the general guidelines but with weaknesses and flaws. Do not choose a weak submission or one which clearly has not been done according to guidelines and instructions. Each review should explain what the main weaknesses are with the submission and make explicit suggestions for how the work could have been done better. Both reviews are expected to fit on one page together. Remember to reference the work you are reviewing and give examples to substantiate your points. Also check the peer submissions’ Wikipedia contribution, reflect and comment with examples on the quality and relevance. Remember to critically reflect upon how issues and weaknesses with the use of ChatGPT have been made explicit and how this could have been better integrated with the method.

Must have [to cover the bare minimum]

1. You must review two other good student work which you have downloaded from Moodle. This review should highlight weaknesses and have suggestions for how it could be done better.

2. You must use the evaluation framework from the Avison and Fitzgerald book [Information Systems Development, either 3^rd or 4^th edition], to formally evaluate your own method. The framework for evaluation is described in chapter 28 in their book.

Should have [on top of must have - to help with appropriate understanding beyond the bare minimum in the subject]:

1. Information Systems Development, by Avison and Fitzgerald; It is a good idea to read and critically reflect also on the content of chapter 27 in the book by Avison and Fitzgerald.

2. Sociotechnical Toolbox, by Peter Bednar; This is useful text to help you develop a fuller understanding of the topic and context for your method and therefore a more meaningful evaluation.

3. Book describing SSM by Peter Checkland; clearly useful when evaluating multiple aspects and weaknesses of your own method.

4. Some of the texts and references [that you choose yourself] from ADSYS Moodle [3-4 are recommended]; useful to expand your evaluation perspective.

Can have [on top of should have - to help with sophisticated understanding when aiming for excellence in the topic]

1. The Manager’s Guide to Systems Practice, by Frank Stowell and Christine Welch. There are three chapters from this book available on Moodle as taster – but not the whole book. The whole book is very helpful to study if you wish to develop excellence in your understanding of the subject. It is not very meaningful to read this book until you have read at least one of the books by Peter Checkland.

2. Carefully read extra texts [more than four] out of those that are made available to you on ADSYS Moodle and explicitly integrate what you learnt from the additional references in your Evaluation. Remember to use citations with page numbers.

3. It is allowed to add any number of references and sources from Moodle as add-ons to extend the scope of your references – but it is not OK to have unsolicited references as replacement for any of those recommended. The only exception are references directly related to the theme this year [ChatGPT downsides], these are to be based on your own personal research.