In the initial stage of developing a complex system, each interest group sees the system according to its own requirement which is a reflection of its mission, experience, standpoint, and so force. The fragmental pieces of the system's picture, so to speak, held by the interest groups must be brought together to yield a harmonized comprehensive view to be commonly owned by the whole interest groups of the system through mutual enlitenment, cooperation and discussion in order to resolve the system problems. This paper firstly analyzes such activities of the system requirement analysis for clarifying the necessary methodological conditions, next proposes a method named PPDS (Planning Procedure to Develop Systems) for developing an objectives tree with its human-computer interactive system, and finally reports the results of its application sin industries.
The PPDS consists of a problem finding method by using I-F (Interest groups vs Functions) matrix, a human-computer interactive system with a structuring algorithm named HSA (Hierarchical Structural Analysis) developed by the authors, and a group session procedure.
The problem finding method by using I-F matrix is effective in terms of (1) enabling about ten members to identify several hundred (200-300) pieces of requirements in a couple of hours, (2) allowing each participant to present his/her concrete requirement in a lively thought-provoking atomosphere, (3) giving a means both for observing whether problems have been identified sufficiently and for deciding a problem domain within which an objectives tree should be developed.
The structuring algorithm HSA is capable of making one to visualize an objectives tree in a style easy for him to see. It is a critical capability of the system which supports improving a large scale complex objectives graph.
The human-computer interactive system enhances the capability to develop a large scale objectives graph including more than two hundred items by facilitating a set of functions such as correcting, decomposing, merging, filling and retrieving of objectives graphs.
The results of more than fifty practical applications of the method show that one method for problem identification and structuring has passed the field test and qualified itself to be of use in industries' group activities including those of high-level managers.
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