Control models originated in engineering as an aid to designing and constructing complicated machinery, but have been adapted for management use in many non engineering activities and processes.
Control models indicate the application of control in a process. They aim to show how the objectives of a process are achieved. While the control model is suited to defining closed loop processes they are helpful in highlighing situations of an open loop nature. This makes the control model diagram ideal for analysing control problems.
Elements of a control model diagram include:
- input(s)
- process (steps or actions)
- feedback
- sensor(s)
- comparator (comparing goals & outputs)
- goal(s)
- actuator(s)
- output(s)
Control models are useful for communicating PDCA, the four foundation points of an effective process.
Tutorial:
http://www5.open.ac.uk/t205demo/public/block4/week1/4.cfm
http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/scholl/Notes/Control_Theory_B.html
Systems maps can help you to define or ‘unravel’ the structure of a situation and are useful in communicating the scope of analysis to others. Systems maps can be used to:
- clarify thinking at an early stage of analysis;
- decide upon ’important’ structural elements;
- identify overlap, similarities and commonality:
- experiment with boundaries;
- get a better understanding of the heirarchies at play:
- decide upon the focus of analysis;
- present the ’scope’ of a situation to others.
Tutorial: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/t552/pages/system/system.html
The idea that systems had heirachies or levels was suggested by Kenneth Boulding (1956).
General Systems Theory The Skeleton of Science by Kenneth Boulding
“The World is a very complex system. It is easy to have too simple a view of it, and it is easy to do harm and to make things worse under the impulse to do good and make things better.”
Kenneth Boulding, Proceedings.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Boulding
Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) is a technical sub-committee of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE). The goal of the committee is to promote the understanding of the regulation and use of automated systems within the pharmaceutical industry. The GAMP committee organizes training seminars for its members.
GAMP Guidelines
The GAMP publishes a series of Good Practice Guides for its members on several topics involved in drug manufacturing. The most well-known is the The Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) Guide for Validation of Automated Systems in Pharmaceutical Manufacture.
Other guidelines are:
Calibration Management
Global Information Systems
IT Infrastructure Control and Compliance
A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant Electronic Records and Signatures (Part 11)
Validation of Laboratory Computerized Systems
History
GAMP itself was founded in 1991 in the United Kingdom to deal with the evolving FDA expectations for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance of manufacturing and related systems. Since 1994, the organization entered into a partnership with the ISPE and published its first GAMP guidelines.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Automated_Manufacturing_Practice
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), or Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), is a discipline aimed at supporting decision makers who are faced with making numerous and conflicting evaluations. MCDA aims at highlighting these conflicts and deriving a way to come to a compromise in a transparent process. MCDA involves a certain element of subjectiveness, the morals and ethics of the researcher implementing MCDA play a significant part in the accuracy and fairness of MCDA’s conclusions.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-criteria_decision_analysis
Problem analysis is a primary application of systems thinking. A structured approach to problem analysis and solution design can be achieved through a four phase approach: sensing, understanding, deciding and acting (SUDA).
- Sensing the full range of factors that contribute to the situation
- Understanding and defining the key processes that operate within the systems of interest
- Deciding on appropriate courses of action and planning for the implementation of action
- Acting in a coordinated fashion to achieve defined outcomes
Source: http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01T205
PRINCE2, or PRojects IN Controlled Environments, is a project management methodology. It covers the management, control and organisation of a project. “PRINCE2″ is a Registered Trade Mark of the U.K. Office of Government Commerce (OCG).
PRINCE2 is derived from the earlier PRINCE technique, which was initially developed in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as a UK Government standard for information systems (IT) project management; however, it soon became regularly applied outside the purely IT environment. PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic project management method. PRINCE2 has become increasingly popular and is now the de facto standard for project management in the UK. Its use has spread beyond the UK to more than 50 other countries.[1]
The most current revision was released in 2005 by the Office of Government Commerce and it is currently undergoing a refresh for 2008-9.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince2
Systems thinking is an approach to analysis that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when isolated from its environment or other parts of the system. Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, (the relationship between the parts is what should be under observation) any atomistic analysis, is considered reductionistic. Standing in contrast to Descartes’s, and others’, reductionism, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner.
Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by bringing the linkages and interactions to bear between the elements that comprise the entirety of the system. It depicts all human-activity systems as open systems, that they are affected by the environment in which they exist.
Systems thinking attempts to illustrate that, in complex systems, events are separated by distance and time; hence, small catalytic events can cause large changes in a system. Acknowledging that a change in one area of a system can adversely affect another area of the system, it promotes organizational communication at all levels in order to avoid the silo effect.
Both systems thinkers and futurists consider that:
- a “system” is a dynamic and complex whole, interacting as a structured functional unit;
- information flows between the different elements that compose the system;
- a system is a community situated within an environment;
- information flows from and to the surrounding environment via semi-permeable membranes or boundaries
- systems are often composed of entities seeking equilibrium but can exhibit oscillating, chaotic, or exponential growth or decay behavior.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking
Knowledge Management programs attempt to manage the process of creation (or identification), accumulation and application of knowledge across an organisation. Knowledge Management, therefore, attempts to bring under one set of practices various strands of thought and practice relating to:
- intellectual capital and the knowledge worker in the knowledge economy
- the idea of the learning organisation
- various enabling organisational practices, such as Communities of Practice and corporate Yellow Page directories for accessing key personnel and expertise
- various enabling technologies such as knowledge bases and expert systems, help desks, corporate intranets and extranets, Content Management, wikis and Document Management
While Knowledge Management programs are closely related to Organizational Learning initiatives, Knowledge Management may be distinguished from Organisational Learning by a greater focus on specific knowledge assets and the development and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge flows.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management
PDCA was made popular by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who is considered by many to be the father of modern quality control; however it was always referred to by him as the “Shewhart cycle.” Later in Deming’s career, he modified PDCA to “Plan, Do, Study, Act” (PDSA) so as to better describe his recommendations. In Six Sigma programs, this cycle is called “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control” (DMAIC).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA
The term Business Analyst (BA) is used to describe a person who practices the discipline of business analysis. A business analyst or “BA” is responsible for analyzing the business needs of their clients and stakeholders to help identify business problems and propose solutions.
Within the systems development life cycle domain, the business analyst typically performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the information technology department or external service providers. Common alternate titles are business systems analyst, systems analyst, and functional analyst, although some organizations may differentiate between these titles and corresponding responsibilities.
The International Institute of Business Analysis has the following definition of the role: “A business analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. The business analyst understands business problems and opportunities in the context of the requirements and recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analyst