ABSTRACT
The Systems Engineering Group at De Montfort University is developing a methodology and diagrammatic representation for mapping business processes (Carr et al., 1992); these we call the ‘Boardman Soft Systems Methodology’ (Bulbeck and Clegg, 1996) and the Systemigram (Systemic Diagram) respectively. A systemigram is a network of prose and graphics which represent a business process or activity (Sherman et al., 1996). Collaboration with a variety of engineering companies suggests that people are unaware of the extent of their relationship with people in other processes as well as in their own process. The implication of this is that a decision or action taken by one group can have adverse effects on another group in another process. These effects are often unpredictable and undesirable.
To help alleviate the problem, the Systems Engineering Group create systemigrams to increase ‘shared understanding’ within a process. One of the techniques used to educate people about process-oriented thinking is by the use of a game called Systemigame. The ‘playing area’ of a Systemigame is a systemigram with some of the key prose removed. The player(s) start with the removed prose (node labels) and the partially complete systemigram. The object of the game is to associate each of the node labels with the corresponding empty node. This helps the players to learn, by trial and error, the relationship of activities and people within a process. Systemigame has been developed for use in the Microsoft Windows environment.
