ABSTRACT
Soft systems thinking can be used to good effect in forecasting the outcome of risk from cause to effect. It advocates root definitions, which effectively underwrite the goals through actions. A root definition states the objective, the person or persons who need to achieve it, the person or persons to whom it applies, the means of achieving it, and the environment to which it relates. The programme is concerned with making strategic changes to a services business. The strategic map is particularly useful in support of a programme blueprint, since it represents graphically the shape of the programme. The attractiveness of constructing root definitions to underwrite goals is that the transformation part (the means of achieving the goal) is a fast start to constructing the conceptual map. The risk drivers are not risks themselves but possible environments or trigger points for risk. It is very much an event map, since each outcome is an event that has an impact.
