ABSTRACT
Most organisations start because some enterprising individual steps out of the crowd and proceeds to undertake the provision of goods and services for himself and his fellow men. The usual motive is self-advancement, the profit motive, but it is possible for other motives to generate enterprise – for example, scientific interest in a project, technological interests, artistic self-expression and the ideology of the cooperative movement. However rudimentary the original arrangements, they are likely to be a complete system in that they will only be successful if they realise the original concept of the entrepreneur. At a later stage in the development of a business we may need to review its state. It may be at a time of expansion, or when the life-cycle of original projects is drawing to a close and a new direction is being sought, or at a time of take-over when a major rationalisation is taking place. We need to review the existing structure and analyse what has been going on. This procedure is called systems analysis. This is often thought of as a procedure which has something to do with computerisation. It is true that the use of computerised models enables alternative future developments to be tried out, and it is therefore a very useful technique for systems analysis, but the true purpose of systems analysis is to help decision makers. They need to understand what is being done at present, what alternative procedures might be adopted and the likely results from each alternative. Armed with this information it becomes possible to choose the best course. Once this course has been decided upon it becomes possible to plan and organise (or re-organise) the system, to phase it in and then direct and control it over the lifetime of the system – since every system that is instituted goes through a life-cycle similar to a product life-cycle. We therefore have two main stages:
systems analysis
systems management
