Identifying cognitive categories: The basis for interpretative data analysis within soft systems methodology

摘要

The soft systems methodology is widely used as a means of tackling complex problem situations, and the creation of activity models of relevant systems has always been a central component of that methodology. This paper proposes that in problem situations that include a concern for the use and provision of information then an additional and complementary type of model may be usefully employed. This is a representation of the cognitive categories, and the associations between those categories, that are meaningful with respect to a given conceptualized system. The identification of such cognitive categories may be regarded as the first step towards enacting such an interpretative form of data analysis, different in kind to the data analysis conventionally carried out as part of information systems development. This paper discusses the nature of such models and how, as the first step in their creation, cognitive categories may be identified from the definitions of systems used in soft systems methodology.