System Thinking and Its Application in Project Management

[Year]
[Document subtitle]
NAME

Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................2
System thinking:..........................................................................................................................................2
Systems thinking tools.................................................................................................................................2
General systems management....................................................................................................................3
Organizational structures, forms and culture..............................................................................................3
Engineering risk, risk management..............................................................................................................3
Portfolio alignment......................................................................................................................................4
Business value.............................................................................................................................................4
Portfolio management process cycle...........................................................................................................4
Organizational maturity...............................................................................................................................4
Reasons behind the incident.......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7
1

Introduction:
System thinking is important for business organization and project. In this paper several tools
and technique of the system thinking that are used in organization are briefly discussed. I t also
includes several theories i.e. risk management, portfolio alignment, general systems
management, business value etc. it also critically analyses the issues with BP Deepwater horizon
blowout and the tools that might help project manager of the company to solve project problems.
System thinking:
System thinking is a complete approach to analysis which focuses on the way different
constituent part of system are interrelated and how these systems work within the framework of
larger system and work over time. The practice of this assists to explore the interrelationships,
perspectives and boundaries (Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK),
2017). It is a useful approach that also helps to address the complex situations which can be
evaluated in a systematic manner.it basically supports to make decision by establishing proper
understanding of the condition and by evaluating the relation between several parts of the
system. It helps to understand the working of system in an easier way.
Systems thinking tools
There are several systems thinking tools which have their own significance and are developed to
support by the help of each other (Miller, 2002). These tools provide depth understanding and
information and can be used in combination with other. Some of the system tools are describes
below:
Brain storming tools: The Double Q diagram in brain storming tools which is developed help to
look at the whole system in a question. In this tool both sides of the problem are visible and
remains balanced (Lo, 2015). It is also called as effect and cause diagram which provides visual
map of the important factors that are involved. These identification of factors helps to explore the
relation between the identified factors.
Dynamic thinking tools: it includes tools like behaviour over time graph, casual loop diagram
and system archetype. It helps to trace challenges and issues as a course of performance over the
time.
Structural thinking tools: Policy structure Diagrams, Structure behavior pairs and Graphical
Function Diagrams are the main component of the system thinking tools. Graphical system tools
are useful to clarify nonlinear interrelation between different variables. Structure behavior pairs
2