We devise systems to bring about a new, better situation, a better tomorrow. This better tomorrow can be an alleviated problem, a realised vision, or a captured opportunity.
Unfortunately, many systems are built with only a passing familiarity with what the mission is. Without a rigorous understanding and clarity of what is being sought, the result will be unsatisfactory. Systems are expensive to build. They cost money, use up time, extract effort. We can do things more effectively. How?
First, one must have a clear understanding of the current situation. What is it that’s causing pain, causing dissatisfaction? The examples are myriad: foreign aircraft are able to cross our boundaries at will; our payroll system is too slow and making the staff spend too much time using it; our operating costs are too expensive compared to the industry for the same services, and so on.
Then we analyse the situation, and identify what changes need to occur in the problem domain for the problem to be alleviated. For example, a change might be to have the ability to detect, intercept, and if necessary shoot down unwelcome aircraft; vastly reduced payroll processing time; reduced operating costs by at least 15%.
These changes are what the solution systems needs to ‘effect.’ A solution system that provides the ability to sink ships; run a payroll program on Unix; improve morale do not address the changes required. They would not exhibit the necessary effects on the problem domain.
Some solutions will be more effective than others. A solution may be able to track 10 planes at a time while another can track 100; A solution may reduce payroll processing time by 5 hours while another by 1 hour. A solution may reduce operating costs by 20% and another by 25%.
The difference in their level of effect is the measure of effectiveness. All things equal, we want more effective solutions than less effective solutions.
The changes required on the problem domain map to the effects required from the solution system.
