ADAPCOMP

The increase in organizations complexity (public and private) has to be faced due to the fast and deep changes of their environments which have put their viability at risk. To cope with this situation, systemic methodologies are required. It is necessary to unfold the complexity in multiple levels so it can be handled.

The methodologies are there, but their knowledge and diffusion are still limited. This is one of the reasons why we proposed to build a platform which allows dealing with complexity at different levels, facilitating access to those methodologies as well as communication and exchange of information among the managers and researchers using them.

Some systemic methodologies have developed software which increased their diffusion as well as facilitated their use (eg. System Dynamics with Ithink, Vensim and Powersim software) while others haven’t yet. This is the case of Organisational Cybernetics.

This methodology and, in particular, the Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity, are very adequate for the study of complex problems and for decision tanking in multiple levels. Their “recursive” character allows this. For this reason we proposed the creation of specific software to facilitate the application of those methodologies and decision tools. This work was structured in three main modules.

• The first one referred to the construction of a communication and information exchange system to facilitate access to different sources of information (research groups, methodologies, companies, etc.) within the systems thinking field, as well as among the researchers and practitioners.
• The second module consisted of the development of a meta-tool to allow the loading of different systemic methodologies into it, as well as the posterior use of them by researchers and practitioners. Beer´s Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity advanced versions were developed and integrated.
• The third module involved the development of specific software to facilitate the application of Organisational Cybernetics, in particular the Viable System Model and Team Syntegrity.

The work was completed with the integration of the three modules in a platform which facilitates the study of complex problems, accessible through Internet.