Qualitative Systems Analysis

Every system, be it a tree, a software system, a car engine, or an economy, requires three fundamental interacting elements to make the system work:

• Energy source to power the system: E.g. sunlight (tree), business motivation (software system), petrol (car engine), capital (economy).
• Internal logic that defines the interactions within the system: E.g. cell specialisation (tree), business rules (software system), implementation of basic engineering principles (car engine), legal definition of corporate financial entities (economy).
• Controls to ensure system activity does not exceed safe operating limits: E.g. growth-regulating hormones (tree), error handling and exception management (software system), rev limiters (car engine), fiscal policy (economy).

Therefore, to make an accurate analytical assessment of any system, first the energy aspects, logical aspects and control aspects of the system must each be identified and independently considered. All these considerations must then be combined into a holistic picture in order to reach a correct understanding of the optimal way in which to progress the current situation and achieve the optimal outcome.

Qualitative Systems Analysis using ChatGPT

Using ChatGPT, it is possible to identify and separate the three primary constituents, energy, logic and  control, of many qualitative analytical questions.

For example, regarding a family law case, the three aspects of energy, logic and control, may be translated to:

• Emotion, since emotion is the source of personal and inter-personal energy.
• Logic, i.e. pure legal analysis.
• The moralistic aspect of the situation, since the purpose of morals is to provide controls within society.

New York Bar Exam

For instance, consider the following sample question for the New York Bar Exam.

One year ago, Joan executed a will in which she left her entire estate to her only
daughter. At that time, Joan’s daughter, Joan’s granddaughter (the only child of Joan’s
daughter), Joan’s only son, and Joan’s three grandsons (children of her son) were
living. Joan’s son and her three grandsons had extensive criminal records for theft and
burglary.

Joan was not close to her children and grandchildren. She rarely saw any of them, even
on holidays, although she regularly sent them birthday cards and inexpensive presents.
Three years ago, Joan’s doctor had prescribed her a drug that was known to produce
hallucinations in some patients. Joan had difficulties with the drug and began to
experience frequent hallucinations leading to her delusion that the male line of her
family was “cursed” by Martians. Nonetheless, she continued taking the drug because it
was the only medication available to control her medical condition.

When she went to her lawyer to draft her will, she told her lawyer that she wanted to
leave all her property to her daughter and nothing to her male line. She explained,
“Leaving the males in my family anything valuable would be a complete waste on
burglars and thieves.”

For the last five years, Joan had regularly had lunch with several friends. All of them
were much wealthier than Joan. At these lunches, she often told her friends that she
was a “multimillionaire” and owned both a “luxurious” home and a “very expensive” car.
They had no reason to doubt Joan’s claims because she had never invited them to her
home and she took cabs to their lunches. In fact, Joan was never a millionaire, and she
never owned either a luxurious home or an expensive automobile. She lived in a
modest apartment, and her primary source of income was her Social Security benefits.
She monitored her bank account regularly and reconciled her bank statement every
month.

One month ago, Joan died, survived by her daughter, her granddaughter, her son, and
her three grandsons. At her death, Joan owned no significant assets other than her
bank account containing $100,000.

1. Under the insane-delusion rule, is Joan’s will invalid? Explain.
2. Do these facts establish that Joan’s will is invalid because she lacked the general
   mental capacity to execute a will? Explain.
3. Which, if any, of Joan’s surviving relatives has standing to contest Joan’s will?
   Explain.

Having identified the primary qualitative elements of emotion, logic and morals, we can now ask ChatGPT to split out these elements separately from the above complex legal question:

Which gives the following results.

1. Moralistic Question: Is it morally justifiable for Joan to exclude her male line of family members from her will based on their criminal records?
2. Analytical Question: Does Joan’s belief in the Martian curse, resulting from her hallucinations caused by medication, meet the requirements for the insane-delusion rule to invalidate her will?
3. Emotional Question: Considering the relationship dynamics and Joan’s statements about her wealth to her friends, how might the surviving relatives emotionally react to the distribution of Joan’s estate and who would have standing to contest her will?

Each of these questions can be independently analysed, and then their analysis combined, to reach a whole decision that takes into account all aspects of the situation. As an aside, it is interesting to note that legal precedence and local law is primarily applicable to the Analytical Question only, and the other questions are more a matter of subjective debate and eloquence.

Developing a New Website

The following software development problem statement is taken from the Ohio State University Computer Science and Engineering Department website.

1.3 Background

Solar Based Energy, Inc. (SBE) sells state-of-the-art alternative energy systems utilizing wind and solar power. SBE customers include both individuals and businesses interested in incorporating wind or solar energy sources into either new or existing construction. SBE has identified two trends that they believe will cause explosive growth in the demand for their products. The first is the continuing energy crisis in the western United States. The second is the maturation of fuel cell technology which provides a feasible system for storing excess power generation for later use. SBE sells state-of-the-art alternative energy systems utilizing wind and solar power. SBE customers include both individuals and businesses interested in incorporating wind or solar energy sources into either new or existing construction. SBE has identified several trends that they believe will cause explosive growth in the demand for their products. They include the growing consumer unease with deregulated energy markets, the potential for disruptions to energy imports, and the maturation of fuel cell technology which provides a feasible system for storing excess power generation for later use.

Because of the innovative and technical nature of their products, SBE employs sales agents who can guide customers through the process of choosing an alternative energy system. Other SBE employees are identified as a product “owners”. The product owner is the expert on a particular product or product line. As the authoritative source of product information he produces whitepapers–highly technical and focused documents on product specifications.

As alternative energy becomes more mainstream, SBE anticipates changes in the needs of their customers. Some customers will be more knowledgeable and will need less assistance from a sales agent. Expanding sales outside the United States will drive the need to service customers in languages other than English.

Currently there are two separate web sites. The public website (www.sbe.com) is static HTML. It provides general information about SBE and its products. Customers who are interested in ordering are provided contact information for the nearest SBE sales office. The internal website (www.sbesales.com) is restricted to SBE employees and provides detailed product information. Sales orders are placed by agents on this site. Two different Oracle databases underlie these sites.

Problems with the current system include

• the information available on the public website is too limited and the user cannot immediately place an order
• the existence of two databases means information is often inconsistent or incorrect
  users who need more technical information have difficulty accessing the relevant whitepapers
  sales agents have difficulty reaching product owners

Imogene I. Ives, President of SBE has requested that an analysis be done with a view to reengineering the current sales system. The new system should allow customers direct access to product information and ordering as well as continuing to provide support to the existing sales agent network.

1.4 Project Scope
The scope of this project is a web-based system that supports the marketing of SBE products directly to customers as well as through the existing sales agent network. Advertising of products, inventory control, and account billing are not part of this project.

The two current web sites will be replaced by this new system. In addition, changes to the logical and physical design of the current databases are expected. The actual implementation of a new database system is not part of this project. A web search engine and language translator will be obtained as purchased components for the new system. Their internal details are not part of this project. Issues of website security, other than password protection within the site, are not part of this project.

Asking ChatGPT (with a bit of prompting) to split out questions that address the business benefit (energy), business rules (logic) and controls (error handling and exception management), of this problem statement, results in the following output.

(The initial output wasn’t so great, so ChatGPT needed another prompt.)

This resulted in the following output from ChatGPT:

1. What is the maximum business benefit that can be accrued from the new website?

• User Experience: A new, intuitive, and streamlined website can improve the user experience for both individual consumers and businesses. This can lead to an increase in customer retention, engagement, and ultimately sales.
• Accessibility of Information: By making more technical information and whitepapers easily accessible to users, the company can attract more knowledgeable customers and become a go-to resource in the alternative energy field.
• Direct Ordering: The ability for customers to place orders directly through the website could lead to increased sales and operational efficiency.
• International Expansion: With the anticipation of expanding sales outside the United States, a multilingual website can help in capturing a larger global market share.

2. What business rules should be applied to the new website?

• User Roles and Access: Rules should be established regarding the various roles and permissions of users, including customers, sales agents, and product owners. This includes access to certain areas of the website and what actions they can perform.
• Content Management: Business rules should govern how information is updated and maintained on the website, especially given the existence of two databases. This includes procedures for adding, modifying, and deleting information to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Order Processing: Clear rules should be established regarding how orders are placed, processed, and tracked through the website.
• Data Integrity: Guidelines should be established to maintain the consistency, accuracy, and reliability of the data across the website and databases.

3. What error handling and exception management should be applied to the new website?

• User Errors: The website should have a mechanism to handle user errors, such as incorrect form entries or invalid search queries, in a friendly and informative way.
• System Errors: There should be robust exception handling for any system errors that might occur. This includes providing informative error messages and having fallback measures in place to maintain website functionality.
• Database Errors: Given the current issue with inconsistencies in the two databases, mechanisms should be in place to handle database errors and inconsistencies.
• Security Exceptions: Although the project scope explicitly states that website security is not part of this project, basic security measures and error handling should still be considered, such as password errors, unauthorized access attempts, and maintaining user session integrity.

By considering each of these questions separately, and allocating the questions to staff who are qualified to understand the best way to analyse and respond to each question, it would be possible the imaginary business mentioned in the problem statement, to create a robust, scalable website that would maximise company growth and minimise exceptions generated by bad website design and implementation decisions.