We live in a complex and connected world. Every day we interface with many people face-to-face and via email and social networks. Every day we try to solve many simple and complex problems. Everyday we make many decisions. Sometimes we do a good job; more often we could do better. But suppose we have a better understanding of our own individual environment - of our own personal world - and suppose that we have good tools to help us, and suppose that we have step-by-step procedures to follow, and suppose that we have the desire to enrich our environment, and suppose that we have the strategies to do all these things, then could we do better in the many things that we do? This book presents ideas and concepts to help you plan, make decisions, and identify appropriate actions you could take to get what you want! The reader is introduced to the concept of Systems Worlds, to a critical thinking approach called Systems Thinking, and to the scientific concepts of systems analysis, systems engineering and decision theory. These disciplines are combined in an easy to understand approach that uses examples, diagrams, tables, and checklists. These ideas and techniques apply to individuals and organizations and can be used in personal, family, business, government, and educational environments. The book is divided into three parts. Part I describes the concept of Systems Worlds. My Systems World helps the reader focus on the parts of his individual connected world which affects his current and future environments. Part I also describes Systems Thinking as a way of thinking about the environment in My Systems World. Part II describes decision making approaches and tools. Essentially everything one does in life involves making decisions. Some decisions have major impacts both on us and on others. Part III integrates systems thinking with decision making approaches. It contains a 5-step approach which can be used to solve many problems that arise in My Systems World.
About the Author: William T. Bisignani has over 40 years of experience as an information systems management consultant, engineering manager, systems engineer, researcher and university teacher. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University and is a licensed professional engineer. He has worked at think tanks, management consulting firms, universities and research laboratories. His specialty areas include information systems, telecommunications, systems thinking and systems engineering, strategic planning, decision theory, visualization, management, and other areas presented in this book. William T. Bisignani has taught over 175 graduate and undergraduate courses at Rutgers University, George Washington University, Florida Gulf Coast University and Edison College. As a Technical Director at the MITRE Corporation and Mitretek Systems, Inc. and as a principal at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, he has interfaced with people at all levels in the business and government communities. His clients included over 40 federal, state and local government organizations where he has applied the concepts in this book in designing and implementing new ways of doing business and solving problems. He has published over 30 management and technical reports in technical journals, and has organized and/chaired over 25 technical conferences. He is a member of the IEEE and AIAA. He can be reached at bisignani@ comcast.net.